If a car has been impounded and isn’t taxed, you can still recover it — but you can’t legally drive it home until it’s taxed or declared off-road. The pound’s responsibility ends once they release the car, so it’s up to the registered keeper to make sure it’s compliant before leaving. There are legal ways to sort the tax issue quickly, but each depends on how you plan to move the vehicle.

Can you collect an untaxed car?

Yes, you can collect an untaxed vehicle from the pound, but you’ll need valid insurance and proof of ownership. Tax isn’t a requirement for release, but it becomes essential as soon as the car touches a public road. If the car leaves the compound untaxed and is seen by ANPR cameras or police patrols, the driver may face a fine or further seizure.

In practice, the simplest option is to tax the car immediately before collection. That can be done online or at a Post Office using the release paperwork. If the car isn’t yet showing as insured on the Motor Insurance Database (MID), you may need to wait up to 48 hours after buying the policy or take your documents to a Post Office for manual processing.

How to tax it before release

You can usually tax a car online at gov.uk/vehicle-tax using the 12-digit reference number on the V5C logbook or the 11-digit number from a V11 reminder. To succeed, the DVLA system must recognise that the car is insured. If your insurance was arranged very recently — as impound cover often is — the record may not yet appear. In that case, a Post Office branch is the best fallback option.

At the Post Office, bring:

• the V5C or V5C/10 slip;
• a printed copy of your valid insurance certificate;
• the pound’s release paperwork (if issued).

Staff can tax the car manually if the insurance meets the legal definition of motor cover.

Driving it away legally

Once taxed and insured, the car may be driven from the pound to your home or place of storage. Make sure the driver is named on the insurance certificate and that the policy is still valid. If either requirement isn’t met, the vehicle should be collected by recovery truck instead.

Driving an untaxed car on public roads — even for a short distance — can lead to fines of up to £1,000 and backdated tax charges. The police and DVLA regularly use automatic number plate recognition to spot untaxed vehicles, and repeated offences can result in clamping or another impound.

If you can’t tax it straight away

If the car has no MOT or has serious faults, taxing it immediately may not be possible. In that situation, you can:

• have it recovered on a truck and stored off-road until repaired;
• declare it SORN (Statutory Off-Road Notification) using gov.uk/make-a-sorn;
• or scrap it through an authorised treatment facility if repairs aren’t worthwhile.

Declaring SORN stops further tax penalties, but the car must stay off public roads — even parked partly on a pavement or verge counts as being “on the road” in legal terms.

If it's impossible to tax it because, for instance, it has no MOT you may be able to leave a deposit at the pound to cover the tax and then drive straight away to a pre-booked appointment at an MOT station.

What not to do

Some drivers assume they can drive the car straight home “just this once” after release. That’s risky. ANPR systems can issue automatic fines within minutes, and in some areas, repeat offenders have their vehicles re-impounded the same day. The safest approach is to make sure everything — insurance, MOT, and tax — is in place before turning a wheel.

Final note

An impounded car doesn’t need to be taxed to be released, but it must be taxed before being driven on public roads. You can arrange it online or at a Post Office once insurance is confirmed, or use recovery transport if that’s not possible. Taking a few minutes to sort the paperwork avoids extra fines and ensures your hard-won release isn’t wasted on another impound notice.

Check here for more useful information about impounded cars!

Please note: impound rules, collection windows and fee structures are set locally and can change at any time. Details on this site offer a broad outline only and are not guaranteed to match the requirements of any individual pound or authority.