Road tax and insurance in different names

My husband (bless him!) bought me a car and because the financing was done in his name, he had to be the registered keeper of the car.  However, I will be the driver and the insurance will be in my name.  I called the Post Office to find out what I needed for Road Tax (since Directgov doesnt mention anything about different names and DVLA does not answer their phone ever) and the woman told me that it would be ok for my name to be the only one on the insurance as long as the certificate listed the car's registration number.  This is all fine, but then she said I would need to wait for the actual paperwork to be sent from the insurance company in the post.  A fax or email is not ok.
Is this the case?!  It seems incredibly odd to me that one cannot drive a car without road tax, but that you have to wait proabably about a week to get your insurance certificate to get said road tax.  Are people actually expected to get insurance on a car they dont own already to be able to legally drive it home from the dealership!?

Am I missing something?

Unfortunately we have found this is true...which is why we now have the people we buy the car from purchase the tax before we buy it--- of course we pay for it, I know this doesn't help you now though!

Usually if you buy a second-hand car it will already have a valid tax disk, so no issue there.  If you buy a new car you either have time to buy insurance or the dealer often has an arrangement to give you x days temporary insurance as part of the deal.

It's such an unusual situation to be in where you buy a car but no tax or insurance that maybe the system doesn't handle it very well?

I don't know about buying a brand new tax disk but I always renew on-line and they have some centralised computer network where they can check your insurance status without seeing any paperwork - something to check into.  Failing that when you buy insurance they very quickly send you a 'cover note', return of post almost, which is good enough (AFAIK) to buy a tax disk so the delay isn't too bad.

When we purchased our last car from a dealer and it had held exempt on the road tax due to it being previously owned by a disabled driver, it had been on a car lot for about 3 months when we got it. We paid the car tax amount then the dealer taxed it before we picked it up, we just called our insurance company and they added the car to our policy. So we didn't have to deal with trying to tax it without the insurance certificate.

Though the day after we picked up the car DH was on his way home from work and got stopped by the police because the car showed in their database as uninsured. DH gave the officer the insurance information & the insurance company verified it over the phone and the officer apologized to DH saying that since he had just insured the car the previous day it would take a while to update in the insurance database.

Once a car is taxed it's taxed and I don't think it really matters who taxes it, as when we purchased our previous car (before this one) it had 6 months tax remaining. Though there is a notice on the online tax website that says if you have recently changed insurance companies that you cannot tax online and have to do it in person, which is what I am assuming the police officer was referencing to when he said the insurance information had not been updated in the database.

It is a used car from a dealer, but the dealer says that they never tax the cars.  They did give us an option to have 7 days of free insurance from Aviva.  I think I can still take this out, but will this be enough to road tax eventhough the insurance will run out in 7 days?

I don't think that temporary insurace would work: http://www.direct.gov.uk/en/Motoring/OwningAVehicle/HowToTaxYourVehicle/DG_069671

I find it odd that the deal won't tax the car, especially since you'd be paying for it and they have insurance for any vehicle that they have. I'd call them and tell them you'll pay the tax they just need to get the disc, especially since if it's not taxed you can't drive it away from thier lot anyway temporarily insured or not.

go back to the dealer...tell them you want them to tax it-- you will pay the tax but you want them to get it--- they shouldn't have a problem with doing it, they just don't want to pay tax . I we always buy used cars and usually from smaller dealers, if they are a dealer it isn't a problem, if they are just a person doing it on the side it is a problem because there is a limit to the number of cars they can tax on their insurance.

Just make it clear to the dealer that you don't expect them to pay for the tax, I don't think you will find it a problem for them to tax it

Thanks for the suggestions, but they will not do it (and they are all the way in London)  This is a huge dealership and they claim they never have and never will tax the cars.  We actually already did drive the car home last night after being told this, but I will not drive it anywhere else without it being taxed.  My husband has suggested to call a local insurance broker where I can pick up the cover note in person to avoid the delay with the post.  We'll see...

Thanks again.

My husband has suggested to call a local insurance broker where I can pick up the cover note in person to avoid the delay with the post.  We'll see...

As someone married to an independent insurance broker, I agree with your husband that this is the best thing to do. 

Sorry you've had bad luck with all of this. I think dealing with the DVLA is really hit and miss. I've been on the phone with them a lot this week (due to a SNAFU on my part) and they've been really helpful. I hope you're on the road driving away to your heart's content very soon!

Is this the case?!  It seems incredibly odd to me that one cannot drive a car without road tax, but that you have to wait proabably about a week to get your insurance certificate to get said road tax.  Are people actually expected to get insurance on a car they dont own already to be able to legally drive it home from the dealership!?

Am I missing something?

You can contact your insurance company and get them to send you a cover note, which is temporary insurance.
Also, my insurance covers me, at 3rd party, to drive another car with the owners consent - so that would cover me picking up a car from a dealer.

As someone married to an independent insurance broker, I agree with your husband that this is the best thing to do. 

I did and its sorted.  Going to pick up the cover note tonight and will be taxed first thing tomorrow morning.  Horray for insurance brokers!