SORN Insurance Cost Calculator: What Laid Up Cover Costs for Your Classic
Laid up (SORN) insurance for a classic car starts from £56 a year with Heritage. The premium is driven by two things: what your car is worth and how old it is. The calculator below gives you a figure for your specific vehicle in about two minutes.
Most pages about laid up cover tell you what it is. This one tells you what yours would cost. Answer a few questions about your car, what it is, what it’s worth, where it’s kept, and you’ll get an instant yearly estimate before you’ve spoken to anyone or filled in a form.
It’s an estimate, not a quote. The exact premium, including the policy fee, is confirmed by the Heritage team when they quote you properly. If the numbers look right, the calculator passes your details straight through for a real quote, usually with a same-working-day response during office hours.
How much does laid up / SORN insurance cost?
Laid up cover is priced almost entirely on the value of the vehicle, because the policy pays out for loss or damage to the car itself. There’s no third-party liability to price, since the car isn’t being driven on public roads. That’s why laid up premiums are a fraction of road cover.
| Vehicle value | Estimated annual premium | Typical vehicle |
|---|---|---|
| Under £15,000 | from £56 | Restoration project or modest running classic |
| £15,000 – £30,000 | from around £60 | Well-sorted classic, garaged year-round |
| £30,000 – £75,000 | from around £85 | Collector-grade or low-mileage example |
| Over £75,000 | Individually underwritten | Rare or high-value classics |
Figures are estimates for a garaged vehicle and exclude the policy fee Your actual premium depends on the vehicle, your storage and your claims
history, and is confirmed when the Heritage team quotes you.
Age matters too, and not in the direction most people expect. Heritage data shows pre-1980s classics are among the cheapest vehicles to insure, while modern classics from the 1990s and 2000s carry the highest premiums. A 1968 saloon and a 2003 modern classic of the same value will not price the same.
The estimate is exactly that, an estimate, not a quote. It’s based on your car’s value and age, and the exact premium is confirmed by the Heritage team when they quote you properly. If the numbers look right and you’d like to take it further, the calculator can pass your details straight to the team for a real quote, usually with a same-working-day response during office hours.
If what you’re actually after is a proper chat about your classic, its history, what it’s worth, what tends to go wrong, that’s a job for Stanley, our classic car chatbot for enthusiasts. This tool does one thing: laid up cover costs, quickly. For the full detail on what the cover includes, see our laid up / SORN insurance page.
Very good price for my classic VW campervan. New quote was the same as last year so can't complain at all. Added breakdown and recovery for a good price that beat AA by a long way. Very helpful staff on the phone. Excellent service.
Another year of insuring my two classic cars with Heritage. Very competitive renewal. Agent Seema was very helpful and patient in adding another driver to my policy. The customer portal is great for accessing policy paperwork and updating details. I would highly recommend.
Is your car eligible for laid up cover?
Four things determine whether Heritage can offer laid up cover.
- The car is declared SORN with the DVLA. Free to do on GOV.UK. Laid up cover and a SORN work together, they aren’t alternatives.
- The car is kept in a locked garage. This is a policy condition, not a preference. A driveway, a shared unit or private land outside a locked building won’t qualify. If that’s your situation, call the team on 0121 248 9229 and they’ll talk through what would work instead.
- The car was built in 2000 or earlier, or is confirmed as a modern classic Heritage can’t write laid up cover on a modern private car. Post-2000 vehicles need the team to check first, and the calculator will send that check for you.
- The value justifies it. For some lower-value cars, comprehensive cover is genuinely the better buy. The calculator will say so rather than hand you a number that doesn’t serve you.
Questions You May Have About the SORN Cost Calculator
Laid up cover with Heritage starts from £56 a year, Vehicles valued under £5,000 typically sit at the bottom of that range, £5,000 to £15,000 in the middle, and cars above £30,000 at the upper end, with anything over £75,000 individually underwritten. Laid up cover is priced almost entirely on the value of the vehicle, because the policy pays out for loss or damage to the car itself and there is no third-party liability to price. Figures exclude the policy fee and are confirmed when the Heritage team quotes you.
No. It is an estimate based on your car’s value and age. The exact premium, including the policy fee, is confirmed by the Heritage team when they quote you properly. The calculator can pass your details straight to them if you would like that quote, usually with a same-working-day response during office hours.
No. A valid SORN is the one exception to the UK’s Continuous Insurance Enforcement rules, so you are not legally required to insure a vehicle that is declared off the road and kept on private property. Laid up cover is optional protection, not a legal obligation. Owners take it because a SORN does not stop a garage fire, a theft, or accidental damage during restoration, and without cover those losses fall entirely on you.
Keeping the vehicle in a locked garage is a condition of Heritage’s laid up cover, not a preference. A driveway, a shared unit, or private land outside a locked building will not qualify. If that is your situation, Heritage cannot offer laid up cover, but the team can talk through what would work instead on 0121 248 9229.
Yes. A laid up policy does not require a current MOT, because the vehicle is not being driven. That makes it the right cover for a car part-way through a restoration, awaiting recommissioning, or currently in pieces. Insure the car at its value in current condition rather than what it will be worth finished, as the agreed value needs to reflect where the car actually is.
It is based on the vehicle’s value and its age. Value is the dominant factor, because laid up cover pays out for loss or damage to the car itself, so the sum insured drives the premium. Age matters too, and not in the direction most people expect: pre-1980s classics are among the cheapest vehicles to insure, while modern classics from the 1990s and 2000s carry the highest premiums. A 1968 saloon and a 2003 modern classic of the same value will not price the same.
Not instantly. Heritage cannot write laid up cover on a modern private car, so a post-2000 vehicle needs the team to confirm whether it is classed as a modern classic first. The calculator can send that check to the team, who will come back to you either way.
nsurance has to be in place before you can tax the vehicle, and taxing it cancels the SORN automatically. Rather than letting a laid up policy lapse and starting again, contact the Heritage team and they will convert the existing policy to road cover, so there is no gap where the car sits uninsured.
Yes. Once you have your estimate, the calculator can take your name, email and phone number and pass everything, including your car’s details and the estimate you saw, straight to the Heritage team.
No, it sticks to laid up cover. For everything else about classic cars, from valuations to restoration to what tends to go wrong on a specific model, chat to Stanley, the Heritage classic car chatbot for enthusiasts.
Your conversation is not private in the sense of being just between you and the calculator. The Heritage team has access to it, which is what allows someone to pick up your quote request directly without you having to repeat everything from scratch.
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