DVLA - Beware - worth checking

[cotswoldiver]

As many of you know sold my SA Westy back end of last year. Like a good person and not wanting to get caught for someone elses's road traffic offences and the like, signed and sent the V5 document off to DVLA with details of change of ownership and thought no more of it. Then in December Julie - the new owner contacted me to say they hadn't received their new document from DVLA. I gave her the date I sent it off and suggested she contacts DVLA direct.

Anyway, long and the short of it is that DVLA have 'fined' me £35 for failing to notify them of a change of owner - and no I didn't send it off signed for, but will be in the future :x .

I've written to them explaining what happened, but they replied back saying pay the £35 by such and such date or it goes up to £55, or if I don't pay I'll be taken to court. According to them and the V5 it is my job to contact them if I don't receive an acknowledgment from the DVLA within 4 weeks. If I'd forgotten to send it fair play, but I know it went in the post box in the village - just can't prove it, or of course prove that they are the ones that 'lost' it

Never happened before, but basically its being called a liar and the fine that hurts - no appeal, no nothing just pay up. OK maybe £35 is not too much, it's just cost me that today in an admin fee to a holiday company to change a name of the booking, but I'd rather the money was in my pocket going towards the new bus resto fund. Perhaps they don't like the idea of it being tax free so they are getting their money back some how. :evil:

I'll try once more when I send them the cheque, but not holding out much hope based on their last letter

So beware when you sell - don't get caught yourselves, send your certificate recorded or at least contact them if you haven't received notification within 4 weeks that they have received. God knows what the fines are for not telling them if the vehicle is sorned

 

[Danbury Doug]

Bad luck. Some good advice there. Fingers crossed for you.

 

[Doris]

surprise surprise :roll: - royal Mail have lost something that has ended up costing you money!! :roll:

 

[Bwuttonmoon]

Same thing happened to me (lost V5) Don't pay the fine, they wont take you to court for £55. Tell them their letters are causing you unnecessary distress.
I never paid up.

 

[ProfessorWheeto]

Bunch of twunts they are, they lost my passport when I had to send it off to get my provisional licence. Bad Times.

 

[ozziedog]

There was a thread about this, maybe 6 months ago on VZI, several pages long. There was also (from memory) a couple of legal guys jousting on there as well. " MAY " be some good advise on there. Hope this helps. And bad luck for becoming a victim of another s short comings, not sure who to blame, whether it`s the dvla or the post office, but I`m sure you`ll find that they are both an equally incompetent bunch of twats. :lol:

Ozziedog,,,,,,,,,,good luck with it,,,, :?

 

[Pete B]

David, very belated thanks for the engine build info. How much??? :shock: :shock: :shock: . Will be having to make the time to do the build myself and praying the case and crank I have are useable.

Back on topic, this situation rings a few bells. How can it possibly be right that the vendor of a vehicle having completed and submitted the relative forms, has to notify a government agency (that we pay for) that they haven't confirmed reciept of those forms and having failed to do so, then inccurs a fine???
In your most obscure, deranged dreams, it would not be possible to suggest that the above was a reasonable situation and I think my head is about to explode trying to extract any degree of sense from this.
Have re-read Davids post several times to ensure I don't have things wrapped around my neck and following an hour or so in the pub, the only option has been to upset the neighbours with some very loud 'Never mind the bol**cks' Sex pistols, primarily 'anarchy in the uk'. Loud 'Prodigy' works for me too..

 

[NickJ]

....... God knows what the fines are for not telling them if the vehicle is sorned

A couple of years ago a friend of mine got "fined" £88 for not declaring sorn :shock: :evil:

 

[sparkywig]

Bit late I know, but I always use the Post Office and get proof of posting when dealing with Gov't agencies......

 

[krusty]

The dvla suck.

I bought my daily at an auction, it didnt come with tax or the V5 when i collected it so I drove home and didnt use it for 3 weeks whilst I waited for the V5 to come through so I could tax it.
When I got my v5 i went to the post office to get the tax and I explained I had used it without tax to drive it home, they told me i should pay to back date it a whole month, so i did.

About 3 months later I got a fine through the post for £35.00 saying my car had been spotted in a petrol station out side the auction house with out a tax disk.
I phoned the dvla and explained that I drove it home without a tax disk but then didnt use it for 3 weeks, and paid to back date my tax to cover the day I drove it home.

They told me the fine wasn't for not having taxed it, the fine was because I didn't display a tax disk!
When I asked them what was the point of being able to back date the tax they said they had no answer for me!
Fu**ers!

 

[Ands1]

....... God knows what the fines are for not telling them if the vehicle is sorned

A couple of years ago a friend of mine got "fined" £88 for not declaring sorn :shock: :evil:

Me Honda Monkey ran out of MOT but I don't ride me monkey on winter roads so was unable to get MOT.
The tax reminder came through but I could'nt tax because I had no MOT, 2 months past & yes it was my fault as I did'nt do anything, but for £15 road tax I got fined £55 because I did'nt sorn or tax..

 

[ProfessorWheeto]

You got off light, I know someone that had 2 vehicles clamped last week with £100 per vehicle removal fees for not being on a sorn. And apparently as there was no gate or fence they were within their rights to trespass on private property to clamp the vehicles. When the option was "come and collect your clamps as I'm cutting them off and we won't take you to court for tresspassing" they the reply was "well that'll be £1000 per clamp then"

(In the end the solicisitors had to be unleashed and they made it very clear that they couldn't clamp cars on a private car park owned by a business as it was restricting the business from functioning as normal and the clampers turned up within a few hours to take their clamps. They will however also be a bill for legal fees being submitted to the dvla.)

The funny thing is, they turned up at 5.30am to clamp the vehicles! Think they might have fear of confrontation!

 

[theweedugs]

Dont forget to renew your sorn, I believe it has to be renewed after One year... I dont know if they send you a reminder or not, :shock:

 

[Guest]

one of my vans has been off sorn for 2-3 years now, havent recieved anything in the post, i guess i should look into it :|

 

[Bwuttonmoon]

one of my vans has been off sorn for 2-3 years now, havent recieved anything in the post, i guess i should look into it :|

Or don't look into it...you'll only be fined for telling them lol

 

[Baldrick]

I had this happen to me, but I asked about the appeals procedure. (They do have one.) The guy I spoke to was helpful and said that if you appeal it is such a pain that they will almost certainly let you off with a letter slapping your wrist. It worked for me.

 

[froggy]

Stupid question but do you have to sorn a tax free vehicle?
I rung up the DVLA last week as i hadn;t received the V5 as asked about sorning it, they just said that they couldn;t do anything about it until it was in my name as until then it is upto the previous owner to SORN or re-tax it.

 

[junkyardjim]

Yes Frogy you to need to sorn a Tax exempt vehicle and you are supposed to do so every 12 months if
it is being kept off the road (think of it as a 12 month tax disc).

However, you do not need to sorn it if it was last axed before 31st January 1998 (as in the case of my beetle)

You can keep a vehicle off the road untaxed for upto 14 days before either re-taxing or declaring it sorn.

http://www.direct.gov.uk/en/Motoring/OwningAVehicle/UntaxedVehicle/DG_069727" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;