Hmm I don't think so. Here is some case history on a car that I wish I had never seen. It was a Peugeot 406 Estate 2.1 turbo-diesel for sale on that infamous auction site. I won the auction for one bid above the starting price and the auction ended on a Saturday afternoon.

My insurers don't work on a Saturday afternoon or on Sundays so the soonest that I could get an insurance certificate in my hand was going to be on Tuesday when (or if) the postman brought it. I travelled to Wales on the Wednesday but the seller had already re-listed the car and started an Unpaid Item Dispute - NICE!

The car was at the sellers fathers house and its front tyres were in a sorry state bordering on illegal. The logbook had also been split and the page that the buyer should receive was missing so there was no green slip. I gave the car new tyres the next morning, new brakes later and ran it during the summer but no log-book ever arrived! With no log book and no green slip it was not possible to tax the car so on its last day of tax it was driven to a secure compound where my old 405 had been stored. The 405 was then put back on the road instead of the 406.

No log book or reminders to tax or SORN the 406 ever arrived but a phone call to my local DVLA indicated (verbally) that the car was in fact registered in my name! Trying to SORN online was not possible as there was no Document Number. It was not possible to SORN at a Post Office either. Catch 22! I did in fact send a hand-written SORN to Swansea DVLA and this seemed to work OK for a while.

My local DVLA (a 110 mile round trip with bad and expensive parking) said to just turn up and pay £25 but I'd spent so much money on the car that paying the extra £25 would be like a red rag to a bull. Eventually a new log-book turned up and with the benefit of hindsight it would have been a good idea to SORN it again even though SORNs are supposed to last 12 months. One can surmise that when the computer prints a new logbook it cancels all previous SORNs automatically. Of course they never tell you that! I had all kinds of nasty letters demanding arrears of Road Tax and an £80 fine but I stood my ground and told them that THEY had made a clerical error. Eventually things went quiet (touch wood!)

I suspect that the seller of the car thought it was worth more but it had in fact been run into the ground. Discs, pads, brake shoes and rear calipers were all replaced as were three tyres. Even then it failed its MOT on nitpicks but there was no point in getting it a new MOT when it had no logbook. I suspect that the logbook went astray on account of a grudge but I cannot prove it. Cars - who'd have em?

Just spotted a post I put on last evening has disappeared, cannot blame Internet Exploder 9, I use Chrome.

Some years ago I sent in a SORN to the DVLA, several months later got a letter saying I was being fined because no tax and no SORN. Simply wrote to the DVLA who accepted the facts and wrote to me saying fine cancelled, no hassle at all.

Very interesting post. Thank you DVLA beater and DVD for some really useful advice. I did not know about the legal position of posting a letter nor that our very own DVLA have decended into a bunch of chancers like the private parking companies. Message gratefully received. Concrete

I was involved in a car accident on the 27 th June 2012.I was hit from behind by a taxi. My car was hit so hard it was written off in the accident. The third party immediately accepted liability.

As part of my settlement Haven Insurance sent a salvage company to collect my car and scrap it at the beginning of July, the vehicle still had 3 months tax left on it. I gave the salvage company all the documentation and sent the new owner slip to DVLA as required by law

I thought nothing more off it until I received a letter demanding £80.00.I telephoned DVLA and was informed they had received no letters; I have sent 4 now including the slip, 2 of those letters were recorded delivery, one in January, The other February. The vehicle was still registered to me in February 2013, because the change can only be initiated by letters (that they don’t receive), you can’t even FAX them letters.

What makes me laugh though, I changed address in September 2012.I sent my driving license and log book in to be changed with out any problem to my new address. They obviously knew my new address because they have it on their computer system. Yet they chose to keep sending letters regards the written off vehicle to my previous address, the new tenant handed them to me. When I wrote in to appeal the decision, they alledge they never received any letter. But I then started receiving threatening debt letters at 2 addresses, who told them my new address?, remember they never received any letters ?

DVLA say they never received any letters stating I no longer owned the vehicle or was the registered keeper. They say I should have sent it recorded delivery much earlier ,I have never been told this before or have had any problems I have been issued with an £80.00 fine and placed in the hands off a debt agency who are threatening bailiffs, increased fine off £1000 00,Court proceedings etc. I have explained it is not my fault I sent the letter. They say I have no proof I sent the letter so should just pay up.

Seems to me this is some sort of scam involving DVLA, there is no requirement by law to send anything by recorded delivery .I have sent a total of 4 letters the last 2 recorded after telephone conversations with DVLA because I was so concerned

As a matter of principal I intend to take it to Court .Basically they say if they don’t receive letters you’re lying and should be punished, when the fault in my opinion is obviously at their end.It was a telephone operator at DVLA that advised me missing letters was a common occurence,and that i should send any future correspondence recorded delivery. Yet They managed to lose one recorded in January,apparentley my fault for addressing it just to DVLA,Swansea rather than a specific department.

Any advice will be much appreciated.

Thanks

David Colin Leach

A Senior Citizen had a lovely old Ford Granada which failed its MOT so he decided that he was now old enough to have a new car. The Granada still had a bit of tax left when he called in the scrap man, however the dreaded SORN fine still arrived!

The man is quite astute so he went to the crushing plant and got a copy of the Certificate Of Destruction. It turned out that the car still had some road tax on it on the day it was destroyed. DVLA were completely snookered! OK the government is allegedly skint but that's not my fault!

All this talk about sending letters etc by recorded mail etc, sounds very sensible. BUT......there seems to be one flaw that no-one has mentioned. All the Post Office will record is that an envelope/package was posted on a certain date and time to a certain address. There is NOTHING to provide that the documents which you claim that you have sent were actually in that envelope!

Glad it worked out for you.

Hi there this forum was brilliant I was just about to pay up and was soo agnry I decided to pay but look to jion some action group against the DLVA. So imagine my relief to find this thread. I now intend to stand firm and hope for the best. I note though that the last post here was the middle of 2015 is this still working or have DLVA no changed the law.

I really think some legal challenge is needed to sto this bully boy behaviour by them.

For this sort of problem please E-mail

kalpesh@honestjohn.co.uk

MESSAGE FOR AVANT

Can you please do something about the text to the right of the posts encroaching into the text of the posts.? I cannot clearly read the ends of the sentences so it renders the post useless. It is only on the Legal Matters this happens, so must be a technical problem.

Your assistance would be greatly appreciated.

Cheers and thank you. Concrete

What text to the right? You need a good adblocker!

It's the text on the top right hand side of the pafe that's merging in with the text down the middle...not the ads...something with the template the pages are on I expect although only on this forum topic.