SORN mess up

[jontie]

hi, after reading some of the posts on hear i have realised i have messed up the SORN on my car. I inherited the car after my farther died, it was SORNed when he died and i incorrectly assumed that it was still SORNed. The car has now been in my name for 14 months and i have never declared SORN in this time, however the strange thing is the DVLA has not sent me a fine or a letter telling me to tax/SORN the car in all this time.

So have i just been lucky or am i going to get a fine? and am i less lightly to get a fine if i were to insure, MOT and then tax the car (which i was going to do soon anyway) or should i just declare SORN immediately?

Thanks for the help and i realize it was a stupid mistake. The car has been not left the garage in all this time, so it was no where near a public road.

Jontie

[Riley Blue]

Did you transfer the car's registered keeper after your father's death? It could be that the DVLA still have him on their database. I'd contact them, explain that you inherited the car and that you'd like to SORN it.

[Mill Wheel]

Presumably you did not inherit the paperwork that says you have to renew it - or the bit that says they will send out a reminder.

If they get silly over it, see your MP - I did, and the fine was cancelled after it was discovered THEY had made an error. What were the chances of that eh?

[Pontoneer]

Assuming you notified them by post after your father's estate was settled ( 13 months or so ago ? ) you would reasonably have done your duty according to the Interpretations Act and it is reasonable and lawful that you assumed all was in order .

Since a little over a year has elapsed since you posted off your SORN declaration , you would have expected a reminder within the last month or so . Since you have not received a reminder , you will now be contacting them to ask why .

If they tell you that they never received your original declaration , posted a month or so after your father died , it would appear that this may have gone astray in the post .

The Interpretations Act deems that you did all that was required of you by posting it ; there is no duty placed upon you to chase things and the problem is theirs alone .

[3Dee]

Pontoneer said:

Assuming you notified them by post after your father's estate was settled ( 13 months or so ago ? ) you would reasonably have done your duty according to the Interpretations Act and it is reasonable and lawful that you assumed all was in order .

Since a little over a year has elapsed since you posted off your SORN declaration , you would have expected a reminder within the last month or so . Since you have not received a reminder , you will now be contacting them to ask why .

If they tell you that they never received your original declaration , posted a month or so after your father died , it would appear that this may have gone astray in the post .

The Interpretations Act deems that you did all that was required of you by posting it ; there is no duty placed upon you to chase things and the problem is theirs alone .

HEH! ....GOOD INNIT!

[Fastdruid]

Personally, if you have a V5 in your name but have not had a SORN reminder I would let sleeping dogs lie.

AFAICT the way the DVLA 'catch'/fine people is by running a report which lists everyone who's tax/SORN expired more than a month ago and haven't been declared SORN.

If your tax/SORN expired before this and you get past it then you won't get another chase.

[jontie]

Thanks for the replies.

I probably wasn't clear enough, when i said the car was in my name for 14 months i meant i have had a V5 with my name on it for 14 months (nearly 15 months). My farther died about 18 months ago. I have not declared SORN since i have had the V5. Its looks like i may have somehow slipped through the cracks and got lucky. Still not sure what is the best thing to do now, TAX or SORN, i just don't want the DVLA to turn round when they realise and issue me with a stupid fine.

[groovylee]

jontie said:

Thanks for the replies.

I probably wasn't clear enough, when i said the car was in my name for 14 months i meant i have had a V5 with my name on it for 14 months (nearly 15 months). My farther died about 18 months ago. I have not declared SORN since i have had the V5. Its looks like i may have somehow slipped through the cracks and got lucky. Still not sure what is the best thing to do now, TAX or SORN, i just don't want the DVLA to turn round when they realise and issue me with a stupid fine.

i think the point is, even if they do notice and try to stitch you up, you DID send the sorn notification to them, and they must have lost it in the internal mail.......

so, maybe give them a call asking why you haven't received a sorn renewal notification, if they tell you it hasn't been sorned, then you can correct them, and tell them when you posted the sorn declaration to them 14 months ago.....

HTH

[herewego]

groovylee said:

jontie said:

Thanks for the replies.

I probably wasn't clear enough, when i said the car was in my name for 14 months i meant i have had a V5 with my name on it for 14 months (nearly 15 months). My farther died about 18 months ago. I have not declared SORN since i have had the V5. Its looks like i may have somehow slipped through the cracks and got lucky. Still not sure what is the best thing to do now, TAX or SORN, i just don't want the DVLA to turn round when they realise and issue me with a stupid fine.

i think the point is, even if they do notice and try to stitch you up, you DID send the sorn notification to them, and they must have lost it in the internal mail.......

so, maybe give them a call asking why you haven't received a sorn renewal notification, if they tell you it hasn't been sorned, then you can correct them, and tell them when you posted the sorn declaration to them 14 months ago.....

HTH

So, despite the fact he admitted he's the one who made a mistake, you're recommending that he lies to them. If they have to take him to court, do you recommend he lies on oath too?

[rewc]

herewego said:

So, despite the fact he admitted he's the one who made a mistake, you're recommending that he lies to them. If they have to take him to court, do you recommend he lies on oath too?

He could claim that his recollection of a routine event that took place over a year ago is that he did send a SORN. The prosecution would have to prove that beyond reasonable doubt he did not, it is not up to him to prove he did.
I suspect there are many trials where the defendant did what they were accused of doing but the prosecution couldn't prove it to the required criteria. I also suspect that innocent people are found Guilty of offences they did not commit for a whole variety of reasons, such as not being able to afford representation or accepting FPN's as the easiest course.

Edited by rewc on Saturday 14th July 10:57

[Steve126]

I bought a classic car and didn't bother filling in a SORN form at the time or at an point during the next few years. When the law was changed so you had to have insurance or SORN I decided to fill in a form and send it off.

In the "Date of SORN" box on the form I used the date that I filled the form in rather than the date I bought the car, partly because I didn't want to draw attention to the fact I'd owned the car for years but also because I knew SORN was something you have to do each year so no point trying to start that years SORN with a date from several years ago.

I received an acknowledgement letter from the DVLA stating SORN would begin on the date I had given them and nothing was ever said about the years before that date.

[Deva Link]

jontie said:

Thanks for the replies.

I probably wasn't clear enough, when i said the car was in my name for 14 months i meant i have had a V5 with my name on it for 14 months (nearly 15 months). My farther died about 18 months ago. I have not declared SORN since i have had the V5. Its looks like i may have somehow slipped through the cracks and got lucky. Still not sure what is the best thing to do now, TAX or SORN, i just don't want the DVLA to turn round when they realise and issue me with a stupid fine.

Bit strange that you haven't had either a tax or SORN reminder. Maybe they don't send out tax reminders if the car was untaxed before and perhaps the same applies to SORN as it's cancelled on RK change? But they should be seeing the car as untaxed and un-SORN'd. Is your address is correct on the V5C?

People must sell SORN'd cars all the time, so DVLA must be able to monitor that somehow.

[boyse7en]

I'd forgotten to SORN one of my cars for about 6 years. I wrote to the DVLA explaining that I hadn't done it, and also that I still only had the "old style" V5 rather than a new V5C.
Got a V5C within a couple of days, the SORN cetificate a day or so later and that was it.

[jontie]

I got some insurance quotes and they were more expensive than i expected so as i cannot afford to put the car on the road in the next few weeks. So i decided to declare SORN, when i did this online it said there has been a gap in the licensing ( 14 months according to their records) and that a offence has been committed and their enforcement department may be in touch (or something to that affect). So Taxing it may have been a better option, if i hear anything i will update, again i may get lucky. If i get a small fine £80 or so its not the end of the world, i'm just concerned i will be issed with a large fine for what was a genuine oversight, after my dad died everything was a bit of a mess and this sort of thing was not the top of priorities. The annoying thing is i'm usually on top of this sort of thing and if i had got a reminded letter at any point i would have dealt with it. I have defiantly not missed any letters, the address is correct on the V5 and i still live at the same address that the car was registered too when my farther owned it.

[groovylee]

herewego said:

So, despite the fact he admitted he's the one who made a mistake, you're recommending that he lies to them. If they have to take him to court, do you recommend he lies on oath too?

Yep. and Nope. because it wont go to court, mostly due to the fact that the DVLA are a bunch of incompetents, and have already admitted, on the record, that they lose mail on a regular basis.

or do you think he should bend over and get shafted on the basis of a ridiculous law that will have absolutely no impact on anyone except for the average motorist trying to sell a car privately, or in my case, take the car off the road temporarily to do some repair work.

sorry if i'm not whiter than white