Received a un taxed notice for a vehicle I no longer own
Received a un taxed notice for a vehicle I no longer own
Author
Discussion

carsounds_dan

Original Poster:

200 posts

213 months

Tuesday 22nd December 2009
quotequote all
Hi all,

As the above really,

I received a tax reminder for a vehicle I sold some 6 months ago, so I rang the DVLA who said that I need to write a letter. Which I did and I sent to them. I haven't received a reply though.

I today received a letter from them with the usual fine information, with a how to pay form explaining all the wonderful information which is of no real use to me in my case.

Now, what do I do? where do I stand on this one? I have copies of all the correspondance I've sent them but they've either not done anything about it or not received it.

So where do I stand?

Many Thanks


Daniel

14-7

6,233 posts

221 months

Tuesday 22nd December 2009
quotequote all
Did you not send off the part of the V5 you should have to the DVLA?

saaby93

32,038 posts

208 months

Tuesday 22nd December 2009
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Sounds like one of those cases where the DVLA incoming mail goes straight to their internal recycling plant.

Did someone say the DVLA ask all mail to be sent recorded but do not do the same with their outgoing mail?
So all you have to do with theirs is the same as what they do with yours.



Red Devil

13,516 posts

238 months

Tuesday 22nd December 2009
quotequote all
14-7 said:
Did you not send off the part of the V5 you should have to the DVLA?
And was it sent by Recorded or Special Delivery? The latter should always be used as the letter is tracked throughout. RD is not sufficiently robust.
Did the OP receive an acknowledgement letter from DVLA. The way they operate is that if you don't get one and omit to chase them up you get fined. The Kafkaesque part is that the reminder to chase them up is written on the V5C. Which you have already sent them!

It is a totally iniquitous system whereby if Royal Mail don't deliver or - more likely - DVLA lose the paperwork, you are held responsible for their failures/incompetence. DVLA are judge, jury, and executioner. There is no appeal to an independent tribunal like there is for parking tickets.

All that can be done is try to get them to see sense. It is a complete lottery whether you will succeed. I wouldn't hold your breath though. They don't like scarificing any form of income.

saaby93

32,038 posts

208 months

Tuesday 22nd December 2009
quotequote all
I thought that a recent poster did say they'd won by arguing that DVLA should have recorded their outgoing mail too.
As they hadn't, it was held that DVLA couldnt guarantee that the victim had received notification of a fine for DVLA having lost the original paperwork, and so didnt have to pay the said fine.

mouseymousey

2,642 posts

267 months

Tuesday 22nd December 2009
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I received a notice saying that a car registered to me didn't have any tax, but the registration number was not one I'd ever owned.

I had sold a car to someone who had put a private plate on it about 3 months earlier, and luckily I knew they had put the plate on it. Despite my sending all relevant paperwork, and the new owner transferring their registration to it after purchase, and the new owner having actually taxed it AND me never owning that registration, somehow the notice still came to me.

I had to write them a letter explaining the situation and I sent it special delivery. I got a letter back along the lines of "we'll let you off this time, but don't do it again". Do what again?

The system is a farce, make sure you keep copies of everything you send and make sure it's all sent using a traceable service.

Deva Link

26,934 posts

275 months

Wednesday 23rd December 2009
quotequote all
saaby93 said:
I thought that a recent poster did say they'd won by arguing that DVLA should have recorded their outgoing mail too.
Don't know about that, but someone did recently win a long running case against the penalty where the court agreed that sending something in the post is deemed "served" (in the same way as a NIP just arrives in the post).

What you're supposed to do is look out for the acknowledgment that DVLA sends out with 20 days and chase them up if not received.

philthy

4,697 posts

270 months

Wednesday 23rd December 2009
quotequote all
Just 6 months ?
I had a demand from the DVLA (via moorcroft recovery) for an automated "fine" incurred when the bike I sold over 2 years previously wasn't taxed by the new owner !

Complete shower of useless wkers !
I am amazed it is allowed to happen !

For the record, I'd changed my address, so ignored moorcroft. Haven't heard anything since.

bigdods

7,175 posts

257 months

Wednesday 23rd December 2009
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If my experience is anything to go by you are onto a loser. You can write to them to update their records, they can then send the tax reminder to the new owner so you wont have to pay that. But you will still be liable for the fine for late payment of tax as you were the registered keeper at the time. IIRC its £80.

You can argue with them 'til you are blue in the face, it wont make any difference IME.


4everblue

272 posts

205 months

Saturday 26th December 2009
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I had one for an old car of mine but kept a copy of the receipt of posting to the DVLA of the logbook and didn't hear anything further

Blazer784

1 posts

181 months

Friday 22nd February 2019
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I too recently received a penalty notice for not taxing a vehicle I sold in 2013 ? !!! ( where's it been since then ). I had sent the VC5 detail off as usual on the sale ) but didn't know I was supposed to receive a confirmation 20 days later ( ignorance is no defence of the law I hear the call )
I did though make contact and ask if the car had been taxed at all since that date - yes they replied. I asked them if they had the details of the taxer - Yes they replied.....then shouldn't you be asking them - Yes they replied. However, we haven't got your sale notice so we could charge you this years tax ????????? beggars belief doesn't it. The lady was very nice on the phone and suggested I send their letter to me to the enforcement section in DVLA confirming that DVLA had now acknowledged that ownership changed in 2013. " Can't you send it to the other department , its better if you send it ....madness.
I have sent it ( recorded delivery ) and await going to jail I suppose......I'll update the outcome in due course


carreauchompeur

18,322 posts

234 months

Friday 22nd February 2019
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Annoying... but virtually impossible to avoid, there’s no seeing sense.

In my case, a mate sold a car on my behalf but didn’t send off the v5 (agreed, a mistake). This obviously suited the dhead ‘driveway trader’ buyer.

They taxed it and then let the DD lapse... the car was impounded and they reclaimed it. I was on the hook for the fine!

Bonkers.

QuickQuack

2,816 posts

131 months

Friday 22nd February 2019
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Blazer784 said:
I'll update the outcome in due course
Do it in a new thread rather that bumping up a decade old one! ranting How and why on earth are people bumping up threads from such a long time ago, I’ll never understand.

eybic

9,212 posts

204 months

Friday 22nd February 2019
quotequote all
Probably using the search like people get shouted at to do, the messed up/ useless search puts the oldest threads at the top by default.

carreauchompeur

18,322 posts

234 months

Friday 22nd February 2019
quotequote all
QuickQuack said:
Do it in a new thread rather that bumping up a decade old one! ranting How and why on earth are people bumping up threads from such a long time ago, I’ll never understand.
Does it matter? It’s entirely ‘on topic’ and the DVLA are still just as difficult to win with a decade on!

carsounds_dan

Original Poster:

200 posts

213 months

Wednesday 27th February 2019
quotequote all
well since this was my original thread from 10 years ago I'll just outline quickly for all the riveted readers....

Under International Postal regulations [which the UK is a key member of] a letter is technically in the receivers possession from the moment it leaves the senders hand into the care of the local postal service.

I pushed this with the DVLA, including citations and dates from the various international postal laws, at which point it was up to the DVLA to prove/disprove my word that I actually sent it. Game on.

I told them to take me to court if they felt they had a strong case.
They sent lots of red letters.
They sold the debt.
I told the debt company this was still in dispute.
They handed the debt back to the DVLA.
The DVLA sent more red letters.
I wrote to them another 3/4 times and ended the last one mentioning harassment...

They sent me a formal apology and it got dropped.

So far we've all lived happily ever after.

Gafferjim

1,337 posts

295 months

Wednesday 27th February 2019
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Just a note to anyone selling a car, you can inform DVLA of change of ownership via their website now, you do not need to send on the V5. Makes life much easier. https://www.gov.uk/sold-bought-vehicle

tybo

2,284 posts

247 months

Wednesday 27th February 2019
quotequote all
I received a fine years ago for late payment of road tax for a vehicle I’d sold the previous year.

I ignored it.

The debt was sold to a recovery agency. I ignored them too.


Cliftonite

8,744 posts

168 months

Wednesday 27th February 2019
quotequote all
Blazer784 said:
I too recently received a penalty notice for not taxing a vehicle I sold in 2013 ? !!! ( where's it been since then ). I had sent the VC5 detail off as usual on the sale ) but didn't know I was supposed to receive a confirmation 20 days later ( ignorance is no defence of the law I hear the call )
I did though make contact and ask if the car had been taxed at all since that date - yes they replied. I asked them if they had the details of the taxer - Yes they replied.....then shouldn't you be asking them - Yes they replied. However, we haven't got your sale notice so we could charge you this years tax ????????? beggars belief doesn't it. The lady was very nice on the phone and suggested I send their letter to me to the enforcement section in DVLA confirming that DVLA had now acknowledged that ownership changed in 2013. " Can't you send it to the other department , its better if you send it ....madness.
I have sent it ( recorded delivery ) and await going to jail I suppose......I'll update the outcome in due course
I was supposed to receive a confirmation 20 days later ( ignorance is no defence of the law I hear the call )

There is no such law. The DVLA hope you do not know that.

IANAL.





Red Devil

13,516 posts

238 months

Wednesday 27th February 2019
quotequote all
yes

But why would anyone entrust vital documents to RM and also give DVLA the opportunity to lose them internally after delivery?
Madness that way lies. Do it online in less than a minute plus you receive confirmation to your Inbox.