DVLA Historic Tax Emption Application
Discussion
Hoping someone on PH has some experience as nobody at the DVLA understands the question or their own policy and in any case take 3 days to answer an email.
I have a BMW e21 323i, manufactured November 1981, first registered February 1982. According to the DVLA website, any vehicle manufactured before 1st January 1982 should become eligible for Historic Tax Exemption on 1st April 2022. Sounds simple, I have an email from the BMW archive in Germany confirming from the chassis number that my car was manufactured November 1981, I should be able to send this off and get Historic Tax Exemption.
Except DVLA won't confirm whether the email from the BMW Archive is adequate proof of date of manufacture and they themselves seem all confused about the date of Manufacture V date of First Registration. As a written application comes with a fee and 6 week delay in processing I'm reluctant to apply before I know that a pdf of the email is adequate proof of date of manufacture?
I have a BMW e21 323i, manufactured November 1981, first registered February 1982. According to the DVLA website, any vehicle manufactured before 1st January 1982 should become eligible for Historic Tax Exemption on 1st April 2022. Sounds simple, I have an email from the BMW archive in Germany confirming from the chassis number that my car was manufactured November 1981, I should be able to send this off and get Historic Tax Exemption.
Except DVLA won't confirm whether the email from the BMW Archive is adequate proof of date of manufacture and they themselves seem all confused about the date of Manufacture V date of First Registration. As a written application comes with a fee and 6 week delay in processing I'm reluctant to apply before I know that a pdf of the email is adequate proof of date of manufacture?
I have a Landrover which I'm waiting it do this for. Mine was registered Nov 81 so is eligable for historic from Nov 21 ie 40 years. However! the DVLA online tool to do this is only updated every April so if you do it online your car has to be registered prior to April 21. As I only looked at doing it in late Feb I'm waiting till after April this year and doing it online which is automated and easy.
If you want to do it using the manufacturer date or before the database updates your only option is to write a letter in, although I didn't think there was a fee.
They do have a very helpful team (god did I just say that) on the phones for historic..
If you want to do it using the manufacturer date or before the database updates your only option is to write a letter in, although I didn't think there was a fee.
They do have a very helpful team (god did I just say that) on the phones for historic..
Had to go through all this with my sons Spitfire during covid (first year). Although car registered 1980 was built 79 with Heritage cert to prove. Had to send the whole doc set excluding insurance, at the beginning of March, they locked down 17th March and then they took 4 months and refused to backdate until 1st April so they didn’t refund the road tax either.
Highly disappointed with DVLA generally, they messed up the V5 for my MGB because there wasn’t a type tick box for an auto MGB, despite it being factory. Had it listed as a manual for 40 years, it was pranged and the assessor pointed out the issue.
Their new listing made it unsearchable on insurance, Dart Charge, TfL etc - wouldn’t change it again
Highly disappointed with DVLA generally, they messed up the V5 for my MGB because there wasn’t a type tick box for an auto MGB, despite it being factory. Had it listed as a manual for 40 years, it was pranged and the assessor pointed out the issue.
Their new listing made it unsearchable on insurance, Dart Charge, TfL etc - wouldn’t change it again
EK3vtec said:
Had to go through all this with my sons Spitfire during covid (first year). Although car registered 1980 was built 79 with Heritage cert to prove. Had to send the whole doc set excluding insurance, at the beginning of March, they locked down 17th March and then they took 4 months and refused to backdate until 1st April so they didn’t refund the road tax either.
Highly disappointed with DVLA generally, they messed up the V5 for my MGB because there wasn’t a type tick box for an auto MGB, despite it being factory. Had it listed as a manual for 40 years, it was pranged and the assessor pointed out the issue.
Their new listing made it unsearchable on insurance, Dart Charge, TfL etc - wouldn’t change it again
I bought a silver two year old JDM Impreza from the first owner imported brand new by him.Highly disappointed with DVLA generally, they messed up the V5 for my MGB because there wasn’t a type tick box for an auto MGB, despite it being factory. Had it listed as a manual for 40 years, it was pranged and the assessor pointed out the issue.
Their new listing made it unsearchable on insurance, Dart Charge, TfL etc - wouldn’t change it again
When I did an HPI check, it stated the car was Blue as the importer or DVLA obviously had lot of blue cars registered on the same day. The seller had never noticed.
Luckily the car came with all the Japanese build sheets, so it just required a VIN inspection when the DVLA still had local offices.
Unbelievable this is still happening.
If you can prove the date of build means a vehicle is "historic", then DVLA should sort it out. An e mail should be sufficient.
Date of registration is irrelevant.
I was probably one of the first to benefit when the 25 year rule first came in. Car registered in January, built the previous November. Proved to DVLA, free tax a year earlier than if I had done nothing.
Practical Classics said you couldn't do it, I showed they were wrong.
I did this with a VW in about 1994 or whenever it first became an option ! the registration date wasn't quite enough to do it.
wrote to VW, they sent me literally the van's birth certificate which was 6 months earlier. . that was fine for the DVLA to give it historic vehicle tax
bonkers its still a problem now !
wrote to VW, they sent me literally the van's birth certificate which was 6 months earlier. . that was fine for the DVLA to give it historic vehicle tax
bonkers its still a problem now !
I've still got to wait until next April for one of mine, as I really thought being registered in Jan '82 would mean an '81 build date - but no, those efficient Germans only took two weeks to get it from the factory to being UK registered!
At least it should be MOT exempt already. Not having the dates aligned is a bit silly, but ah well.
At least it should be MOT exempt already. Not having the dates aligned is a bit silly, but ah well.
Well I’m now on my 6th email to DVLA, trying to get clarification, been asking the same questions each time but just can’t get a straight answer, nobody really seems to understand the process at DVLA.
I can get a letter (not a certificate) from BMW which will confirm my chassis number was built in November 1981 for a charge of €50, but I just can’t get DVLA to confirm that they will accept this as valid evidence of the build date. They say send it off with the fee and they will respond sometime in 6-12 weeks because they have been on strike/ Covid etc. in the meantime I have to pay for tax and hope they accept the evidence.
I find DVLA really frustrating to deal with, just can’t talk to anyone or get a straight answer.
Years ago I had a BMW Z3M and discovered at MOT time that the chassis number on the V5 was wrong, I just wrote to them, they said thanks for letting them know and issued a new V5!
I can get a letter (not a certificate) from BMW which will confirm my chassis number was built in November 1981 for a charge of €50, but I just can’t get DVLA to confirm that they will accept this as valid evidence of the build date. They say send it off with the fee and they will respond sometime in 6-12 weeks because they have been on strike/ Covid etc. in the meantime I have to pay for tax and hope they accept the evidence.
I find DVLA really frustrating to deal with, just can’t talk to anyone or get a straight answer.
Years ago I had a BMW Z3M and discovered at MOT time that the chassis number on the V5 was wrong, I just wrote to them, they said thanks for letting them know and issued a new V5!
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