Fined for not declaring a car I have not sold!
Discussion
I received a letter from those kind chaps at DVLA today stating that I am to be fined £55 for failing to declare disposal/sale of a car. I still have the car and the V5 and have not tried to dispose or sell the car.. I telephoned them (only general enquiries as you cannot phone the enforcement people) and told that they could not do anything about it, that they will send me a new application to reregister the car and that I must write appealing the fine.
They said that they would investigate and have an answer in 5-6 weeks. Anybody else ever had this?
They said that they would investigate and have an answer in 5-6 weeks. Anybody else ever had this?
Alarm bells should be ringing...
First check - use the MOT status (https://www.gov.uk/check-mot-status) to make sure that the V5C that you've got is the latest one issued.
Sounds as if somebody's applied for a V5C in their name, as new keeper.
Is the V5C at your correct address? Do you suspect any post going AWOL? Is your post left in a shared hallway or somewhere anybody might have access to it?
First check - use the MOT status (https://www.gov.uk/check-mot-status) to make sure that the V5C that you've got is the latest one issued.
Sounds as if somebody's applied for a V5C in their name, as new keeper.
Is the V5C at your correct address? Do you suspect any post going AWOL? Is your post left in a shared hallway or somewhere anybody might have access to it?
They are in a mess, as most Govt depts are after the cuts!
Shouldn't be your job to go all detective... it's theirs!
Just ignore till they send round the bailiffs, and then when they are on your doorstep say...."ummm...so what is this...?" pointing to the car in question!
..no, don't do that, cos the baliffs tend to be numpties with only half a brain!
Write to the DVLA outlining your case, and their error, and ask them go away politely.
Then ignore....and get on with your life!
Shouldn't be your job to go all detective... it's theirs!
Just ignore till they send round the bailiffs, and then when they are on your doorstep say...."ummm...so what is this...?" pointing to the car in question!
..no, don't do that, cos the baliffs tend to be numpties with only half a brain!
Write to the DVLA outlining your case, and their error, and ask them go away politely.
Then ignore....and get on with your life!
1. Ask DVLA to take you to court; they usually back down seconds before the case is called 
such is their ineptitude and bullying attitude...
Seriously (although this case is slightly different to the norm, admittedly)!
2. I'd also be speaking to the police ASAP and getting an incident number, on suspicion of your car having been cloned. They can do the detective work easily
.
such is their ineptitude and bullying attitude...Seriously (although this case is slightly different to the norm, admittedly)!
2. I'd also be speaking to the police ASAP and getting an incident number, on suspicion of your car having been cloned. They can do the detective work easily
.Frenchda said:
I received a letter from those kind chaps at DVLA today stating that I am to be fined £55 for failing to declare disposal/sale of a car. I still have the car and the V5 and have not tried to dispose or sell the car.. I telephoned them (only general enquiries as you cannot phone the enforcement people) and told that they could not do anything about it, that they will send me a new application to reregister the car and that I must write appealing the fine.
They said that they would investigate and have an answer in 5-6 weeks. Anybody else ever had this?
Are you using the car? Is it taxed, mot'd and insured?They said that they would investigate and have an answer in 5-6 weeks. Anybody else ever had this?
Can you scan up a copy of the letter with the personal details blanked out?
I had a load of grief from them when the kept making a mess of my V5 details after a change of owner, as said above they only seem to listen when you threaten them with legal action.
Jon1967x said:
Is it taxed or if not SORN'd? You need to be one or the other.
It doesn't you know.If it wasn't taxed when the sorn system came into being, about 1999 I think, then you cannot sorn it, until it has been taxed again.
I know this because I had a motorcycle last used in 1986, that I registered in my name in 2007, and attempted to sorn it.
vanordinaire said:
Is the car currently in use of off road? Maybe some one has tried to steal it's identity or transfer the reg to another vehicle. Or maybe someone has been declaring a change to another vehicle and made a minor mistake in the reg.
Check the status of your car on the DVLA website.
That was my immediate thought. There are such idiots about and it does beg the question. But as others have said the DVLA are not the best organised operation. I will be interested to see the end result. Best of luck to the OP.Check the status of your car on the DVLA website.
Nigel Worc's said:
Jon1967x said:
Is it taxed or if not SORN'd? You need to be one or the other.
It doesn't you know.If it wasn't taxed when the sorn system came into being, about 1999 I think, then you cannot sorn it, until it has been taxed again.
I know this because I had a motorcycle last used in 1986, that I registered in my name in 2007, and attempted to sorn it.
You could be correct on the V5C.
I had a V5 for my motorcycle, but it didn't get updated to a V5C when all the other vehicles in my ownership/household did.
It was only updated when I came to tax it, which was last year.
The OP does mention a V5 rather than a V5C.
I had many issues when I came to tax mine, and it was fortunate that I'd bought the motorcycle brand new, and knew its entire history, who had owned it, how it came to be in the country (I'd bought it in Germany whilst serving there, I'm its first and forth owner). I'm sure it would have been doable by anyone, but knowing all about it, being able to explain why it had several different numbers issued to it etc all helped, they weren't so tight about how things were done thirty odd years ago.
I had a V5 for my motorcycle, but it didn't get updated to a V5C when all the other vehicles in my ownership/household did.
It was only updated when I came to tax it, which was last year.
The OP does mention a V5 rather than a V5C.
I had many issues when I came to tax mine, and it was fortunate that I'd bought the motorcycle brand new, and knew its entire history, who had owned it, how it came to be in the country (I'd bought it in Germany whilst serving there, I'm its first and forth owner). I'm sure it would have been doable by anyone, but knowing all about it, being able to explain why it had several different numbers issued to it etc all helped, they weren't so tight about how things were done thirty odd years ago.
3Dee said:
They are in a mess, as most Govt depts are after the cuts!
Incorrect. DVLA were a mess long long before "the cuts". If have a spare few minutes for anoraxia, take a look at "how many left" for an idea just how crap most of their data on everything clearly is. They have no incentive to improve as they are allowed to behave how the hell they like.V8forweekends said:
Incorrect. DVLA were a mess long long before "the cuts". If have a spare few minutes for anoraxia, take a look at "how many left" for an idea just how crap most of their data on everything clearly is. They have no incentive to improve as they are allowed to behave how the hell they like.
For a while there has been talk of releasing the full vehicle register as open data, so that make/model/type lookups (and possibly by VIN) can be done by companies for free, rather than by having to subscribe with an approved data supplier. I'm sure the original idea of these suppliers was to handle the distribution, something that can be done for free online now.I think some do clean the data in some way, and align it with other manufacturers' supplied data to identify/remove incorrect records, which leads us to their delay - they are apparently running their own in-house cleaning process so that the data is good enough to release en-masse to the public! I'm sure they are fairly worried about the customer service hassles of the free data users finding all sorts of problems.
Anyway I'm fairly excited not only because it will make it much easier (and certainly cheaper) for businesses to do registration plate related stuff, but the statistics/data-mining opportunities.
Edited by Gareth79 on Wednesday 11th June 01:07
Sorry about the delay.
Car is sorn'd and has not been taxed or insured for 4 years (race car). I have a new style V5 due to a house move.
I mentioned the criminal possibility to DVLA but they appeared quite unconcerned about it all, only that I must appeal the fine (which is done) and that they would "investigate" the matter and get back to me win 5-6 weeks.
Car is sorn'd and has not been taxed or insured for 4 years (race car). I have a new style V5 due to a house move.
I mentioned the criminal possibility to DVLA but they appeared quite unconcerned about it all, only that I must appeal the fine (which is done) and that they would "investigate" the matter and get back to me win 5-6 weeks.
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