Declaring Historic Status

[cjb44]

I know this subject has been to death but I am now in a position to declare one of my cars so bare with me.
The car was registered in September 1978, it has a current MOT, is insured and is on SORN; I now want to put it on the road for the summer.
I want to change it to VHI to enable it to be MOT and Tax free although I fully intend to continue with MOT's/inspection. If I use the V112 form on or just after 1st. April will I automatically obtain this status or do I have to take it off SORN first and then submit the form. Somewhere in the back of my mind, I believe "Low Drag" advised that you had to wait for the 20th. May before doing this declaration.
Can the knowledgeable point me in the right direction, please.

Many thanks.

[mgtony]

It was May last year when the 40 year MOT exemption came in. On the 1st April you should be able at the Post Office to change the status to 'Historic' and tax it for £0. The V112 you just have to fill in and show it to them, they don't even take it off you.
I've got to do the same, only mine is taxed till the end of this month.
Print off a copy of the V112 just in case they don't have one.
This tells you what you need to take to the Post Office:

https://www.gov.uk/historic-vehicles/apply-for-veh...

V112:

https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/governmen...

[droopsnoot]

The OPs vehicle becomes eligible for VED exemption on April 1st, as long as nothing changes in legislation before then. The DVLA web site only ever refers to the current situation, not to what happens in the future, but the recent change says it will move forward by one year, every year, on April 1st, so we can presume it will do this year as well.

My car was in the same situation - coming up to being exempt, valid MOT (needed at the time), but on SORN for the winter. I waited until April 1st, took the V5 to the Post Office (no reminder, as it was on SORN), and the lady at the counter did everything for me. Scanned the V5C, clicked something that let her change to historic status, issued me with 12 months free VED, and posted the V5 off for me. All done in a minute or two, no V112 form to fill in.

Others I know have been to a post office and been told they need to send the V112 off. Mine was a recently-refurbished PO, so maybe they'd been on a refresher course, or reading new regulations while they were closed.

ETA - it looks as if it was April 1st 2014 when the rolling 40-year exemption came into force. Although it shouldn't really be called "rolling" as it "jumps" once a year. The old 25-year exemption was rolling in that it came into force, from what I can gather, on the day your vehicle became 25 years old.

Edited by droopsnoot on Wednesday 27th March 11:17

[cjb44]

Thanks chaps, very useful information; will pop along on Monday to see my local post lady who is pretty up on everything and see how it goes.

[cjb44]

cjb44 said:

Thanks chaps, very useful information; will pop along on Monday to see my local post lady who is pretty up on everything and see how it goes.

Update:- I did exactly the same as Droopsnoot, my local village post office lady is very good at these sort of things, she did everything for me off the V5
including taking it off SORN and issuing me with a years free road fund licence all in about two minutes; my new V5 arrived in the post today stating "Historic Vehicle" so a good result all round.
Thanks chaps for all the advice.

[Lotobear]

Worthwhile adding that some useful and definitive information has now been released concerning the MOT exemption

[Lotobear]

...and the second page

[Peter3442]

Thank you Lotobear. That's useful for all of us.

I'm not sure if this:
https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/governmen...
is the latest info from DVLA on what constitutes substantial modification, but it's current on their website.

From the last pages of the topic "XKSS"
https://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&...
it's best to tread carefully and be prepared for the possibility that DVLA may not always be completely consistent in interpreting their rules and may even apply new rules retrospectively.

[anonymous-user]

I have a vehicle that was first registered in Feb 79 (printed in the logbook). Its actually an import, and there is a VIN plate in the door shut with "Year of Manufacture: 1978". Using the log book, I obvs don't qualify for zero rate - any ideas how I would go about changing it? Is it even possible? It would save a good couple of hundred quid a year, for something that is used a dozen times in the summer only.

[droopsnoot]

OpulentBob said:

I have a vehicle that was first registered in Feb 79 (printed in the logbook). Its actually an import, and there is a VIN plate in the door shut with "Year of Manufacture: 1978". Using the log book, I obvs don't qualify for zero rate - any ideas how I would go about changing it? Is it even possible? It would save a good couple of hundred quid a year, for something that is used a dozen times in the summer only.

You need to get proof from a recognised body* of the date of manufacture. Send that to the DVLA with your V5 and a covering letter, and they will add a note to the V5 to certify that it is manufactured in 1978. You should then be able to declare it as historic and get zero-rate VED.

It's not already on the V5, is it? If it's been imported, sometimes the date of manufacture is already recorded and you would already be able to apply. You could have a look on the DVLA Vehicle Enquiry web site, that will show if there's a manufacture date already recorded. It appears in the "notes" section on my printed V5.

(* recognised body is someone like the manufacturer, or a recognised club for that marque. I got a certificate from the Vauxhall Heritage Centre as my car was made in an earlier year to when it was registered, and did as above. I'm not sure whether sending a photo of the VIN plate would do it - if it has an official look to it then maybe, but if it's a bit of plain alloy with a VIN and that wording on it, you'll appreciate anyone could have knocked that up).

Beware though - if the change of year of manufacture means that it should have had an earlier registration, the DVLA might want to re-register your car. That might not matter to you. It's the result of a change in 1976 or 1977 where the application for new registration had to declare that the car was new at the point of registration. As you'll now be asking them to accept that it wasn't new, they will probably do what they'd have done then, and register it for the year of manufacture. Equally, they might already have given it a 1978-specific registration when it was imported. Or if it doesn't alter the year suffix, they might not bother changing it.

ETA - I have experience of the difference in year of manufacture vs. year of registration - no experience at all of imports and whether or not that alters anything.

Edited by droopsnoot on Wednesday 1st May 10:49

[anonymous-user]

Thank you Droopsnoot, that's great info, thank you. I will see if I can get that to work. I am not precious about the registration or if they want to re-register it.

May I ask one more related question?

If the exemption is rolling, then if I just wait a year, it will become exempt next year (2020) even if they take year of reg as gospel over year of manufacture?

[larrylamb11]

OpulentBob said:

I have a vehicle that was first registered in Feb 79 (printed in the logbook). Its actually an import, and there is a VIN plate in the door shut with "Year of Manufacture: 1978". Using the log book, I obvs don't qualify for zero rate - any ideas how I would go about changing it? Is it even possible? It would save a good couple of hundred quid a year, for something that is used a dozen times in the summer only.

Why do you not qualify using the log book? The vehicle has already been registered for over 40 years....... it became eligible in Feb 2019 by my reckoning. Should be a simple matter of dropping down to your local post office with the V5 and having the tax class changed to historic, with associated granting of free road tax and MoT exemption.

[droopsnoot]

OpulentBob said:

If the exemption is rolling, then if I just wait a year, it will become exempt next year (2020) even if they take year of reg as gospel over year of manufacture?

Yes, that would work.

larrylamb11 said:

Why do you not qualify using the log book? The vehicle has already been registered for over 40 years....... it became eligible in Feb 2019 by my reckoning.

Because as I said above, the use of the term "rolling" is confusing the matter. The exemption jumps forward by a year on April 1st. On 1/4/2019, anything registered up to the end of 1978 became eligible. On 1/4/2020, if no legislation changes, anything registered up to the end of 1979 should become eligible. But nothing happens between those two dates. Hence the cut-off jumps rather than rolls.

That's the main reason that you might want to try to get it changed now OB rather than waiting until 2020 - if we were to have something happen that changed the rules, it would be frustrating to have missed out. I'm not sure whether that would happen or not.

[mgtony]

Still an anomaly between a car being MOT exempt from 40 years of its date of registration, yet needs to be a VHI (Historic) which means it needs to be a minimum of 40 years and 3 months to some cars being nearly 41 years old before they can be registered as a VHI.

[anonymous-user]

Thank you again DS, very sensible advice