Car on Sorn - applying for Historic Status
Car on Sorn - applying for Historic Status
Author
Discussion

tomtomek

Original Poster:

5 posts

Yesterday (12:46)
quotequote all
Hi all,

I have had my two cars on sorn, one since 2013 and another one since 2021. In May and June this year I applied at the post office to get the vehicles registered under Historic Vehicle status with DVLA. I received new documents sometime in August. Now, in September I received letters from MID stating the vehicles are not insured, and then another letters from DVLA putting fine on me, £100 for each car or £50 if I pay before the 19/10/2025. I was away when I got the MID letter and was not aware of those until fines until beginning of October. I have appealed to DVLA and got this response today for both of my appeals:

I can see from our records that you declared your vehicle as SORN on 15/03/2021, however, you then applied for Historic Status on your vehicle on 11/06/2025, which automatically cancelled the original SORN declaration, as it indicates that the vehicle is going to be used on the public highway.

I can see from our records that you declared your vehicle as SORN on 12/11/2013, however, you then applied for Historic Status on your vehicle on 27/05/2025, which automatically cancelled the original SORN declaration, as it indicates that the vehicle is going to be used on the public highway.

I have responded to this asking to show me where does it state that SORN is automatically cancelled when applying for historic vehicle status. This was never mentioned anywhere!

Any suggestions on what to do further wit this?

Regards,
Tom

Doofus

31,824 posts

191 months

Yesterday (12:58)
quotequote all
tomtomek said:
Hi all,

I have had my two cars on sorn, one since 2013 and another one since 2021. In May and June this year I applied at the post office to get the vehicles registered under Historic Vehicle status with DVLA. I received new documents sometime in August. Now, in September I received letters from MID stating the vehicles are not insured, and then another letters from DVLA putting fine on me, £100 for each car or £50 if I pay before the 19/10/2025. I was away when I got the MID letter and was not aware of those until fines until beginning of October. I have appealed to DVLA and got this response today for both of my appeals:

I can see from our records that you declared your vehicle as SORN on 15/03/2021, however, you then applied for Historic Status on your vehicle on 11/06/2025, which automatically cancelled the original SORN declaration, as it indicates that the vehicle is going to be used on the public highway.

I can see from our records that you declared your vehicle as SORN on 12/11/2013, however, you then applied for Historic Status on your vehicle on 27/05/2025, which automatically cancelled the original SORN declaration, as it indicates that the vehicle is going to be used on the public highway.

I have responded to this asking to show me where does it state that SORN is automatically cancelled when applying for historic vehicle status. This was never mentioned anywhere!

Any suggestions on what to do further wit this?

Regards,
Tom
If your car was SORNed, then you told DVLA that your car was off the road and didn't need to be taxed or insured.

You the changed the tax status to Historic and, presumably, taxed the car, albeit for zero cost. Historic status doesn't mean no road tax, it means £0 road tax. Therefore your car was no longer SORNed, and you need to insure it.

As for suggestions; pay the fines. Ignorance of the law is no defence.

tomtomek

Original Poster:

5 posts

Yesterday (13:09)
quotequote all
Thanks for the response. The thing is presumably. I presumably taxed it for £0 but never declared that I am taking the car back on the road. I cannot find anywhere that states I need to re-sorn a Sorned car post changing its status to historic vehicle. Or the statement that historic vehicle status cancels SORN. I agree that law should be followed but does it state anywhere that historic status cancels sorn?

Doofus

31,824 posts

191 months

Yesterday (13:23)
quotequote all
tomtomek said:
Thanks for the response. The thing is presumably. I presumably taxed it for £0 but never declared that I am taking the car back on the road. I cannot find anywhere that states I need to re-sorn a Sorned car post changing its status to historic vehicle. Or the statement that historic vehicle status cancels SORN. I agree that law should be followed but does it state anywhere that historic status cancels sorn?
SORN is an off road notifcation. If you taxed it, then by definition it's no longer off the road and therefore must be insured.


aeropilot

38,776 posts

245 months

Yesterday (13:26)
quotequote all
tomtomek said:
Thanks for the response. The thing is presumably. I presumably taxed it for £0 but never declared that I am taking the car back on the road.
You just answered your own question.......you taxed it, thereby as DVLA says, by definition you removed it from SORN.

Just because you didn't have to pay anything, the process is still the same, and as soon as you taxed it, it needs to be insured.

If you didn't intended to put the cars back on the road, you should have just left them on SORN until you did intend to put them back on the road.

tomtomek

Original Poster:

5 posts

Yesterday (14:00)
quotequote all
My intention was to class them as historic vehicles so I won’t have to pay tax or get an MOT when I am ready to put them back on the road. So now I will put them on as SORN and then when I am ready to put them on the road I will have to tax them for £0? So convoluted process. Was under impression they are tax and mot exempt and not have £0 value tax. Thanks for your response anyway.

Doofus

31,824 posts

191 months

Yesterday (14:21)
quotequote all
tomtomek said:
My intention was to class them as historic vehicles so I won t have to pay tax or get an MOT when I am ready to put them back on the road. So now I will put them on as SORN and then when I am ready to put them on the road I will have to tax them for £0? So convoluted process. Was under impression they are tax and mot exempt and not have £0 value tax. Thanks for your response anyway.
It's only convoluted because you cocked it up. wink

tomtomek

Original Poster:

5 posts

Yesterday (14:28)
quotequote all
Doofus said:
It's only convoluted because you cocked it up. wink
Perhaps. Still, it is nowhere to say that changing vehicle status to historic automatically puts it back on the road. Anyway, guess that's money thrown away for the fines.

tomtomek

Original Poster:

5 posts

Yesterday (14:35)
quotequote all
Also, this gov site states:

Historic vehicle tax exemption
Apply for a vehicle tax exemption

Oxford dictionary

Definitions from Oxford Languages
exemption
/ɪɡˈzɛm(p)ʃn,ɛɡˈzɛm(p)ʃn/
noun
the action of freeing or state of being free from an obligation or liability imposed on others.
"vehicles that may qualify for exemption from tax"

So by exemption it should be assumed you do not have to have tax in place and not pay £0 value tax.

Have a great day everyone.

Doofus

31,824 posts

191 months

Yesterday (14:36)
quotequote all
tomtomek said:
Doofus said:
It's only convoluted because you cocked it up. wink
Perhaps. Still, it is nowhere to say that changing vehicle status to historic automatically puts it back on the road. Anyway, guess that's money thrown away for the fines.
Look at the screenshot I posted earlier.

aeropilot

38,776 posts

245 months

Yesterday (14:52)
quotequote all
tomtomek said:
Doofus said:
It's only convoluted because you cocked it up. wink
Perhaps. Still, it is nowhere to say that changing vehicle status to historic automatically puts it back on the road.
No perhaps about it.
There was no need to do what you've done, you should have just left them on SORN until you wanted to put them on the road.

You are failing to understand that applying for historic VED status is applying for a valid road fund licence, and thus they need insurance.
The fact that no money changes hands doesn't mean that you are not still applying for a valid road fund licence and thus need insurance.
Its quite clear.

catso

15,367 posts

285 months

Yesterday (15:23)
quotequote all
Doofus said:
tomtomek said:
My intention was to class them as historic vehicles so I won t have to pay tax or get an MOT when I am ready to put them back on the road. So now I will put them on as SORN and then when I am ready to put them on the road I will have to tax them for £0? So convoluted process. Was under impression they are tax and mot exempt and not have £0 value tax. Thanks for your response anyway.
It's only convoluted because you cocked it up. wink
It is but, that's because DVLA have made a cocked up system under which it is easy to get caught out, it could be made clearer at the time of changing to 'historic' that you need to either tax or SORN or it could just remain in the previous state (or they could have never brought in the continuous insurance ruling in the first place), it almost seems like it's been devised to catch people out to fine them? scratchchin

Another thing regarding the £0 tax situation, I have 2 'historic' vehicles and it always seems a bit strange that I have to apply for tax every year despite it being free of charge especially that, on a non-free tax car I could have a direct debit to automatically renew - why can't the £0 tax car be set to auto renew?

I'm not complaining, after all it's free but it is easy to get caught out if you're not aware.

healeyneil

356 posts

165 months

Yesterday (23:27)
quotequote all
I’m with the OP on this.
I applied to have a change of taxation class - to historic. I didn’t ask to tax it for the year, but it was done automatically. Fortunately, I checked, and was able to re sorn it.
DVLAs system is the problem here, not the customer

aeropilot

38,776 posts

245 months

healeyneil said:
I m with the OP on this.
I applied to have a change of taxation class - to historic. I didn t ask to tax it for the year, but it was done automatically. Fortunately, I checked, and was able to re sorn it.
DVLAs system is the problem here, not the customer
It was done automatically because you instigated it by applying for change in class, which like the OP you didn't need to do.

The problem here is not the DVLA system, its the customer.
There are two quite clear options for a vehicle, either SORN or taxed, its one or the other, and has been for decades.

D_G

1,867 posts

227 months

I'm in the middle of this at the moment, changed to Historic and sent away the V5, car now shows up as taxed but I can't Sorn it as I don't have a V5 document so I either have to insure it now or wait for my V5 and hope I don't get a fine. Seems the system doesn't account for this scenario.

healeyneil

356 posts

165 months

Just wait till the V5 arrives and you can sorn it then