DVLA Unlicensed Vehicle £160 Surety - Refusal to Refund
Comments
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Those DVLA/government documents you refer to quote "Tax Discs" so that would have been pre-2014 when the tax disc system was scrapped.
The period of time to get your vehicle taxed is indisuptably 15 (fifteen) days from either (some ambiguity here) the date of the vehicle being clamped or the date of the wheelclamp being released from the car. Either way, in this case, I was within my 15 days.
The only definition of the 15 days I was given, by the wheelclamping Agent, was 15 calendar days from when I paid the refundable Surety Fee - nothing about the time of the clamping, or normal business hours, or phoneline times.
The wheelclamping agent, who after all takes your money (£100 for wheelclamp release and £160 surety fee) over the telephone, TELLS YOU THAT YOU HAVE 15 DAYS TO TAX YOUR CAR. They don't say anything about doing so by 5pm!!!
You can tax your vehicle online with DVLA at anytime night or day as long as the DVLA system can see the other necessary valid documents - V5C and MOT. You can tax it over the telephone with the DVLA up to 7pm on weekday evenings, again as long as the DVLA can see the other necessary valid documents.
You can also tax it over the counter at a Post Office (and Sub-Post Offices, subject to early closing), on production of all your other valid documents (V5C and MOT) and Post Offices are open until 5.30 pm on weekdays in the UK, as are most Sub-Post Offices (subject to early closing).
So why would you not be able to contact the DVLA-appointed Agency which took your obligatory but refundable Surety Fee, after 5pm on weekdays (and not at all at weekends)? And why have they not warned you of this? And why hasn't the DVLA issued accurate guidance instead of ambiguous phrases?
I am not trying to pull a fast one here. Firstly I have parted with my money at the time of the clamping. I have fully taxed the vehicle. Incidentally I got it serviced and MOT-ed but as neither the DVLA nor the wheelclamping Agent has brought up the servicing or MOT, then I don't see the comments about how long it took me to do my business as relevant. I was given 15 days. I took 15 days. Of course I regret not taking only 14 days, or 13, or 12 etc, but I was given 15 days, so that was what happened.
Its relevant as the expectation and law is you do us the courtesy of driving legally and with a roadworthy vehicle.0 -
Okay, this is getting to be like I am the evildoer here.I'll explain. If your vehicle is wheelclamped for being untaxed, you must get it released from the wheelclamp (£100) and pay a refundable surety fee (£160), pending you taxing the vehicle.
For the first 24 hours after the vehicle is de-clamped it is not liable for tax whilst you get it off road or taxed etc.That is another aspect of the legal arrangement between the vehicle owner, the DVLA and its wheelclamping Agent. When I therefore drove my car from the spot where it was wheelclamped to my local garage, it was legally being driven on the road.
So I immediately got my car off road within the 24 hours, by putting it into my local garage, where the garage owner was quite happy to take care of it, assess it, price it up, get any parts, doing any work, and do an MOT (which was due). Whilst in his garage he is covered for it in the same way all garages with MOT-testing status are, so the vehicle is fully legal. And anyway his garage is off road and big enough to store vehicles - again all legal.
So I was not breaking ANY laws whatsoever for all 15 days since my vehicle was clamped and then de-clamped. It did not come back onto a road until after it was taxed on that 15th day, during which time it was also MOT-ed.
Where, oh where, Oh Holy One, have I not done a courtesy to you or the Law?0 -
Okay, this is getting to be like I am the evildoer here.I'll explain. If your vehicle is wheelclamped for being untaxed, you must get it released from the wheelclamp (£100) and pay a refundable surety fee (£160), pending you taxing the vehicle.
As you had no tax. My belief is it had no tax as you knew your MOT was up.
For the first 24 hours after the vehicle is de-clamped it is not liable for tax whilst you get it off road or taxed etc.That is another aspect of the legal arrangement between the vehicle owner, the DVLA and its wheelclamping Agent. When I therefore drove my car from the spot where it was wheelclamped to my local garage, it was legally being driven on the road.
How generous of you to avoid further penalties to yourself
So I immediately got my car off road within the 24 hours, by putting it into my local garage, where the garage owner was quite happy to take care of it, assess it, price it up, get any parts, doing any work, and do an MOT (which was due). Whilst in his garage he is covered for it in the same way all garages with MOT-testing status are, so the vehicle is fully legal. And anyway his garage is off road and big enough to store vehicles - again all legal.
So I was not breaking ANY laws whatsoever for all 15 days since my vehicle was clamped and then de-clamped. It did not come back onto a road until after it was taxed on that 15th day, during which time it was also MOT-ed.
All brought about by the afore mentioned lack of roadworthy vehicle,tax or valid MOT.
Where, oh where, Oh Holy One, have I not done a courtesy to you or the Law?
Yes,you could be inline for compensation you poor thing.
Sounds like a stitch up job,totally out of your control.0 -
You are clearly harbouring rather unpleasant views about me, no grounds for which have I given you.
The expiry of my car's Road Tax and its MOT are two entirely different things. They happen to run fairly close together. The car's MOT expired whilst in the garage. I knew it needed a service because I like to keep my cars properly serviced at the usual recommended mileage or time intervals.
The car had been in storage in a private garage off-road, needless to say, for some months and had only been parked up outside my house for a brief period of about half an hour whilst I emptied it out of some personal belongings before taking it to my garage. The tax had indeed run out but, as I say, the car was being kept off road unused in a garage. I knew the MOT was due soon, so I decided to take it in for servicing and an MOT, after which I would renew the tax.
It was parked for that fateful half hour in a small one-way street which has been closed to through traffic for 6 months since October this year for major infrastructural construction works. A very few free remaining roadside parking spaces remain available but there is absolutely no through-traffic as the road is closed off for most of its length. It was there, in one of those parking spots, to where I drove my car from my private garage, prior to onwardly taking it to the mechanic and depositing it in his commercial garage.
In that fateful half an hour that it was parked, my car was clamped.
I don't plead one iota of sympathy for being clamped, or for being fined for what I did, or for paying back tax. But I don't expect to be robbed by the government or one of its Agents. We'll see what happens - if I do get my Surety Fee refunded to me, rest assured I will tell you and hopefully blot your Christmas a little bit, alright Mr Scrooge.
I also wish you all the luck in the world in your bid to never ever make the slightest mistake about anything in your life and so become the first perfect Human Being in history.0 -
Wow. What ARE the odds of a DVLA agent's clamping van happening to pass such an unlikely stretch of road in such a short period of time? Absolutely incredible...It was parked for that fateful half hour in a small one-way street which has been closed to through traffic for 6 months since October this year for major infrastructural construction works. A very few free remaining roadside parking spaces remain available but there is absolutely no through-traffic as the road is closed off for most of its length. It was there, in one of those parking spots, to where I drove my car from my private garage, prior to onwardly taking it to the mechanic and depositing it in his commercial garage.
In that fateful half an hour that it was parked, my car was clamped.0 -
Wow. What ARE the odds of a DVLA agent's clamping van happening to pass such an unlikely stretch of road in such a short period of time? Absolutely incredible...
and the MOT expired while the car was in the garage.
Some real rotten luck going about.....
plenty of Christmas spirit in our house.
All bought and paid for,with a legal car on the drive.0 -
The only definition of the 15 days I was given, by the wheelclamping Agent, was 15 calendar days from when I paid the refundable Surety Fee - nothing about the time of the clamping, or normal business hours, or phoneline times.
So you were told that it was 15 "calendar" days by the person who clamped the car?.
A calendar day means everyday (as apposed to working days) and a day is 24 hours. So they can argue that if you were unclamped at exactly 1PM for example then your 15 days run out at 1PM on that day.I am not trying to pull a fast one here. Firstly I have parted with my money at the time of the clamping. I have fully taxed the vehicle. Incidentally I got it serviced and MOT-ed but as neither the DVLA nor the wheelclamping Agent has brought up the servicing or MOT, then I don't see the comments about how long it took me to do my business as relevant. I was given 15 days. I took 15 days. Of course I regret not taking only 14 days, or 13, or 12 etc, but I was given 15 days, so that was what happened.
Well it's pretty bad of a garage to take 15 days to do an MOT, service and repairs especially when you booked it in for the day you were clamped and had a short time scale.
Also it's strange that they would take this long because if they re-MOT it after 10 working days they have to pay another fee to process it on the system.0 -
It was not a direct Agent of the DVLA who clamped my vehicle, I have discovered from the DVLA this afternoon.
The wheelclamper is an agent of the two Local Authorities who control the street where my car was parked, sub-contracted by the Agent of the DVLA to do work for them as well as Parking Enforcement for the 2 Local Authorities.
Furthermore the street in question, a boundary street between 2 Local Authorities, has only just been closed off to through traffic for the construction works for the next 6 months. So contra-flows and new directions around this street have been introduced.
I have subsequently observed that this has brought about a much higher level of surveillance by the Parking Enforcement Agency, with mini-cars with roof-mounted cameras often passing by now to police the new traffic arrangements.
I was cursed from the start, apparently. But am I complaining? No chance. I got done. I paid the price - in full. Then I got robbed by the government and I want that money back.
May you never be a little tintsy-bit unlucky in your devoutly-led lives, and may you continue to act with the wisdom of Solomon in all your doings, and - God Forbid - if you were to suffer any little smidgen of bad luck or setback or come-uppance, may all of Mankind pour out their bounteous sympathy and kindness to you, as you are clearly so deserving and so well-disposed to others.
Now I suggest you take something else in hand other than your keyboard and mouse.0
This discussion has been closed.
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