Forgot to renew car tax - £1,000 fine? aarrgghhh..

Bogof_Babe · 1 July 2005 at 7:32PM

My husband has a couple of "hobby" classic cars, that are garaged all year and just taken to shows a couple of times a year.

He has just realised that the tax on one of them expired at the end of May, and he forgot to renew it. Lots been going on - illness in the family etc. - although I know that is no excuse.

We are now panicking as the renewal notice states that a fine of "minimum £1,000" may be imposed. This seems ridiculously high for a genuine oversight, and he hasn't even driven the car in the meantime.

Does anyone have any experience of this, i.e. whether they do impost the fine, and if £1,000 is the minimum how high are they likely to take it? Any suggestions as to how to avoid a severe penalty? He is going to the Post Office tomorrow with all his documents (the MOT and Insurance are up to date) to throw himself on their mercy.

£1,000 is a month's take home pay for him - we could pay it out of savings if we really have to, but it seems ridiculous when you think how lightly real criminals get off. The car itself is only worth a few hundred £. :rolleyes:

BFG_2 · 1 July 2005 at 9:46PM

Unlikely that they would bring the full weight of the legislation down on you.

BTW If you don't want to tax them (just keep them in garage) you can fill in a SORN form to do this. AIYAKT.

shrek101 · 1 July 2005 at 9:50PM

You say its a classic car, some classic cars I cant remember the exemption of hand and exempted for road fund tax, I assume you already looked into this.

Sounds like you made a genuine oversight, these things unfortunate happen. Not suer what advice to give but I suppose the longer you leave it the worse they could look on you. Maybe ring DVLC not given you name and vehicle and ask them what you should do.

Bossyboots · 1 July 2005 at 9:55PM

My friend was caught driving with no tax. (It was a genuine oversight, her mum had just died). She got a £40 fine from the police and an £80 fine from the DVLA.

albalad · 1 July 2005 at 9:57PM

The registered keeper of an unlicensed vehicle could be fined a minimum of £1000.In addition to this, you will either be required to purchase a licence or declare SORN, pay arrears of duty accrued whilst the vehicle was unlicensed and pay a penalty of £80.

http://www.dvla.gov.uk/vehicles/unlicensed.htm

The fact that you are only two weeks overdue with your licensing (they allow you 14 days grace), you may be able to just pay the arrears as quoted above and possibly a small penalty...... I certainly wouldn't be worrying about the £1000 fine..................... yet !

Bogof_Babe · 1 July 2005 at 10:16PM

Thanks so much all of you. Might get a bit of sleep now, as perhaps it won't be as bad as we feared.

He can't have it registered as SORN as he does take it to a couple of car shows each year. Once upon a time there was a free licence disc for cars over 25-years old, and we benefited from this for a couple of years, then it was stopped

. We presumed it was because people were running dangerous rust buckets on the road, or it might just have proved too costly for the moneygrabbers (sorry, DVLA) to sustain.

Fingers crossed for tomorrow then. Hope the bods at the Post Office are feeling benevolent. They'll probably tell him to jump through hoops and write or phone here there and everywhere as they can't do anything themselves in view of the situation, but we'll see.

Life wasn't meant to be easy, was it?

Maisie · 1 July 2005 at 10:24PM

What annoys me most about this is that you as an honest would-be car taxer gets penalised for having no tax.

What about the thousands riding around with no tax /ins/ etc that don't get caught.

Once your car is registered with DVLA you are continuously checked on. Those who have never had tax and unknown to DVLA get away with it.

shrek101 · 1 July 2005 at 10:51PM

I agree maisie. Last year to save a little bit of money before taking a new insurance policy out, I went to renewal my road tax they wouldn't allow me to have a new tax as they said by the time the tax is applicable I wouldn't have valid insurance. The fact remained I wouldn't have driven the car for a few days it would be off road and until a new policy was taken out, which it duly did a few days after the road tax run out.

This policy does nothing of stopping those people who are hell bent on breaking the law with no road tax and no insurance.

For what little mileage I do I can be sure I most likely never get caught, unless I park in a street (which I hardly do) or have an accident which touch wood (me touches me head) I never had.

Another gripe I have is that the low mileage user gets penalised for paying over the odds for road tax.

Maisie · 1 July 2005 at 10:57PM

Yes it's an unfair world with the honest as usual paying for the law breakers.

heather38 · 1 July 2005 at 11:53PM

albalad wrote:

http://www.dvla.gov.uk/vehicles/unlicensed.htm

The fact that you are only two weeks overdue with your licensing (they allow you 14 days grace), you may be able to just pay the arrears as quoted above and possibly a small penalty...... I certainly wouldn't be worrying about the £1000 fine..................... yet !

sorry you don't get a 14 day grace period, this used to apply when tax discs were issued through the post by the DVLA to allow for delivery times but no longer applys. you can be be fined if your disc is one day out of date.

scheming_gypsy · 2 July 2005 at 12:17AM

the DVLA will send you a bill stating when your tax ran out and how much you owe to date.
This happened to me a few months back, i'd sent my tax disk back as my car had been written off and also sent a SORN in (well i think i did). I received a letter from the DVLA telling me how long my tax had been expired for and a few options, such as pay the money i owed from running out to present and re-tax. Not pay and risk a £1000 fine or something else that i can't remember.
Might even be able to get it taxed and back dated form the beginning of June before they send you a letter

Forgot to renew car tax - £1,000 fine? aarrgghhh..

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