Need advice on DVLA/SORN matter

Curry_Queen

I've just received a letter from the DVLA about failing to relicense a vehicle and have now received a fine of £40, plus back tax, to be paid by 3rd Dec or it doubles to £80 and failure to pay will result in Court proceedings being taken against me! :eek:

I'm not sure what to do as I thought I'd sent off the SORN declaration when the tax ran out a couple of months ago, but I've just found the envelope sat under a pile of papers so for some reason it never got posted

The vehicle in question hasn't even been used for over 12 mths but I kept it taxed and insured because it sat on a public road. Then during the summer I received a parking ticket because some jobsworth PCOS decided to walk down the street issuing parking tickets to everyone parked there, as technically we're not allowed to park on the road permanently without moving every few hours, yet it's the first time anyone has actually received a ticket for doing so in over 4 years!!! :mad:

Due to this I had a friend take it away and park it in his garden so being as it was "off-road" I decided not to re-tax it again, hence filling out the SORN declaration, but this friend has moved recently and I've lost the bit of paper with his new contact details on so I'm not even sure where my car is at this present moment. He said I had a few weeks to arrange for it to be collected before he had to hand over his keys but that time period has now lapsed and I've not heard from him since.

If I tell all this to the DVLA I know damn well they'll think it's yet another c0ck-n-bull story (they must have heard it all before) so where do I legally stand with all this?

Help!

Bossyboots

As you haven't taxed the car or declared it off the road, you have no legal defence to the fine.

As you point out the DVLA have heard it all before but that doesn't mean you can't tell them your story and see what they say. I don't know what discretion they actually have though but if you don't try you won't know.

You also need to get that SORN off to them as well.

I am concerned about you not knowing where the car is as you remain responsible for any parking fines it might rack up and it is on your door the police will come knocking if someone drives it and causes an accident. Even if it is undriveable, are you sure your friend won't just deposit it on the road if/when it becomes a nuisance, leaving you open to more fines and possibly charges for it being clamped and/or taken away.

Curry_Queen

Bossyboots wrote:

I am concerned about you not knowing where the car is as you remain responsible for any parking fines it might rack up and it is on your door the police will come knocking if someone drives it and causes an accident. Even if it is undriveable, are you sure your friend won't just deposit it on the road if/when it becomes a nuisance, leaving you open to more fines and possibly charges for it being clamped and/or taken away.

That is definitely a concern, although I don't think he would actually do that to me as he was the one who spotted the parking ticket originally and offered to take it off-road for me so I didn't get another one. He's more likely to have carted it off to the scrapyard to be weighed in and crushed and pocketed the money LOL! It's an old banger worth virtually nothing and I was thinking of going down this route anyway, or maybe selling it for spares (do people still do that?)

I don't suppose telling the DVLA I posted the SORN and they must have lost it would help either

More money and more stress! :rolleyes:

Bossyboots

Only you can decide whether you want to take the risk of saying you posted the SORN. Again, I don't know how they would respond to that but I suspect that while you are waiting for the answer you are going to go over the 3rd December and end up paying more.

While your friend may not do the dirty on you, you cannot be sure some little scroat won't steal the vehicle and land you with problems that way. Have you no other way of tracking your friend down?

Curry_Queen

Bossyboots wrote:

Only you can decide whether you want to take the risk of saying you posted the SORN. Again, I don't know how they would respond to that but I suspect that while you are waiting for the answer you are going to go over the 3rd December and end up paying more.

I suppose the least stressful way of dealing with this would be to just pay the fines and have done with

While your friend may not do the dirty on you, you cannot be sure some little scroat won't steal the vehicle and land you with problems that way. Have you no other way of tracking your friend down?

Not much chance of it being stolen as the battery is dead as a dodo

I'll just keep searching through my piles of paperwork and hope I can find his contact details.

Thanks for the help :A

Bossyboots

Curry_Queen wrote:

Not much chance of it being stolen as the battery is dead as a dodo

At least thats one less worry then.