I did`nt declare the car off road (sorn). Help !

Rictina

Last year I was going through financial difficulties, & could no longer meet the payments on my car. I phoned the finance company & explained the situation. They told me leave all the documentation in the car including the V5, & someone would come to collect it from my house which they did. A few months later I moved house.

Then a few weeks ago which is now a year since the finance company took the car back, & I receive a letter from the Magistrates Court demanding that I pay £260.00 in fines, as I didnt declare the car off road !! This letter is the first I have seen, they must have been sending other letters to my previous address, I dont know. All I was doing was what the finance company told me to do.

Has anyone else had this experience ? At the moment I am on state benefits, & cannot afford this fine. What should I do ?

king100

If this is the 1st time that you have seen this from the Mags court, then you can go to court and fill out a stat dec stating under oath that this is the 1st time you have seen this letter. VIP

This will get the courts and balliffs off you.

I would then personally get in contact with the finance company as i can only assume that the debt was written off with the repo of the car. Again I can only assume whoever they sold the car to didnt inform the DVLA of new registered keeper.

I would get as much info from finance company as you can ie when car was repoed, if it is their duty to inform DVLA (not sure if it is their duty to inform DVLA that they are now the keeper of the car). Then using info send a copy of letter from finance company when they repod your car to the DVLA, stating that you are were not the registered keeper of the car, due to it being repoed by finance company.

Someone might be on later to help better but thats the course of action I would take.

Rictina

Thanks for that King100.

I did go to a Mag court to do a stat dec, but I was told by a helpfull solicitor that this would not make the matter go away. He said that I needed to plead guilty as I never filled in the SORN & sent it off to the DVLA !

This is driving me crackers !!

king100

Surely after the repo man came the car ceased to be yours thus you didnt need to declare it SORN.

Will do a bit of digging into this.

Rictina

SueSueSue wrote: »

Did you notify the DVLA of your change of address? that could be another offence.

When I moved house I no longer had that particular car, my new car (old banger) V5 is registered at my new address.

Rictina

king100 wrote: »

Surely after the repo man came the car ceased to be yours thus you didnt need to declare it SORN.

Will do a bit of digging into this.

My thoughts excactley.

Thanks.

JoolzS

When I first read your original post, my thoughts were exactly the same as those of king100 - once the car is no longer in your possession, you aren't liable for it. It would appear as though the repo people haven't bothered to change the name of the registered keeper (or the person they sold it on to hasn't bothered) so it still appears as if you are responsible to taxing it. If you no longer own the car, then it is simple - you don't have to tax/SORN it.

http://pepipoo.com might also be helpful to you.

Julie

sarahg1969

I'm not sure the fact that the vehicle was repossessed will hold much weight with the DVLA. They are a law unto themselves.

I agree with JoolzS - pepipoo is your friend.

Coblcris

SueSueSue wrote: »

Did you notify the DVLA of your change of address? that could be another offence.

That is not automatic just as you correctly imply. You just need to be contactable at the registered address not to live there. For example your parent's house. Arguably a twelve month redirect with the Royal Mail leaves you contactable at the old address for that period and satisfies the DVLA requirement.

Rictina

Thanks folks for your kind responses, but I`m not too sure that I`m making myself completley clear. Please be gentle with me as I am pretty lost when it comes to anything like this.

It appears that the Court action has been brought about because I failed to notify DVLA of a change of registred keeper

My question is how can I notify DVLA of such a change when, (a) I dont know who the new registered keeper will be, & (b) I was told to leave all documentaion including the V5 in the car.

Any advise would be kindly appreciated.

ManAtHome

Tell the DVLA what you told us - that the finance company repo'd the car - as far as you know, the finance co are now the owners (you have little/no chance of knowing if/who they've sold it to). Do you have any proof that it's been repo'd (a copy to DVLA would be good).

Really, you should have notified DVLA that the car ownership had changed to the finance company, but equally they should have advised if they had sold it on or just parked it up.