Really need help about my car issue!

eyerobin

I usually buy a year period road tax and did't notice it's already expired until the car has been clamped .

I missed the reminder letter as well because I moved to a new address.

They said no exception and no excuse for this and I paid £100 to release my car. I immediately bought a year road tax after that.

Unfortunately, I received a letter today, it said I still need to pay another £77 to avoid a court action. The letter said:

"This relates to a section 29 offence of using/keeping a vehicle and is separate to the fees paid to the Agency's wheel-clamping contractors who clamped/impounded the vehicle"

what shall I do? If I pay this money again, I really don't know if they will send me another letter next time....:(

Hammyman

You have to pay it - it is a seperate fee. The first was to pay for having the car released. This is the fine for not having road tax on a car on the road.

spiro

You also failed to tell them you have moved. Have you sent you driving licence away to get the address changed? If not that can be another large fine.

eyerobin

Hammyman and Spiro, thanks for your reply.

I received another letter from DVLA today. The only differece is this letter sent from POOLE and the last one came from GLASGOW.

The letter said I failed to relicense the vehicle and need to pay a penalty of £40, plus £20 arrears of duty. Do I need to pay this as well? If I still have to pay it, the total cost will be £100 (release the car) + £77(out of court settlement) + £60(penalty) = £237

That's really a lot of money!

rev_henry

Unfortunately the DVLA do whatever the hell they like these days with little comeback, so you'll probably have to pay. I don't see how the £40 and the £77 are different though... Surely its one or the other?

spiro

The £77 is probably a 'fine' for driving without car tax (i.e. out of court settlement) otherwise they could take you to court for driving without tax which may result in the court imposing a higher fine.

You've learnt a very expensive lesson about advising the DVLA of address changes (car and driver).

eyerobin

rev_henry and spiro, I already paid the fine in the local DVLA on last Friday. The officer said this issue should come to an end if I paid the fine.
Or I can write a letter to the DVLA to explain all the things, but I need to guaranteed the letter will arrive there on time, otherewise, i'm run the risk to be fined more. So i paid it....

Yes, it is a very expensive lesson as I only changed my driving license address and forgot to change my car address.

bigjl

After a bitter experience when I stood my ground after they lost a logbook I had sent off when I sold a car, just pay them, you will go to court, the magistrate knows you will win in on appeal, but also knows that nobody has the time and money to appeal his decision, so you pay.

You have to pay even if you plan to appeal.

A mate got the same letter that I did regarding a logbook not being sent off, or rather he sent it off and it got "lost" the same way as mine did, he just paid the fine, I fought it and paid three times as much.

Strange how this happened at around the same time.

Obviously the DVLA aren't delberately losing logbooks to increase their budget, no, no, of course they aren't, though it does seem to happen a lot these days!!!!!!!!!!!!!!