DVLA Late License Penalty Offer

emma1983_2

Hello, wondering if anyone could give me any advice. Early this year my partner’s car was clamped by the DVLA as it was parked on the road with no tax (rightly so). He then contacted the DVLA to get the car destroyed as the car was beyond repair anyway so they posted a disclaimer form which he completed and sent back and they then took the car for scrapping. He also paid the tax he owed which was £77 (which they also call an “out of court settlement”). A couple of weeks ago he got another letter from the DVLA saying that he hasn’t paid the late license penalty of £80 – apparently a letter was sent to our address regarding this back in January but we never received this. After calling the DVLA a few times but never getting through to a member of their call centre we wrote a letter to them basically saying the car has been scrapped and outstanding tax has been paid and they responded saying that £80 is still owed regardless. Are we missing something or is this just a scam to get more money?

ashleypride

It sounds the £77 was issued for not displaying tax a disc, you now have a fine for late sorning/taxing of the vehicle. The best advice is to pay up, as he was guility of both.

fivetide

The £77 is what it is - the tax owed since the previous disc expired.

The £80 fine is the charge for not getting/displaying a valid disc. As above though, guilty of both and they are seperate things so you need to cough up. An expensive bit of money saving there!

5t.

emma1983_2

Hmm I see what you both mean. Yeah he'll have to pay - not so much money saving just bone idle...

asbokid

In today's market of sky-high metal prices, the car probably had a scrap value of £150-£250.

I wonder how the DVLA and the corporate parasites that run the Agency are working this particular scam.

Who is getting the profits from the scrappings?

The taxpayer?

Thought not!

emma1983_2

Yeah it probably did, he was going to get it scrapped himself but he never got round to it - hopefully he's learnt his lesson. The DVLA sure do know how to make money, shame they can't spend some money improving their customer services.

Strider590

emma1983 wrote: »

The DVLA sure do know how to make money

By the legalised scamming of the British tax payer.

They're basically a private company contracted to the govt on a non-expiring contract. Certain people make very large sums of money from that!! Very little goes back into the "system".

Wig

You could refuse to pay the SORN debt of £80 by telling them that he did declare SORN (they cannot prove he did not) all he has to do is send in a SORN declaration he has no requirement under the law to chase it up with DVLA to get the confirmation letter despite what the DVLA may think about this.

A LOT of people refuse to pay these debts for SORN very few get taken to court. The DVLA generally pass on the debt to debt collection companies who you can tell to get lost. The ones who do go to court, some get the case thrown out because you have to know what legal argument to put before the judge.

HappyMJ

Wig wrote: »

You could refuse to pay the SORN debt of £80 by telling them that he did declare SORN (they cannot prove he did not) all he has to do is send in a SORN declaration he has no requirement under the law to chase it up with DVLA to get the confirmation letter despite what the DVLA may think about this.

A LOT of people refuse to pay these debts for SORN very few get taken to court. The DVLA generally pass on the debt to debt collection companies who you can tell to get lost. The ones who do go to court, some get the case thrown out because you have to know what legal argument to put before the judge.

I agree with this and it sounds similar to my case with them. Apparently I didn't declare SORN on time and got a penalty for it. I probably didn't I don't really care much for dates and paperwork so can't remember. It is not a criminal offence to not declare SORN it is a civil penalty. If you don't pay it, as I have been just totally ignoring every letter then they must take you to court. At no stage of this huge letter chain have they declared they are going to do that. This was 3 years ago. There is still no SORN or tax on the car it's sitting on my drive without tax, insurance or MOT. Think of the penalties they could dish out if they turned up...:rotfl:

System

If / when the latest "Continuous Insurance" legislation starts to be enforced, for a vehicle that is off the road and not insured, then it has to be SORNed. Even if a civil proceeding, I would imagine that more cases will make it to court (at least in the early stages).

See : Link

A relevant paragraph:

If it appears that a vehicle has no insurance or SORN, an Insurance Advisory Letter (IAL) will be sent to the registered keeper advising them what they need to do. If the reminder is ignored, authorities can issue a £100 fine; have the vehicle clamped, seized and destroyed; or even force a court prosecution that can lead to fines of up to £1,000

Strider590

Wig wrote: »

You could refuse to pay the SORN debt of £80 by telling them that he did declare SORN (they cannot prove he did not) all he has to do is send in a SORN declaration he has no requirement under the law to chase it up with DVLA to get the confirmation letter despite what the DVLA may think about this.

Yeah, the DVLA like to say they've not received correspondence by post, then slap a fine on you once it's too late to do anything.

ALWAYS send mail to the DVLA via recorded/signed for post!