Had my car for 18mths and DVLA are NOW saying its a Cat C. write-off http://images2.m

scrooge786

I have had my X reg honda civic for 18mths now, when I bought in Oct 2009 (from private seller) it had Road tax till Mar 2010. I received a reminder and renewed it for a whole year.

It expired mar 2011 and as I hadn't received a reminder, I stupidly overlooked it and have been driving around for the whole month of April with expired road tax. I got clamped yesterday and phoned the clampers and paid the £260 to get the clamp taken off, I then took it off road and parked in my mums driveway till I get it taxed again.

Before I went to post office today to get tax, rang up DVLA about something else and after checking my car reg, the man said they have been notified by an insurance company that its a Cat C write off and needs a VIC check.

I got my insurance when I bought it in 2009 and renewed last year with same company, I havent been in an accident or made claims on it whatsoever. So I'm completely confused as to how, when or what happened with it. He wouldn't give me any more details as he wasn't allowed to.

I have been trying to do some research to see if I can find anyone whos posted about similar situation, so I can make better sense of what this means for me. I have so far found out that if it passes VIC then I can keep the car, but if it fails, I may lose it.

What problems can I expect, could my car have been falsely been claimed against?
Thanks for reading and thanks in advaance for helpful replies.

hartcjhart

run an HPI check on your car,something seems fishy,

colino

Sounds like an admin error as you couldn't have taxed it last year if there was a cat C marker on it.

scrooge786

Thanks for your replies.
Have just done a HPI check and its come back as....

Colour changes There is no record of this registration being subject to a colour change.
Plate Transfer There is no record of this registration being involved in a plate transfer.
Scrapped There is no record of this registration being scrapped.
Exported There is no record of this registration being exported.
Stolen There is no record of this registration being stolen.
Stolen & Recovered There is no record of this registration being stolen & recovered.
Destroyed There is no record of this registration being destroyed.
Insurance Write-off This registration was recorded as a Category C write-off on 10 Jan 2007.

Vehicle I.D. Check There is no record of this registration being subject to a Vehicle Identity Check.

vaio

Sounds like an admin mistake, if it really was written off in 2007 (and not VIC checked) then you wouldn't have been able to get the new log book when you bought it and the '07, '08, '09 and '10 tax shouldn't have happened.

I'm pretty sure that a logbook for a cat c that has been vic'd has something to that effect printed on it.

You need to do a bit of detective work, ring DVLa and find out when the marker was put on and by who, if they say it is real (and not VIC'd) then ask them why the car has been able to be taxed 4 times and a new log book issued.

bigjl

I suspect that the previous owner had a minor RTC or it was broken into. The damage was minimal.but enough to right it off to Cat C. The owner then advertises it and sells it to the OP a few months after the deal is done.

In this case i think that there may have been a delay in the car getting written off, won't be the first time an insurance company has dragged there heels.

I know of a bloke that did a buy back deal with his insurance com.

pany after a small claim wrote their car off. To this day his car is still not recorded on the write off register.

I initially thought it could be a scam phone call but as it shows up on hpi then it isn't.

Does anybody remember when they bought in the rules for a cat c needing a vic check? I have a feeling it may be after the car was written off. In which case it may well be a scam phonecall.

Did they ask for any personal.details? Or card details ?

Has anybody else heard of the DVLA cold.calling somebody.

All a vic check.is a check to ensure a car hasn't been repaired with stolen parts.

I would just tax it as normal at a post office and if no problems then forget about it.

The second choice would be to tax it at a DVLA local office, if there is a problem then the staff there will tell you soon enoigh.

fannyanna

If it's a cat C or D it can be put back on the road again (legally) no problem.

If you had of bought the car from a trader (rather than private) they would have been legally obliged to inform you of its status (had they known).

MissShal

I've got a Cat C car and the logbook has something along the lines of "Vehicle has been substantially accident damaged and repaired" printed on one of the pages. There is a page on the DVLA website where you can put in your registration and it shows whether the vehicle had a VIC marker against it, but not sure if it'll be of any use if it is an admin error?

poor_student1234

colino wrote: »

Sounds like an admin error as you couldn't have taxed it last year if there was a cat C marker on it.

The car doesnt need a vic check to be able to get road tax.

Vic check is only needed to get a new logbook after the insurance company keep the old one as its a cat c

vaio

bigjl wrote: »

I suspect that the previous owner had a minor RTC or it was broken into. The damage was minimal.but enough to right it off to Cat C. The owner then advertises it and sells it to the OP a few months after the deal is done.

In this case i think that there may have been a delay in the car getting written off, won't be the first time an insurance company has dragged there heels.

I know of a bloke that did a buy back deal with his insurance com.

pany after a small claim wrote their car off. To this day his car is still not recorded on the write off register.

I initially thought it could be a scam phone call but as it shows up on hpi then it isn't.

Does anybody remember when they bought in the rules for a cat c needing a vic check? I have a feeling it may be after the car was written off. In which case it may well be a scam phonecall.

Did they ask for any personal.details? Or card details ?

Has anybody else heard of the DVLA cold.calling somebody.

All a vic check.is a check to ensure a car hasn't been repaired with stolen parts.

I would just tax it as normal at a post office and if no problems then forget about it.

The second choice would be to tax it at a DVLA local office, if there is a problem then the staff there will tell you soon enoigh.

bigjl, I think your answer should be on a different thread (either that or you haven't read the OP at all)

vaio

poor_student1234 wrote: »

The car doesnt need a vic check to be able to get road tax.

Vic check is only needed to get a new logbook after the insurance company keep the old one as its a cat c

Nope, new V5 and tax are what you can't get pre VIC