Fine for not renewing road tax

Wig

Sandwichman wrote: »

So let me get this staight, if my car tax runs out on the 31/01/2009, so long as i tax it before the end of feb i'm ok? I realise that it will of course be renewed from the start of feb when i tax it but i have till the end of feb?

As far as the DVLA are concerned, you have, subject to certain risks, until the end of Feb to tax the car, although officially they say they give you 14 days, in practice they actually give you the whole month.

As far as the police are concerned you will not be legal to drive or keep your car on a public road, you may be stopped by police, or given a ticket by police if they see your car parked on the highway. There is NO EXCUSE, the DVLA 14 day grace is NOT RELEVANT to the criminal offence of using or keeping the vehicle without displaying a valid tax disc. But the police AFAIK will not and cannot clamp your car.

The DVLA office will not issue any automatic penalty if you buy a full February tax disc within February.

Will my car still be liable for clamping and if I get it clamped were will I stand?

During the first 14 days of Feb they will not clamp it, probably won't clamp it in the remaining days of Feb either, but that is more risky, that they might.

If clamped by DVLA during the 1st 14 days, you should point out to them that they say on their website they will not take action in the 1st 14 days of renewal expiry. Should be ok, and they should remove the clamp.

If clamped by DVLA after the 14 days, then you are in murkier waters, and you will probably have to pay the release fee.

Also check your PM box.

Wig

Sorry no-one replied to your post earlier.

recursioin wrote: »

One week later I have indeed received a demand for an out of court settlement of £77 (not £80 as mentioned in previous emails) for my car 'being used/kept while unlicensed'.

This raises some questions.

If this subsequent fine is arbitrary, what are the criteria which determine whether it be levied or not? There must be properly defined criteria somewhere.

It's probably down to the pot luck of the DVLA processing whether you get fined aswell.

Have I been subject to two penalities for the same offence? No mention of 'not displaying a valid tax disc' in any documents that I have received.

Yes, and no, the clamping charge is, as I understand it, a charge for the clamping "service" that the DVLA offer, and is seperate from the recovery of unpaid tax, and the automatic penalty charge (£80) . Oh and BTW, you don't have to get taxed before they will remove the clamp, you pay a deposit on top of the release fee, which is refunded if you tax within 7 days.

Where did this idea of a £40 fine for a quick settlement come from? Might this not apply in my case? Certainly there is no mention of this in the docuemnts I received.

The £40 reduced applies only to the £80 automatic penalty, which you have so far not recieved, the reduction to £40 for quick payment is statutory, that is to say it is written into the legislation (law) which covers this area.

Just to confuse you all, this happened in Scotland!

I don't think that matters


The £80/£40 automatic penalty is for non continuous registration, that is to say you forgot to (or deliberately did not) renew your tax on time, or forgot to declare SORN when you took it off the road.

Your £77 "settlement" is supposed to be used by DVLA to recover the unpaid tax for the period since the vehicle was last taxed, and it is applied when the vehicle is seen on the road without tax or whilst SORN is in force on the vehicle. In practice, I believe they add on a bit more than the actual missing tax value.

In your example, you were 6 weeks overdue, you say you paid one month back dated, and 12 months in advance. I wonder what exactly you paid? and to whom you paid it?

For example did your tax run out end of Month 9, you were clamped in Month 11.....

Did you pay from beginning month 11 for one year, thus not paying for month 10?
or
Did you pay for month 10, then extra 12 months beginning with the 1st of month 11?

What I am getting at is that AIUI the £77 is supposed to recover the unpaid tax months, but you may have allready paid this. So talking to them might get them off your back. If you did not already pay for month 10, then the £77 may be being used to recover month 10.


In addition to all this, you may yet still recieve a demand for the auto penalty 80/40. If you do, my advice is to write to them pointing out that the DVLA said in the parliamentary white paper (or whatever) that this power will only be used for the criminal element in society and will not be used to penalise those who made an innocent mistake, asking them if they think you are in the category of "criminal element" or "innocent mistake".

There are some template letters covering this angle on the consumer help forums (a different independant website from this one). if I get round to it I will edit in a link to them here, or if I am asked by you or anyone here to do this, and I see your request, then I will go and get the info.


If you have a scanner, scan that £77 letter for me to read. Cheers.

eddiebean

My road tax expired on 28th February 2009, can I effectively tax it again online on the last day of the following month i.e. March 31st?

March 31st is the day I get paid and I can't really afford to pay it before then. I wont be driving my vehicle before this date. But if I tax it ON the very last day of the month, will avoid the DVLA fine?

Thanks,

Eddiebean

Wig

eddiebean wrote: »

My road tax expired on 28th February 2009, can I effectively tax it again online on the last day of the following month i.e. March 31st?

March 31st is the day I get paid and I can't really afford to pay it before then. I wont be driving my vehicle before this date. But if I tax it ON the very last day of the month, will avoid the DVLA fine?

Thanks,

Eddiebean

You need to SORN the vehicle or buy tax from March 1st, You can buy the tax at any point in March, to start from March 1st (buy it in Post office) but the longer you leave it the more chance there is of something going wrong, I wouldn't leave it into the the 4th week of March.

If you SORN the vehicle you must not park on the road. If you tax the vehicle late, you can't park the vehicle on the road until it is displaying a valid tax disc.

You might aswell SORN it now -You should SORN with a start date of March 1st because you have kept it off the road since March 1st....haven't you! , and keep it parked off road for 4 weeks.

I'll send you a PM with further info.

But if I tax it ON the very last day of the month, will avoid the DVLA fine?

The very strict answer to your question is yes you will avoid the fine, but you should buy the disc from a post office to start from March 1st, buying online sounds like a bad idea to me. Also are you sure you would be paid in cash on March 31st? Are you sure you could then get to a post office that sells tax discs with all the paperwork correct? Are you sure the post office staff won't be thick and wrongly refuse to sell you one?

john539

Wig wrote: »

If clamped by DVLA during the 1st 14 days, you should point out to them that they say on their website they will not take action in the 1st 14 days of renewal expiry. Should be ok, and they should remove the clamp.

If clamped by DVLA after the 14 days, then you are in murkier waters, and you will probably have to pay the release fee.

I have been told by the DVLA car pound they don't clamp & impound within 28 days of tax disc expiry, that is seen as long enough to get your car roadworthy & taxed,

My car has been clamped TWICE in last 2 weeks.

Think it was clamped again today on a Sunday !
(not certain if it was Sun or maybe Sat, will check tomorrow when I get car released, but think it was this morning on Sunday)

Didn't think camera/clamping van would be working weekends, as I saw it in the car pound last Sat when I released car first time.

Just had it MOT'd yesterday Sat morning, so the camera/clamping van can work on Sundays !

Oh dear, going to be a very expensive mistake.

Wig

john539 wrote: »

I have been told by the DVLA car pound they don't clamp & impound within 28 days of tax disc expiry, that is seen as long enough to get your car roadworthy & taxed,

My car has been clamped TWICE in last 2 weeks.

.

But are you saying they clamped you within the first month of expiry i.e. what they say they will not do?

Did you point this out to them?

hewhoisnotintheknow

you are all going to prison then hell

john539

Wig wrote: »

But are you saying they clamped you within the first month of expiry i.e. what they say they will not do?

Did you point this out to them?

That's not the situation.

The car has been off-road for repairs & on SORN since last September, tax disc expired last October.

I had to move the car & put it on-road (not legal) while I finished last few repairs ready for MOT.

I get car MOT'd & am getting ready to do these repairs over next week.
Car gets clamped & impounded once (1.5 weeks ago), I release car Saturday week ago (£200 release fee as after 24 hours, £160 Surety/Deposit & £42 2 day's storage charges)

Over next week I complete repairs, get car MOT'd Saturday just gone.

Think I will get Tax Disc on Monday morning (today) & also get my £160 Surety/Deposit back as well for first clamping/impounding.

Think to myself surely I'm ok & safe till Monday !!
(I could have got it taxed on Saturday)

Unfortunately I got clamped a second time (not impunded this time) on Sunday morning by a DVLA Camera/Clamping van from London (not the local DVLA van) on a special operation, as told to me by manager at car pound !!

Just released car second time today (£100 release fee as within 24 hours)

There's bad luck & there's bad luck !

Hadrian

Back in the 'Good Old Days' I waited in the queue for my Road Tax renewal and realised to my surprise that I was a month late. Up to the counter, "Sorry" I said "Forgot". Head never raised. "Driven it since?" "No " I replied. New disc was made out and away I went. Ah happy days when we were motorists not simply drivers.

john539

Hadrian wrote: »

Ah happy days when we were motorists not simply drivers.

And it wasn't all just about money & milking drivers at every opportunity.