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DVLA Fine for no SORN
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scorpio_biker
Posts: 196 Forumite

in Motoring
Hi,
I wonder if anyone can offer any advice on this matter.
My husbands motorcyle blew it's engine last Nov (I think - its definately SNAFU and currently in pieces) and so we decided to reclaim the tax disc money back. We duly filled in the form, posted it, got our refund and thought no more about it. As it turns out we never received the reminder letter - the four weeks that you should allow before phoning them would have been up at Xmas so I guess that one slipped our mind.
However this morning my husband has received a letter from the DVLA with a fine. They claim there is no SORN on the vehicle.
Now when you fill in the refund form there is a SORN declaration on the bottom, and I am sure we filled this in as I had to check the spelling of Suzuki and I also noticed that there is no model to fill in for a motorcycle. However, although we got the refund (so they got the form) we have no proof of filling it in.
I wondered if anyone here has any experience of dealing with a situation like this? We could ask for a copy of the form from the DVLA which will cost us - they keep them on microfiche apparently - but we don't know how much that will be.
The fine is £40 rising to £80 after the 3rd March so we don't have a lot of time to sort anything out (partly because we are away on holiday from teh 15th to the 25th).
Do we pay the fine and take the hit - or do we write to them saying we did supply them with a SORN? As we can't prove it will they just come back and say we should have phoned them after 4 weeks (as the refund document states)?
Are we stuck between a rock and a hard place here? Can anyone advise?
Thanks
I wonder if anyone can offer any advice on this matter.
My husbands motorcyle blew it's engine last Nov (I think - its definately SNAFU and currently in pieces) and so we decided to reclaim the tax disc money back. We duly filled in the form, posted it, got our refund and thought no more about it. As it turns out we never received the reminder letter - the four weeks that you should allow before phoning them would have been up at Xmas so I guess that one slipped our mind.
However this morning my husband has received a letter from the DVLA with a fine. They claim there is no SORN on the vehicle.
Now when you fill in the refund form there is a SORN declaration on the bottom, and I am sure we filled this in as I had to check the spelling of Suzuki and I also noticed that there is no model to fill in for a motorcycle. However, although we got the refund (so they got the form) we have no proof of filling it in.
I wondered if anyone here has any experience of dealing with a situation like this? We could ask for a copy of the form from the DVLA which will cost us - they keep them on microfiche apparently - but we don't know how much that will be.
The fine is £40 rising to £80 after the 3rd March so we don't have a lot of time to sort anything out (partly because we are away on holiday from teh 15th to the 25th).
Do we pay the fine and take the hit - or do we write to them saying we did supply them with a SORN? As we can't prove it will they just come back and say we should have phoned them after 4 weeks (as the refund document states)?
Are we stuck between a rock and a hard place here? Can anyone advise?

Thanks
Nil Illegitimi desperandum carborundum 
All of my posts are simply my personal opinions.
They are not professional advice nor are they the opinions of my employer.

All of my posts are simply my personal opinions.
They are not professional advice nor are they the opinions of my employer.
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Comments
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How did you receive the refund on the tax disc? Via a cheque or something i assume? I would write to them and state exactly whats happened.0
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Thanks for your reply, I think we might do that. We are sure we filled in the SORN part (it's never going to run again) so we might as well give this route a go.Nil Illegitimi desperandum carborundum
All of my posts are simply my personal opinions.
They are not professional advice nor are they the opinions of my employer.0 -
My son had a similar problem last year.
Tax was refunded and then after the original tax disc would have expired the DVLA sent fine for no SORN. He wrote and said about the refund and how the vehicle was marked as scrap which is why he had the refund and so the car couldnt be on road as they were aware of its scrap. No reply from them.
Then 6 months latter another letter the cost of the fine had increased. Again He wrote to them as couldnt seem to get anyone on phone to talk to.
A while later a court summons arrived. So he wrote to the court and explained the situation,eclosing copies of the previouls letters he has sent to DVLA. They did write back saying that they would look into it.
Then a letter arrived from DVLA saying that although he had filled in the form for a refund there was a box that needed to also be ticked to class this as a SORN as well as refund due to scrap purposes. They enclosed a copy of his refund application and the tiny box was highlighted by them to show where the tick should be (very easily overlooked).
They said that as a good will guesture as there was proof of him trying to contact them to sort it out before it went to court they would except just the standard fine and not the extra late payment or court charges as long as payment was made within 14days.
Most annoying and felt this was sheer stupidity on behalf of DVLA as if a vehicle has had tax refunded due to it being scrapped it was obvious that it wouldnt be retaxed.
So I would suggest you do ask for a copy of your form and see if you ticked the relevant box.0 -
Thanks for the pointer but I've just checked the refund form (V14) and the SORN bit is a pink section at the bottom of the form. You have to fill in name, address, vehicle details and sign it. Like I say, I remember the oddity of not filling in a model (as motorcycles don't have this on a V5) so I know we filled that in. However it may well be that we missed something else that we should have filled in. :rolleyes:
We will send them a letter and say that we have registered for SORN and see what they say. The odd thing is they state a date of 16/11/06 (which must be when we sent the refund form in) and an outstanding tax amount of £10.34 (which doesn't equate to any proportion of the £62 cost (we reclaimed 6 months). Sounds like something has gone wrong somewhere.Nil Illegitimi desperandum carborundum
All of my posts are simply my personal opinions.
They are not professional advice nor are they the opinions of my employer.0 -
You should also be aware that a SORN only lasts for 1 year. If, for examp-le you declared a SORN in June 2006, expect a reminder to in May/June this year. Don't ignore it thinking that you have already declared a SORN, you need to declare another SORN. Happened to a friend of mine building a kit car. He declared a SORN on the donor car, then a year later got a reminder to buy a tax disc. He ignored it, then a month or so later was issued with a fine for non payment of the vehicle excise duty.0
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Every time i read a thread like this it reminds me of my s-in-law, she scrapped a car,let them know and was then set a fine for having no tax,on a vehicle that no longer existed!!!
Fearing the fine would be increased,she paid it and attempted to appeal and claim it back.
No chance,they said it was her fault for not telling them,she insisted she had done.End product -no refund,they seem to be a law unto themslves.There are two sides to every story.
I am not a SAINT just a saints supporter(saints RLFC)Grand final winners 2006.World club champions 2007.0 -
I had the same 2 years ago. Sold the car (Cat D insurance write off) and reclaimed the tax.
I got a fine for it not being SORN'ed so i sent them the cheque and a letter informing them that i was begrudgingly paying it as i sent them back the correct part of the V5 informing them that i was no longer the owner.
I received the cheque back from them and an apology.
Truth is i forgot to send the form back to them but expected the new owner to register it in his name.0 -
Nice to know that the Inland Renevue is fining people who have taken their vehicles off the road - meanwhile more than 2 million vehicles are driving on the road without tax - and getting away with it!
System works - not - but if you pay companies for services and they in turn pay peanuts to the staff whilst safeguarding the divedends of the share holders what do you get - software with holes in it being administered by the PG Tips chimps! Government of this countries rules buy it in as long as its cheap cheap cheap - forget usefulnessCredit Card Debt
Dec 10 £15500
2011 A Year for considerable debt reducing.
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had a simlar experience with a car involved in an accident ins coy wrote car off sent all the paper work off to ins coy received my pay out bought a new car then received a summons about not sending the sorn so wrote back telling them i informed them by post the car was written off never heard from them again0
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