Strange Sigma Red letter

chewy501

Hi all, I've had three letters through from Sigma Red DCA in the same day. They're addressed to me and with reference to 'a vehicle' that I had registered to that address. The problem is that I've never registered a vehicle to this address (although my licence is registered there) and my mother is in pretty serious debt. Has this debt transferred to me? I don't want to call the company in case I acknowledge the debt. Any help would be much appreciated.

fermi

A quick Google shows them chasing a few DVLA late vehicle registration fines. You are sure you have nothing like that?

Your mother's debts can't be transferred to you.

FireWyrm

You cannot 'acknowledge' any debt short of a formal written letter stating it is so, or making a payment. You can parade up and down outside their offices carrying a placard, and it wont count as 'acknowledgement'.

Check your license registration. Mine runs out in 2015. All recently issued licenses have to be renewed every 10 years now and it is an offense to forget. I believe the DVLA are issuing immediate and automatic fines if they do not get a renewal request within a reasonable time frame. In any case, an invalid license, invalidates your insurance and should you be stopped by the police, or worse, involved in an accident, the £1000 mandatory fine for an invalid license will be the least of your worries.

chewy501

Thanks so far. I'm going to call them today and find out what it is they're chasing after me for. The letter has a 'dvla' reference number so it must be something to do with them. Thanks again, I've been worrying all weekend.

poppasmurf_bewdley

FireWyrm wrote: »

You cannot 'acknowledge' any debt short of a formal written letter stating it is so, or making a payment. You can parade up and down outside their offices carrying a placard, and it wont count as 'acknowledgement'.

Check your license registration. Mine runs out in 2015. All recently issued licenses have to be renewed every 10 years now and it is an offense to forget. I believe the DVLA are issuing immediate and automatic fines if they do not get a renewal request within a reasonable time frame. In any case, an invalid license, invalidates your insurance and should you be stopped by the police, or worse, involved in an accident, the £1000 mandatory fine for an invalid license will be the least of your worries.

I don't think that is quite correct.

My insurance states, regarding my driving licence: "Providing you hold, have held, and are not prevented from holding, a driving licence ...

In other words, provided I am not banned, I would be insured even if my licence had expired.

FireWyrm

chewy501 wrote: »

Thanks so far. I'm going to call them today and find out what it is they're chasing after me for. The letter has a 'dvla' reference number so it must be something to do with them. Thanks again, I've been worrying all weekend.

Your license should have an expiry date on it. If that is far in the future, then it isnt that. The other possibility is perhaps a local authority parking fine?

FireWyrm

poppasmurf_bewdley wrote: »

I don't think that is quite correct.

My insurance states, regarding my driving licence: "Providing you hold, have held, and are not prevented from holding, a driving licence

An expired license is an invalid license...no ifs, no buts. There is no defense. If you are stopped by the police or involved in an accident, the fine will be issued and your insurance is by definition invalid. They'll throw the book at you for both an invalid license and lack of insurance. I agree, it is a technical crime, but bureaucracy is what it is and the law is an !!!.

poppasmurf_bewdley wrote: »

In other words, provided I am not banned, I would be insured even if my licence had expired.

No. Your license can expire and does so. It is a mandatory £1000 fine for an invalid license and even an incorrect address counts.

http://www.yourdrivinglicence.co.uk/what-happens-if-driving-licence-has-expired.html

More than this, if your license has expired more than 2 years ago, you may be ordered to retake the driving test in order to obtain an entirely new one.

The law is quite specific on these points but not everyone appears to know this.

poppasmurf_bewdley

FireWyrm wrote: »

An expired license is an invalid license...no ifs, no buts. There is no defense. If you are stopped by the police or involved in an accident, the fine will be issued and your insurance is by definition invalid. They'll throw the book at you for both an invalid license and lack of insurance. I agree, it is a technical crime, but bureaucracy is what it is and the law is an !!!.



No. Your license can expire and does so. It is a mandatory £1000 fine for an invalid license and even an incorrect address counts.

http://www.yourdrivinglicence.co.uk/what-happens-if-driving-licence-has-expired.html

More than this, if your license has expired more than 2 years ago, you may be ordered to retake the driving test in order to obtain an entirely new one.

The law is quite specific on these points but not everyone appears to know this.

That may be so, but if I was driving with an expired driving licence and collided with something, my insurance would still pay out, which is what you said would not happen.

FireWyrm

poppasmurf_bewdley wrote: »

That may be so, but if I was driving with an expired driving licence and collided with something, my insurance would still pay out, which is what you said would not happen.

It may, or it may not, the actual payout part of it is ENTIRELY at the discretion of the insurance company. Some companies count expired licenses as invalid, others may take a more flexible view, but you cannot know for sure. Your documents do not state this in sufficient detail to be sure. Insurance companies will look at all aspects of the accident and if you are silly enough to give them an excuse not to pay, they may well take the gift. I worked for an insurance company for a while and their policy was automatic cancellation of the policy for an expired or invalid license. It is one of the questions they get answered from the police during an investigation of an accident.

In any case, the police would throw the book at you. It isnt worth it for the sake of the £20 needed to apply for an updated and correct license card.

This doesnt mean that the OP has an invalid license of course, the problem may be entirely different, I am just saying that an expired license is at the very least a £1000 fine and could be VERY much more serious than that if the insurance company decides to stick to the law.

wrkactjob

Hmmm have to admit my car was taken away from me by police due to my licence being expired and I was quite unaware. The car was impounded on the basis that I was not insured. Actually after much investigating my insurance company (Admiral) once they had confirmed with DVLA that I hadn't been banned and my new license was in the post said that I would still have been insured in the event of a crash and the police should not have instructed my car to be impounded. The case went to court and was thrown out.

It seems that driving with a invalid license in such circumstances is not illegal.

Thanks to the Pepipoo website.

[Deleted User]

when I renewed my license at the post office, the lady at the counter said I could have still driven with it being out of date, so not sure about what the situation is about being out of date.