Car has not been taxed or SORNed for 6 years - DVLA penalty?

calydon

Hi,

We have an (currently unused) tax-exempt car that has not been taxed or SORN declared for about the last 6 years - overlooked due to relationship & communication breakdowns.

I know this is bad... and I want to set it straight.

I know the DVLA can fine for this (up to £1000?).

Does anyone have any experience of getting a car legal again after such a long period of time and what actual fine would get imposed? I just want to take the blow gently rather than phoning up the DVLA straight away...

Herzlos

I would just tax/SORN it and see what happens. It's SORN likely pre-dates the automatic fine.

AdrianC

SORN came in in the late '90s, so unless it's been taxed since then, you should be SORNing it.

BUT - they don't seem terribly effective at catching up with stuff that's been off the road for a few years and just forgotten. Just SORN it, and see what happens. I doubt anything bad will.

Joe_Horner

Depending on what you plan to do with it you'd be better "just taxing it" rather than "just SORNing it". There's a subtle difference between the two,

If you declare SORN then you're acknowledging that it isn't SORN at the moment. Seeing as you have no tax disk to show it was taxed, you're admitting it was out of the system since their last notification.

If, on the other hand, you tax it, when (if) they start saying it wasn't SORN you can apply he standard response that you notified them and it's not your fault if they messed their records up.

Continuous SORN has been around long enough now that you could have notified then a couple of years ago, so it'd be entirely unreasonable for them to expect you to provide evidence - beyond, of course the fact that they haven't nagged you about it so far!

calydon

Taxing it isn't possible as it doesnt have current MOT or insurance (it has been kept in a garage for the last 6 years)...

Thanks for the advice everyone. I'm still a bit worried though!!

I'll let yoiyou know how it goes when i get the courage up to do it.