DVLA Error

JimmiCottam

Hello fellow money savers, my fiancee and I have come across a serious issue with the DVLA. She tried to tax her car yesterday at the post office but it turned out that her car has been registered as off the road despite neither of us sending a SORN to the DVLA nor do the DVLA have any evidence that the car has been registered as such. As a result, we have been driving an untaxed car without any notice or explanation, it's lucky we haven't been caught! The only thing that we received was an £80 cheque from HMRC and DVLA that she thought was owed back with no reason as to what it was.

We both phoned the DVLA and she has sent off for the car to be taxed which should take up to 10 days to process. When I phoned, the guy on the other side explained that because there is no evidence to support a SORN has been submitted he put it down to an technical error. I'm asking how would we go about claiming compensation to make up for all the buses, trains, hire cars, etc we need to continue living and working and whether we have any weight to our complaint?

Thanks in advance. Feel free to ask me questions if this all seems too vague

gazfocus

JimmiCottam wrote: »

Hello fellow money savers, my fiancee and I have come across a serious issue with the DVLA. She tried to tax her car yesterday at the post office but it turned out that her car has been registered as off the road despite neither of us sending a SORN to the DVLA nor do the DVLA have any evidence that the car has been registered as such. As a result, we have been driving an untaxed car without any notice or explanation, it's lucky we haven't been caught! The only thing that we received was an £80 cheque from HMRC that she thought was owed back with no reason as to what it was.

We both phoned the DVLA and she has sent off for the car to be taxed which should take up to 10 days to process. When I phoned, the guy on the other side explained that because there is no evidence to support a SORN has been submitted he put it down to an technical error. I'm asking how would we go about claiming compensation to make up for all the buses, trains, hire cars, etc we need to continue living and working and whether we have any weight to our complaint?

Thanks in advance. Feel free to ask me questions if this all seems too vague

You can tax a SORN car online instantly so why have you 'sent off for the car to be taxed' taking 10 days? As far as I'm aware, you can also tax a SORN car at the post office, so if you've chosen the slowest option for taxing your car, I don't see why DVLA should pay out.

Quentin

JimmiCottam wrote: »

.... I'm asking how would we go about claiming compensation to make up for all the buses, trains, hire cars, etc we need to continue living and working and whether we have any weight to our complaint? ......

If you go through the courts for your compensation expect a counterclaim off the defendant for unpaid tax since you cashed their cheque

Rover_Driver

How long has she owned the car? A refund cheque would be from the DVLA, not HMRC.

JimmiCottam

gazfocus wrote: »

You can tax a SORN car online instantly so why have you 'sent off for the car to be taxed' taking 10 days? As far as I'm aware, you can also tax a SORN car at the post office, so if you've chosen the slowest option for taxing your car, I don't see why DVLA should pay out.

Thanks for the quick reply. She did try to update the tax online before going to the post office but because she hasn't been sent a Tax renewal letter (V11) and the number on the V5C did not register. She went to the PO as her next option, who told her exactly the same thing, before finally contacting the DVLA over the phone.

Assuming we are looking at the same 'gov.uk/vehicle-tax' webpage, where you have to input the V11, if not then the V5C or V5C/2, correct?

JimmiCottam

Rover_Driver wrote: »

How long has she owned the car? A refund cheque would be from the DVLA, not HMRC.

She has owned the car for two years this month.

The cheque was both from the DVLA and HMRC [AMENDED]

Rover_Driver

JimmiCottam wrote: »

and the number on the V5C did not register

Are her details correct on the V5C?

JimmiCottam

Rover_Driver wrote: »

Are her details correct on the V5C?

As far as she is aware, yes

Strider590

I'd be checking to make sure somebody isn't driving a clone of your vehicle.... Or indeed that you are not driving a clone.

JimmiCottam

Strider590 wrote: »

I'd be checking to make sure somebody isn't driving a clone of your vehicle.... Or indeed that you are not driving a clone.

How would we check that? DVLA seem happy and fine that the car is ours and has been taxed in the past when we phoned yesterday and it was bought with it passing a security check

arcon5

So what did she think dvla was sending her a cheque for