Taxing oddity; went to Post Office, was told to ring the DVLA due to overlap or gap?

Xentarago

My tax for my car ran on on the 31st of May. The MOT expired on the 28th. Long story short, I had taken the car to get MOT'd on the 28th but it failed spectacularly on things I just wasn't expecting to need doing and had them repair it. They weren't able to do the repairs until Monday the 1st, so on the evening of the 31st I used the reminder to SORN the vehicle online.

I shouldn't have done, but I did. I was worried about getting one of these automatic no-tax fines I've been hearing about. Didn't even know there was a 14 day grace period. Too late, SORN'd it, done and dusted.

The car passed its MOT on the second attempt on the 1st June. So I tried using the reminder again online to Tax it, but the gov.uk website was telling me there'd already been a successful transaction and I needed to go to a Post Office to tax it now. So, I tried it using the V5C instead (figuring because I'd used the reminder to SORN the vehicle) and it said exactly the same thing. So, on the next day, on the 2nd of June, I walked the fifty minute walk (no bus route where I live, yay). to the PO. Get there, tell the man I'd already used the reminder and the website said I needed to come in here. I had the V5C with me in case.

He took the reminder off me tapped a few things into his computer then said it was telling him to tell me I needed to ring the DVLA because of an overlap or gap in my license and that what I should do, is ring them, and if they say its ok he'd carry on with it.

I was a bit confused by this point. The tax expired on the 31st. The SORN began on the 1st, and I was applying for new tax on the 2nd which I presumed would be backdated to the 1st. Where was this gap.overlap supposed to begin or end? I left the PO and rang the number of the reminder and got a "we're very busy, you'll be waiting for around fifteen minutes" message. Hung up. Stood there pondering for a few minutes then thought I'd go back.

I wasn't about to walk the fifty minute walk home, ring DVLA on the landline and sit on hold for fifteen minutes or however long, only to be told there's just a glitch in the system and I could go through with it AOK then have to walk back again. So I decided to fib a bit. I went back in to the PO and said I'd spoken to someone and they'd told me to use the V5C instead. The bloke accepted this, but said the error still came up but since I'd spoken to DVLA and they said it was OK "I'll just carry on and do it anyway"

I'd set a monthly direct debit for the tax incidentally, not sure if that was part of the problem. But either way it seemed highly reminiscent of a "computer says no" moment. But today I'm just wondering if perhaps I shouldn't have fibbed about talking to DVLA. Checking the gov.uk's beta service on if a car is taxed or not today shows my car is still SORN'd but it does say if I've taxed it within the last five days it may not show up on there yet.

BeenThroughItAll

Xentarago wrote: »

Didn't even know there was a 14 day grace period.

There isn't, so you were correct to do what you did.

There is not and never has been any 'grace period' for VED. The only 'exemption' used to be from the display of a valid tax disc, which ran for fourteen days ONLY in the event that you had ordered VED online or over the phone and were awaiting delivery of the physical disc.

Now that there are no discs any more, there is no exemption, and no grace period - if the car isn't SORNed, it must be taxed, and vice-versa.

Xentarago

That's what I thought. But after I SORN'd it I noticed on the back of the reminder this little box, under the direct debit form:

If you can't tax on time (for example, when getting an MoT for your vehicle): By law, you as the registered keeper will not be committing an offence as long as you tax the vehicle or make a SORN within 14 days of the date your tax runs out. However, you must keep your vehicle off the road during this time.

Only thing I did do was drive it to and from the MoT test centre on the 1st and 2nd respectively prior to attempting to buy the tax (the annoying thing is the post office is on the opposite side of the valley to the my local garage so I couldn't stop on the way home with the car to do this - incidentally before anyone mentions it, I've always assumed you're also legally allowed to drive to and from a place of repair or test centre within reasonable distance without an mot or tax (Edit: Provided the car is insured, which is was/still is). It even used to say so on the old direct.gov.uk website I believe. Can't find anything on the new gov.uk website though so perhaps this has changed... In which case, oops.

s_b

it would appear you sorned on 31st may so this would automatically backdate till beginning of may so car was untaxed for all may
you then tried to tax but this wasnt possible because you had sorned and system said no
you really need to ring dvla straight away and explain and get this sorted,ask to speak to a supervisor if you get the front of house giving you waffle,you need to pay for tax before using the car or you WILL be fined