DVLA stopped taking DD offence 2 days before missed DD

Alexothy

Hello

Just joined and am sure I'll get a lot of good advice!

I've just got a CCS collect letter for not having car tax. My car tax was on a rolling direct debit, for some reason they haven't taken it allowing me to be fined. My last direct debit (03/01/17) is within the month of the offence (01/02/2017).

There is no way I, and I'm pretty sure the DVLA could have known it wasn't going to come out. I don't really understand why they stopped taking the DD and how they knew it wasn't going to come out.

How should I handle this?

Thanks

Alex

Shoshannah

When was the renewal date?

Aylesbury_Duck

I don't understand the bit about "within the month of the offence"?

January 3rd was the first banking day of the month and presumably that payment covered January. Did you agree to pay 12 months of tax by direct debit starting on 1st Feb 2016? If so, you should have renewed before 1st Feb this year.

AdrianC

It's really very simple - when the DD failed (and the DD failed - DVLA don't just forget - so ask your bank), your car tax for Feb was cancelled, effective 1st Feb.

unholyangel

AdrianC wrote: »

It's really very simple - when the DD failed (and the DD failed - DVLA don't just forget - so ask your bank), your car tax for Feb was cancelled, effective 1st Feb.

^^ This.

The DD for VED is taken on the first working day of the month. In February, the 1st was a Wednesday. Obviously in January, the 1st was a bank holiday but as the 1st was a Sunday, the bank holiday was Monday the 2nd so first working day was the 3rd.


Further to that:

6. If a Direct Debit payment fails

The Direct Debit account holder will get an email from DVLA if a payment fails because there isn’t enough money in the account.

DVLA will try to take the payment again within 4 working days. If that also fails, you’ll get an email telling you that:

the Direct Debit has failed twice and has been permanently cancelled
your vehicle is no longer taxed

If that procedure was followed, I don't think you have even a snowballs chance in hell. First thing I'd be checking would be my bank statements to see what my balance was during those dates & whether any failed DD was on there, along with checking my emails (hope you didn't have it marked as junk or purge your inbox as it will be gone already).


I know it doesn't help for now, but at least once a month (preferably every 2 weeks minimum) you should go through your bills to ensure they've been paid. Personally, I use a separate account for bills - transferring in how much I need from my other account. It then means if I can easily tell if a DD has been missed when I go to transfer money in for next months bills as there should never be more than a trivial balance. How much extras there can also tell me which bills I should be looking at.

facade

I see what the OP means, as I had to read the thread twice to get it.

AdrianC wrote: »

It's really very simple - when the DD failed (and the DD failed - DVLA don't just forget - so ask your bank), your car tax for Feb was cancelled, effective 1st Feb.

The OP thinks they fined him on the 1st of Feb, so they craftily decided not to take the DD and fine him instead.

What has happened is the car still wasn't taxed in March, April etc., so the DVLA issued a fine, in March probably, for 1st of February onwards as you say.

If the VED had been paid when the DVLA emailed that the DD failed everything would have been fine.

unholyangel

facade wrote: »

I see what the OP means, as I had to read the thread twice to get it.





The OP thinks they fined him on the 1st of Feb, so they craftily decided not to take the DD and fine him instead.

What has happened is the car still wasn't taxed in March, April etc., so the DVLA issued a fine, in March probably, for 1st of February onwards as you say.

If the VED had been paid when the DVLA emailed that the DD failed everything would have been fine.

I dont think thats exactly what the OP is alleging. I think the OP thinks the offence was dated 2 days before the DD was due (as evidenced by the title thread of "DVLA stopped taking DD. Offence 2 days before missed DD" and his reference to the offence being within a month of the last DD payment collected.

Giving the impression the OP thinks he was covered at the time of the offence date.

I would suggest that perhaps OP is a new driver and didn't ever buy a physical tax disc - if they had they'd surely know VED is only ever valid till the end of that month. ie if OP had ever went to tax a car on the 10th of the month, they'd have noticed their tax didn't run out exactly 6/12 months later.

facade

Yes, I mean the same thing, the OP thinks the DD is on the 3rd, and the DVLA issued the fine on the 1st, before they could have bounced the DD.