DVLA Unlicensed Vehicle £160 Surety - Refusal to Refund

jh2017fc

takman wrote: »

So you were told that it was 15 "calendar" days by the person who clamped the car?.
A calendar day means everyday (as apposed to working days) and a day is 24 hours. So they can argue that if you were unclamped at exactly 1PM for example then your 15 days run out at 1PM on that day.

I did not meet the person who clamped my car. I spoke to the Agency involved on the telephone.

I am perfectly aware that a calendar day means Saturday and Sunday as well as Mon-Fri. I don't see where the problem is with these definitions.

A day, of course, is NOT 24 hours. There are 24 hours in one full day, but 24 hours can run across two different days. One full day lasts for 24 hours but only insofar as from 00:00 Hours on any given day until the expiry of 23:59 Hours.

Furthermore the "timing" of the clamp does not enter into it. The Agent clamps your vehicle and notifies his Base. (S)he does NOT leave a timed Ticket for you on the vehicle or go searching for you, just a Warning sticker not to try and move the vehicle and a telephone number for you to call. It is a Vehicle Offence. You don't get to 'meet' the Agent face-to-face and have a 'parley'. Even if you did they would only refer you to their Base Office.

If you don't contact the Agency quickly then they'll come back again and tow it away altogether. The fact is I did contact the Agency by telephone so this is simply a complete irrelevance.

The Agency told me I had "15 days" until 22nd November 2017 to tax my vehicle and get my Surety Fee refunded. 7th November to 22nd November is 15 calendar days. I don't dispute that. They don't dispute that. The DVLA doesn't dispute that. There is no dispute about "calendar days" and when the clamping occurred on any one calendar day is not relevant for the purposes of calculating the 15 days' period.

Well it's pretty bad of a garage to take 15 days to do an MOT, service and repairs especially when you booked it in for the day you were clamped and had a short time scale.

Now you are suffering from omniscience. You are posting comments based on suppositions when you don't know hardly any of the facts nor seem to care much about those you should know about. My garage did NOT take 15 days to "do an MOT". I was clamped on 7th November, I was de-clamped on 8th November, so that's one lost day. I then had to let my garage take a look at my vehicle and assess it and seek my permission to go ahead with the repairs/servicing. That was another day. They then needed some parts from a VW supplier. It is only a small set-up, I admit. Is this another Sin? So what if they took a few days to do the jobs needing doing. They did them well. Then I requested an MOT and they did that too. What's the problem here - did I cause some problem in the Brexit negotiations, or your love-life?



Also it's strange that they would take this long because if they re-MOT it after 10 working days they have to pay another fee to process it on the system.

Another breath-taking example of you jumping to conclusions. I only asked for an MOT when my garage had done the servicing and repairs they recommended and I accepted. No-one was in any hurry. I had 15 days. They were fine. We've known each other many years. It was no big deal. Keep your hat on, chum.

System

Given the number of different threads there have been on this forum from people who have "just moved their car onto the road for an hour whilst they got something out of the garage" and have got caught by a passing ANPR vehicle there must be something fitted to modern cars which alert DVLA automatically. Its the only way so many people could all be so unlucky getting caught for having no road tax when they've all been doing the same thing. :rotfl::rotfl:

Joe_Horner

Tarambor wrote: »

Given the number of different threads there have been on this forum from people who have "just moved their car onto the road for an hour whilst they got something out of the garage"...

And there I was assuming it was down to the high quality recruitment and training the contractors apply when employing drivers

jh2017fc

I gather from my local vicar that it was all sorted out at birth. It's like being left-handed or right-handed - you can't see any tell-tale signs yourself. It just feels better one way or the other. The same goes with being a "SINNER".

Every government can tell if you are a sinner and immediately you are born attaches a secret alarm signal against your name in all of its databases "Warning - Sinner".

If you get a car, then the moment you do something wrong with it and sin - which you will, they know - the alarm goes off, around comes the wheelclamper and Bosh! You're nicked, my Sinful Son.

It's the same with anything with any government regulation - TV, gas boiler, Council Tax, VAT, supporting Brexit (oooops, that's a bit of a giveaway) - you're a born sinner and as soon as it happens, and it will, your number is up.

It's so unfair:mad:

angrycrow

Sorry but I am not buying the "I had only just moved it onto the road when it was clamped" story either.

My dodgy neighbour was driving around uninsured and untaxed for weeks with no one stopping him or clamping his car which was parked on the public road. However 12 hours after somebody tipped off the police to the uninsured status of his car the car was sat in the police impound. Are you sure you had not upset one of your neighbours.

jh2017fc

When you're a born sinner, you have to accept that those who are "holier than thou" (as they are known), will constantly try and trip you up, grass you up and chip away at you as you struggle through Life seeking the path of the Righteous and the Blessed.

Nothing gives them greater pleasure than to hurl stones at sinners, and watch as we stumble and fall - again.

We get up, brush ourselves down, shape up and press feebly onwards, we, the wretched and accursed sinners. Oh Woe, Woe, and thrice Woe (is that enough Woes?)

takman

jh2017fc wrote: »

Now you are suffering from omniscience. You are posting comments based on suppositions when you don't know hardly any of the facts nor seem to care much about those you should know about. My garage did NOT take 15 days to "do an MOT". I was clamped on 7th November, I was de-clamped on 8th November, so that's one lost day. I then had to let my garage take a look at my vehicle and assess it and seek my permission to go ahead with the repairs/servicing. That was another day. They then needed some parts from a VW supplier. It is only a small set-up, I admit. Is this another Sin? So what if they took a few days to do the jobs needing doing. They did them well. Then I requested an MOT and they did that too. What's the problem here - did I cause some problem in the Brexit negotiations, or your love-life?

Another breath-taking example of you jumping to conclusions. I only asked for an MOT when my garage had done the servicing and repairs they recommended and I accepted. No-one was in any hurry. I had 15 days. They were fine. We've known each other many years. It was no big deal. Keep your hat on, chum.

So you knew you that you needed an MOT to be able to tax the vehicle but you and the garage went about it with a very relaxed attitude. The situation doesn't bother me one bit, i just hope that your relaxed attitude to getting the MOT done was worth £160.

I think the lesson here is that leaving things to the last minute is usually a bad idea. But if you want to blame the situation on "being born a sinner" then that's up to you .

jh2017fc

takman wrote: »

So you knew you that you needed an MOT to be able to tax the vehicle but you and the garage went about it with a very relaxed attitude. The situation doesn't bother me one bit, i just hope that your relaxed attitude to getting the MOT done was worth £160.

I think the lesson here is that leaving things to the last minute is usually a bad idea. But if you want to blame the situation on "being born a sinner" then that's up to you .

You've got a right old bee in your bonnet about my MOT, haven't you. Perhaps you would permit me to make this crystal clear to you. When my vehicle was clamped for being an unlicensed vehicle, it had a valid MOT.

My inquiry on this site, my first ever, and almost certainly my last, had nothing whatsoever to do with MOT. The whole thing - the wheelclamp, the fine, the tax, the surety fee, none of it had anything to do with MOT.

The MOT matter was entirely coincidental. My vehicle was soon going to need a new MOT.

Coincidental to that my car - in my view, needed a service. It was approaching 80,000 miles on the clock. I thought it could do with one. I knew the MOT was coming up on it as well, so I thought I'd get things sorted. And I have admitted that I was aware that it was unlicensed and I was going to have to get that sorted out as well.

The rest is history - I got it serviced, some repairs were done, the MOT was issued, and the tax paid for a year. I have also been fined for not keeping it taxed. And I have paid all of the unpaid back tax of a couple of months whilst it was in the garage. And I have acepted my Guilt for this in full without any excuse.

In this unhappy story I thought I was mugged by the government for £160 for the refundable surety fee, but I was not sure. I thought I would come onto this site and seek the advice of all of you.

I am most grateful for those of you who have been kind enough to offer your advice without throwing moral brickbats at me, but I am surprised at those of you have refused to address my questions and instead chose to try and rebuke me and taunt me and insinuate that I got what I deserved as the piece of scum that I am.

And then there have been those like yourself who are clearly so thick that you just can't operate as an intelligent human being, merely as a knee-jerk troll on your keyboard.

I'm signing off now. When I get a final decision on this from the DVLA and/or the Courts, I'll inform the website. For the rest of it, I'll bid my farewells and move swiftly on with a very deep sigh of relief.

sheramber

if the MOT didn't run out until after it was in the garage ( post 25) why did you not tax it with the existing MOT right away?

Seems odd to wait.

EdGasketTheSecond

Surely 'Clampers' and 'Refund' are mutually exclusive? I bet they never pay a refund under some pretext or other.

OP issue a small claim against them; even if you don't win you'll make them work for it but if you have the necessary proof that it was taxed within the timeframe then I can't see you not winning in court.