Forgot to change the address on my car's V5C.

jumbowindows

Hi all,
This thread has been done before (I can't post the link) but is closed and this is slightly different.

I have just sold my car and it was during that process that I realised i had not changed the address on the V5C form.

I DID change the address on my drivers license and stupidly thought this was all I needed to do, but have now found out that was not the case.

We moved in October 2017 but had a mail redirection for 3 months. So that leaves 8 months of driving where I could have had fines or parking tickets.

I can't change it now as I've just sold the car to a garage (who pointed out it was the wrong address), so is there anything I CAN do?

I have checked my points online at the gov dot UK site which says I have none, but is this conclusive or do they take a while to show?

Is there anything I can do re: parking tickets?

Any advice would be very much appreciated

TooManyPoints

Points show up on the DVLA records about 10 to 14 days after a conviction. The most likely event for you as far as points are concerned is that you may have been caught speeding by camera. A Notice of Intended Prosecution (NIP) and request for drivers details (S172 request) would have been sent to your old address and obviously (as far as the police are concerned), you ignored it. You would then face action under S172 and a conviction carries six points, a hefty fine and insurance grief for a number of years (insurers hate the endorsement code MS90 which accompanies such a conviction). This could take up to seven or eight months from the date of the original offence.

There is an "escape clause" from this in that if you are convicted n your absence having no knowledge of the proceedings you can perform a "Statutory Declaration" to have the conviction set aside. The police will then have to begin proceedings again. They will usually have "dual charged" you originally (with both speeding and S172). If they do so again you can usually do a deal with the prosecutor to drop the S172 charge in return for pleading guilty to speeding.

I don't know what you can do about parking tickets apart from dealing with bailiffs if they knock at your door..

jumbowindows

Thanks for your reply. So if i understand correctly, just having no points on the license currently does not rule out any speeding tickets from up to 8 months ago!

I should say there's no specific reason why i think i have a ticket, other than just not being able to have received the post.

TooManyPoints

So if i understand correctly, just having no points on the license currently does not rule out any speeding tickets from up to 8 months ago!

That's about it. When you are caught speeding by camera the police serve a NIP and S172 notice on the Registered Keeper (RK). This must be done within 14 days. The RK then has 28 days to reply. He commits an offence under S172 if he has not replied by day 29. Many police authorities will then send a reminder (though they have no obligation to do so) usually giving him another 7 days to respond. So you can see it could be about eight weeks before they begin action. However, they have to begin court proceedings within six months of the offence (so, six months after the speeding offence and another six weeks or so for the S172 offence) and in practice court proceedings are usually begun very close to six months from the speeding offence. This allows them to "dual charge" for both offences which is, in fact, an advantage to the driver (because, as explained above, he can usually have the matter reverted simply to the speeding charge only). You would not hear immediately court proceedings have been initiated but perhaps a week or two later.