Car not transferred by garage now have fine from DVLA

GG82

We brought a car in 2016 a week before we had our baby and cut a long story short we have only recently realised the car was never transferred to our name and subsequently never paid any tax. The vehicle has had MOT done and insurance, but due to not having any reminders we haven’t paid tax. We have had to apply for a new log book and have paid the back tax but apparently there was a fine from May 2018 where my car was spotted without tax and I have now been issued a fine of £453. Now I appreciate we should have realised we hadn’t paid tax but we have another two cars and a very busy life so unless I have reminders to pay bills I admit it’s not top of my list to remember! My question is should the garage be responsible for this? They agreed to pay first 6 months tax which they never did and obviously the DVLA never received change of ownership, as car not technically in my name should I be responsible or should garage be responsible for this fine? Many Thanks

System

Sorry but I find it hard to believe you owned a car for over 2 years and didn't realise there was a problem.

The garage is not responsible for this, you are. It is the responsibility of the driver to ensure the vehicle is taxed, MOT'd and insured when driving it and you must have known that you'd had it 2 years and never paid for any road tax. Everyone has busy lives not just you so that is no excuse especially when you own two other vehicles which you would have had to tax. Surely at the point you received the reminders for the other two it twigged you never had for this car. You managed to remember when the MOT was due and you don't get reminders for that.

It was up to you to chase up DVLA when you didn't receive a V5 within 4 weeks and ensure that as the keepers of the vehicle it was registered in your name. How do you know they didn't pay the first 6 months tax? You don't.

Just to throw more fuel onto the fire no doubt you said you were the registered keeper when you insured it. You do know that you made a false declaration and that in the event of a claim your insurer could refuse to pay you out, cancel your policy, and/or pursue you for the cost of any payout to a third party?

Aylesbury_Duck

Agree entirely with the above. Your responsibility.

poppasmurf_bewdley

For the last two years, you haven't been insured either. One of the questions on the insurance application is: "Is the vehicle registered in your name?"

neilmcl

I think someone needs to try harder :rotfl:

marcarm

In this day and age, no matter what happens, it's always someone elses fault.

Not that this actually happened of course

POPPYOSCAR

Just how bored can some people be????

MEM62

Is the garage responsible? The short answer- no.

mcpitman

GG82 wrote: »

We brought a car in 2016 a week before we had our baby and cut a long story short we have only recently realised the car was never transferred to our name and subsequently never paid any tax. The vehicle has had MOT done and insurance, but due to not having any reminders we haven’t paid tax. We have had to apply for a new log book and have paid the back tax but apparently there was a fine from May 2018 where my car was spotted without tax and I have now been issued a fine of £453. Now I appreciate we should have realised we hadn’t paid tax but we have another two cars and a very busy life so unless I have reminders to pay bills I admit it’s not top of my list to remember! My question is should the garage be responsible for this? They agreed to pay first 6 months tax which they never did and obviously the DVLA never received change of ownership, as car not technically in my name should I be responsible or should garage be responsible for this fine? Many Thanks

The only person responsible for this is yourself.

Geodark

Last 3 cars I have bought I have taken my laptop and mifi device, and taxed the car online using the new owners slip - thus taxing my car and making sure DVLA know its mine at that point.

interstellaflyer

poppasmurf_bewdley wrote: »

For the last two years, you haven't been insured either. One of the questions on the insurance application is: "Is the vehicle registered in your name?"

And whilst I’m dubious about the op’s story and the time it took to notice the error, the answer would be yes because assumingly they gave the dealer their details. A V5 can take up to 6 weeks though most come through in a couple of weeks, until you get that document you can only rely on the fact that you gave the correct details, I’ve twice had a V5 containing errors that were not of my making, first was after going to a DVLA office to tax an ex motorbility car and change it to standard taxation class, the new V5 turned up still showing disabled taxation class, second was a brand new car and the dealer put the wrong name in when registering it, on both occasions I was not to blame and had no control of the errors made, are you saying I was uninsured?