Correcting Mileage

peter021072

Has anyone attempted to correct car mileage recorded by the DVSA, and does 'clocking' affect the insurance for a car or driver?

I recently noticed that the DVSA records for my 2005 registered car which I've owned since 2008, incorrectly suggested the car had been reduced by around 5000 miles between an MOT performed in November 2019 and the following year in November 2020. This was due to an incorrect mileage being entered on the MOT certificate. The 2 on the 1,000 digit was misinterpreted as a 7. Obviously this doesn't affect the price of such an old car by much, however, I'm unsure what effect this has on insurance costs and I just don't like the idea of a car being incorrectly recorded as clocked whilst under my possession because this is illegal. So I asked DVSA for to correct this mistake.

 
I filled in the appropriate form, and supplied photos of a service record performed a few weeks earlier and an invoice for a tyre change a few weeks after the MOT, both with 2 different companies, and the correct mileage recorded in both cases. I also supplied a letter from the company who conducted the MOT admitting a mistake had likely been made. The DVSA can also see from the last 10 years that my mileage has gradually reduced to as little as 1000-1500 miles per year so the incorrect recorded mileage with a 7 is inconsistent with this as well.  So in all there are 4 separate lines of evidence and virtually no financial incentive to clock the car, except possibly future insurance for me personally.

I've so far waited 2 1/2 months and they are still dragging their feet, ignoring my requests.  Is this how the DVSA normally behave?  Even if they simply wrote back and refused to accept it at least the case would be closed. 

Perhaps there's a complaint process?

Herzlos

What have they told you so far? They probably just have an enormous backlog and it's not a high priority.

The mileage discrepancy won't have any insurance impact, and whilst there may be a slight value impact if it was sold or written off, you've got the paper trail to show the actual mileage and it'll be marginal on a 19 year old car.

Personally I wouldn't worry about it, and just wait to see if you get a response eventually.

chrisw

It won't affect your insurance and it's not illegal to own a clocked car. It's only illegal to try and pass it off with a mileage you know is false. Which yours isn't in any case as it's a reporting error, and can usually be explained by comparing annual mileages, mots, etc.

You have nothing whatsoever to be concerned about regarding the mileage.

Mildly_Miffed

The time to correct this was within 28 days of the test that introduced the error.
https://www.gov.uk/getting-an-mot/correcting-mot-certificate-mistakes

That would have been the November 2019 test, nearly five years ago...?

Barkin

Presumably on the next and all subsequent MOT tests the mileage was recorded correctly?

It's a 19 year old car. Forget about it. 

DullGreyGuy

It looks like what it is, just an error on one certificate that is now too late to correct. The mileage on the car is genuine and the subsequent certs are correct. 

Not sure how many people roll back the mileage when clocking a car? Those that I know that did it simply disconnected the dash so it stopped rolling forward, normally just reconnect it just before a MOT so you still show a couple of thousand miles in the year rather than the 30,000+ that were really done. Obviously this is going back to when it was all analogue. 

A really tight insurer may write down the value a tiny amount for the discrepancy that would put off some buyers but you'd be really unlucky that they both spot the error and think its material enough to knock a couple hundred off the value. 

peter021072

I've just got a reply today. Evidently they will only correct it with documents signed within 24 hours of the MOT. Yes of course I'd already read that but didn't think they would resort to mindless beauacracy given the amount of evidence. It would be trivial to design the DVSA or test stations software to flag a potential clocking problem as the tester types the figures in especially if it's the same station as did it the previous year. Perhaps it does, but they couldn't be bothered to tell me.  As things stand few motorists would notice a wrong 2nd digit on paperwork, and nearly always this will be first discovered some time later when the DVSA start flashing it up in red on their website when it's too late.

In fact I only discovered this because I was on the DVSA website checking whether another car fitted with an absurdly loud racing exhaust had received an valid MOT (of course it had, although it wasn't taxed). When mine was flagged up my immediate first thought was that the person selling it to me had clocked it. Then I saw the dates Grrrrr!

The system is a farce, punishing honesty and common sense and turning a blind eye to obvious illegality. 

Nobbie1967

peter021072 said:

I've just got a reply today. Evidently they will only correct it with documents signed within 24 hours of the MOT. Yes of course I'd already read that but didn't think they would resort to mindless beauacracy given the amount of evidence. It would be trivial to design the DVSA or test stations software to flag a potential clocking problem as the tester types the figures in especially if it's the same station as did it the previous year. Perhaps it does, but they couldn't be bothered to tell me.  As things stand few motorists would notice a wrong 2nd digit on paperwork, and nearly always this will be first discovered some time later when the DVSA start flashing it up in red on their website when it's too late.

In fact I only discovered this because I was on the DVSA website checking whether another car fitted with an absurdly loud racing exhaust had received an valid MOT (of course it had, although it wasn't taxed). When mine was flagged up my immediate first thought was that the person selling it to me had clocked it. Then I saw the dates Grrrrr!

The system is a farce, punishing honesty and common sense and turning a blind eye to obvious illegality. 

I think this should be in the rants section. You haven’t been punished.

jimjames

peter021072 said:

The system is a farce, punishing honesty and common sense and turning a blind eye to obvious illegality. 

It's not illegality, it's an error. My car has exactly the same issue, mileage was incorrectly noted as 100k not 107k one year so drops between MOTs. Service carried out the same month shows the correct mileage so not really an issue. If they changed it retrospectively then anyone could produce evidence to support a clocked vehicle being correct.

peter021072

My car has exactly the same issue, mileage was incorrectly noted as 100k not 107k one year so drops between MOTs. Service carried out the same month shows the correct mileage so not really an issue. If they changed it retrospectively then anyone could produce evidence to support a clocked vehicle being correct

I don't think this is in the same league

I should also point out that the test station themselves suggested I contact the DVSA . They thought they would see sense considering the mileage accumulation over the 10 proceeding years was inconsistent with a 7 than a 2.  I personally wasn't convinced because I know how bureaucratic they are.

However at that stage I didn't realise that the MOT was sandwiched between a service and tyre change within weeks, so the was a mileage record both before and after. The last line of evidence was simply that there was no financial advantage to clock because the car was so old. Nearly every claim DVSA are asked to rectify, involve high annual mileages which affect the price of the car, or possibly exempt the car from a recent legal issue because it couldn't have travelled that far.

I think the MOT station and DVSA system itself has questions to answer.  Today, their electronic systems are linked, so if a mileage less than the previous one is typed in it should instantly flash up in both cases, so why is their no  attempt to contact the owner?  If not, how easy it is to write the software to do this so the mistake is corrected instantly. It's basic common sense. They had the technology to do this decades ago, but do they really want to catch clockers?  I suggest MOT stations like to turn a blind eye to illegality so their customers return. Hence my comment regarding noisy exhausts which are a menace in this area.

You haven’t been punished

the point I'm making is that honest people get punished by getting sold clocked cars by charlatan dealers and have to put up with illegal cars on the road due to the modifications people put on them. This makes a mockery of regulations and the £ Billions spent on design and type approval which is passed onto the consumer. Type approval and in-use regulation is an area I used to work in.

chrisw

It's not illegal to alter the mileage or clock a car. There are a few genuine reasons why the mileage might not tally up. The offence only occurs if you sell it but fail to declare that you know the mileage to be false.