DVLA - Vehicle license fine

channy

My dad owns a vehicle where his vehicle license expired last November. He has always relicensed his car but this year he was unable to because he went on holiday and did not know he had to declare SORN or ever heard about it. He's still on holiday now and is not about to come back until May. He has been sent a fine of £80 (of £40 if paid earlier) and arrears duty of £30. What should I do? I read that only the vehicle owner can declare SORN. Is this also true with the fine in that he is only able to pay for it himself and no one else? Is the fine in total either £110 or £70 (depending on how early it is sent)?

lauren_1

If your dad had ever taxed a car before he would have seen a SORN box on the tax application, if he didnt then maybe he should go to specsavers.

djheath

Anyone can declare sorn, you just need the V5 document, or the Tax/sorn reminder.

flutterbyuk25

anyone can pay the fine. you just need to ring the tel no and confirm his name/address/dob and the amount to pay, or you can send cheque/postal order back with the penalty letter.

If tax expired nov then penalty would be £80 now plus the 2 months arrears.

You can declare SORN on his behalf by completing form V890 (should have been in first penalty letter or you can get from Post Office or download from direct.gov.uk), just fill out form in your dad's name and enclose covering letter saying he is on hols so your doing it for him.

HTH

x

Conor_3

I can't believe that with all the stories there were in the news, the full adverts in the printed press and the amount of times that it's been covered on TV that he hasn't heard about it.

Zazen999

You don't say that the vehicle is actually off the road of course...

scbk

I got one of these fines before, I just paid the £40 and they never chased me for the "arrears"

Still a costly mistake though:mad:

anewman

With a bit of fore-thought, he could have got remaining tax on the car refunded and declared SORN in one fell swoop at the post office and been *given* money for 10 minutes effort. As he can afford a long holiday I doubt such a cheap fine will bother him.

channy

thanks for all the replies. i rang up and paid the £80 fine but they never asked for the arrears. anyway all i need to do now is declare SORN - thing is, the reference number doesn't work from the reminder and i do not know where my dad's v5 document is kept, so now i've hit another wall. i've tried to contact my dad on holiday but i am also unable to and we don't really keep in contact very often. is there anything else i can do?

the vehicle is off the road btw. it hasn't been driven in since my dad left. i do have this v890 form but from what i can gather, i need the v5 document! can someone verify this?

btw, i don't own a car and never had one so i haven't really a clue of these things. also my dad is chinese so he will lack quite a bit of understanding in reading. he used to pay at the post office so i guess they asked him and crossed how long he wanted his license to last and this has been his method for a while.

dounome

You can declare sorn online as well.

channy

dounome wrote: »

You can declare sorn online as well.

quote from their website:
To declare SORN, known as Statutory Off Road Notification, you are going to need the reminder, known as the document.write(' Vehicle Licence Application/SORN Declaration'); Vehicle Licence Application/SORN Declaration Vehicle Licence Application/SORN Declaration , also known as the V11, or the document.write(' Registration Document/Certificate'); Registration Document/Certificate Registration Document/Certificate also known as the Logbook.

the reference number from my v11 does not work (from november 07 - perhaps expired?) and i do not have the alternative answer because of not having a v5 registration document in front of me.