DVLA Fine.Car was off road. HELP!!

Mandles

Does anyone else know whether i can get out of a £70 fine from DVLA. We had a car in our front garden for months(you can tell by the still dead grass!) & on the date of fine. Our friend was buying it & messed us around for ages saying he would buy it & it went on for a couple of months until he actually did(never sell to your friend!!..underpaid us by £20 too but never said anything). Anyway, we never sent off SORN as we thought he was buying it at that time , even though it was off road the whole time in my front garden on a very busy street.I could get about 10 witness to say this. But we are being fined £70 now for not sending it off. Does anyone know if you can challenge it or if anyone wins if they do?? I rung dvla & they said you will just have to pay it but im hoping for some bright spark to tell me he got let off for similar circumstances(i am so incredibly broke and have had so many fines for pathetic things lately i could just cry!)

oh_heck

I've never personally heard of anyone who has challenged this sort of fine ,especially as you say it was off road but you failed to declare it ,sorry

MarkyMarkD

That's why they introduced the concept of SORN - you have to tax your car all the time unless it's declared SORN. There's no getting off because witnesses say it was off road. Sorry.

mrbadexample

Unfortunately, I am inclined to agree. As far as I am aware, there is no right of appeal against this particular fine. However, that doesn't mean you couldn't give it a shot. I would:

a) Accept the fact I've got to pay the fine.
b) Write to the DVLA and explain the situation, as politely as you can, and with as much evidence of it being off road as you can. If your friend will co-operate, ask him to confirm that he had agreed to buy the car, but took months to come up with the cash. Ask the DVLA if they would be prepared to reconsider.

Nothing ventured, nothing gained Rodney....

Belzie

A similar thing happened to me..... I got the fine notice...... I immediately sent of a SORN form and got the SORN notification back within a week then photocopied it and sent back to the fine people who apologised for bothering me. I'd accepted that I would have to pay but thought I'd try and avoid it.... it worked that time.

jockettuk

think the moral of the story here is no matter what send of the forms then if you sell it or use it you can then inform the dvla of the change then..

challenge it but dont be surprised if they say no after all you didnt send in the forms... or did you and they didnt receive them you could always blame royal mail lol

paul_h

The problem with the SORN system is that after the car tax renewal form is sent out, there is no further reminder sent before the fine is sent out. If you send the SORN in by post (as I usually do) you must make sure you receive the confirmation back with a couple of weeks. If you do not, then there is a chance that your declaration could have been lost in the post or in the DVLA system.

I sent a SORN declaration to the DVLA by post which they say they did not receive, I subequently got a letter detailing the fine and back tax I had to pay.

I sent the letter back to the address at Poole with a cheque for the due amount, but I explained that I had sent the SORN notice by post and that I had not received any confirmation from them and I had overlooked this fact. I also mentioned that the fact that no warning or reminder was sent out by the DLVA prior to sending the fine surprised me.

I didn't expect any joy, but a very polite and apologetic letter came back saying that if I filled in and returned the enclosed SORN form then no further action would be taken. They also stamped my cheque 'DVLA' and returned it. Of course I returned the SORN without delay, and the SORN confirmation came back a couple of weeks later.

Note that you cannot use your original car tax / SORN renewal notice after the SORN is 14 days overdue.

If you have admitted that you simply forgot to send the SORN, then I think you will have to pay the fine - you are responsible for the SORN declaration up until the day ownership of the vehice is transferred. Any existing SORN declaration then expires, and the new owner must apply for a new SORN in their name immediately if they are not intending to tax it, or else they will be faced with an automatic fine also.

Hope this is of interest...

Mandles

paul_h wrote:

The problem with the SORN system is that after the car tax renewal form is sent out, there is no further reminder sent before the fine is sent out. If you send the SORN in by post (as I usually do) you must make sure you receive the confirmation back with a couple of weeks. If you do not, then there is a chance that your declaration could have been lost in the post or in the DVLA system.

I sent a SORN declaration to the DVLA by post which they say they did not receive, I subequently got a letter detailing the fine and back tax I had to pay.

I sent the letter back to the address at Poole with a cheque for the due amount, but I explained that I had sent the SORN notice by post and that I had not received any confirmation from them and I had overlooked this fact. I also mentioned that the fact that no warning or reminder was sent out by the DLVA prior to sending the fine surprised me.

I didn't expect any joy, but a very polite and apologetic letter came back saying that if I filled in and returned the enclosed SORN form then no further action would be taken. They also stamped my cheque 'DVLA' and returned it. Of course I returned the SORN without delay, and the SORN confirmation came back a couple of weeks later.

Note that you cannot use your original car tax / SORN renewal notice after the SORN is 14 days overdue.

If you have admitted that you simply forgot to send the SORN, then I think you will have to pay the fine - you are responsible for the SORN declaration up until the day ownership of the vehice is transferred. Any existing SORN declaration then expires, and the new owner must apply for a new SORN in their name immediately if they are not intending to tax it, or else they will be faced with an automatic fine also.

Hope this is of interest...

Thanks very much, i'll give it a go!

paul_h

Mandles wrote:

Thanks very much, i'll give it a go!

No problem, I assume you've read the PM I sent you?

Mandles

paul_h wrote:

The problem with the SORN system is that after the car tax renewal form is sent out, there is no further reminder sent before the fine is sent out. If you send the SORN in by post (as I usually do) you must make sure you receive the confirmation back with a couple of weeks. If you do not, then there is a chance that your declaration could have been lost in the post or in the DVLA system.

I sent a SORN declaration to the DVLA by post which they say they did not receive, I subequently got a letter detailing the fine and back tax I had to pay.

I sent the letter back to the address at Poole with a cheque for the due amount, but I explained that I had sent the SORN notice by post and that I had not received any confirmation from them and I had overlooked this fact. I also mentioned that the fact that no warning or reminder was sent out by the DLVA prior to sending the fine surprised me.

I didn't expect any joy, but a very polite and apologetic letter came back saying that if I filled in and returned the enclosed SORN form then no further action would be taken. They also stamped my cheque 'DVLA' and returned it. Of course I returned the SORN without delay, and the SORN confirmation came back a couple of weeks later.

Note that you cannot use your original car tax / SORN renewal notice after the SORN is 14 days overdue.

If you have admitted that you simply forgot to send the SORN, then I think you will have to pay the fine - you are responsible for the SORN declaration up until the day ownership of the vehice is transferred. Any existing SORN declaration then expires, and the new owner must apply for a new SORN in their name immediately if they are not intending to tax it, or else they will be faced with an automatic fine also.

Hope this is of interest...

NIce one paul. I did what you said & the DVLA returned my cheque & let me off fine! hurrah! Im well chuffed(i was telling the truth) but i didnt expect they would listen to me.Thanks again for your post.

mike_the_bike_2

I'm afraid you will have to pay this "stealth tax"...People who have no intention of ever paying road tax just laugh at this sort of thing and ignore itand will continue to drive their vehicles untaxed and uninsured and with no MOT...Unfortunately those who are basically honest but forget end up paying extra tax