Devious Lying Venal A**s's (DVLA)

[Digger]

And they have no proof it is me Last time I spoke to the DVLA they were struggling to understand why I considered a driving licence sent to them b recorded delivery was lost in their system and couldn't have been lost by the postie. They then tried to convince me to pay £19 for a new licence and then send it back to them with another change of address form. When I told them that I would happily continue breaking the law they didn't really understand. I tried to explain to them I had done everythign I was required to do, and that I would be happy to explain this in the event a speeding ticket got lost because I don't live there any more. They didn't understand this either. I gave up and accepted I would need to pay £19 to get a new licence. I still haven't. I should get round to that in the next few days as well. Could be a long call to DVLA on an 0870 number that I object to. Anyone got a sensible rate number for them?

Digs.

[Adrian Kelland]

Originally Posted by Digger

And they have no proof it is me Last time I spoke to the DVLA they were struggling to understand why I considered a driving licence sent to them b recorded delivery was lost in their system and couldn't have been lost by the postie. They then tried to convince me to pay £19 for a new licence and then send it back to them with another change of address form. When I told them that I would happily continue breaking the law they didn't really understand. I tried to explain to them I had done everythign I was required to do, and that I would be happy to explain this in the event a speeding ticket got lost because I don't live there any more. They didn't understand this either. I gave up and accepted I would need to pay £19 to get a new licence. I still haven't. I should get round to that in the next few days as well. Could be a long call to DVLA on an 0870 number that I object to. Anyone got a sensible rate number for them?

Digs.

SAYNOTO0870.COM - Non-Geographical Alternative Telephone Numbers just enter DVLA

[Hellvet]

I got a fine for an SORN notice that i completed and at the time from the form understood that i notified them only if it went back on the road so watch them for that one too.

Mum had wanted to keep it for a bit as it was the car dad taught me to drive in and she couldn't bear to see it scrapped as he had just died tho it was beyond economical repair.

After it cost me a fortune (as they had managed not to notify me that i had a fine or that i had been taken to court, but managed to send me a notice charging me for the privilege of both and threatening bailiffs and CCJ) i insisted it was disposed of. I was also not impressed as they were unable to take phone payments so i had to take time off work to go and pay the fine in person, to avoid a CCJ! So i would agree - not my favourite people either!

[chrisch]

Originally Posted by louigi

this government and it's idiosincratic systems only exist to screw the law abiding citizen.

No.

The idea is to trap the many people that don't bother to tax their vehicle. By forcing you to declare its either off the road or scrapped the idea is that the tax dodgers will get caught, making the overall tax burden less for the honest folk that do pay up.

Its a good idea in principle spoilt only by the fact that the fuckwit tories privatised DVLA and now it doesn't work and doesn't have a service ethic. Oh and the fact that all "new" labour (ie tory) ideas are shit.

Chris

[peter-l]

Originally Posted by Digger

OK, so what do we do about my old car which was scrapped but the DVLA keep sending me SORN stuff for it? Everything got sent off, but obviously things went wrong. I just keep signing the SORN (as it very definitely is) and sending it back, but this is becoming tiresome, as I move house etc. and eventually I'll forget to do it and get nailed. Can I just send them a letter and tell them to leave me alone? I have no idea who it was who scrapped it, nor do I have any proof that they sent their bit in.

Digs.

Could be a good idea to get this car dealt with though....one of my mates scraped his car in a yard in Bootle(Merseyside) a few years ago (the yard may have not been totally legit) and then got a call from the boys in blue a couple of months later...apparently his ex-car had been used in a post office robbery.Obviously he had an alibi,he was robbing a bank at the other side of town at the time!

[Mischievous Wabbit]

Check out your basic legal rights. As far as I am aware, common law states that if you post it then the receipient is deemed to have received it 2 days later unless this expressly excluded on the document.

I am not a lawyer and this is just what I recall from my work so will need checking out.

Wabbs

[Richard Mason]

Originally Posted by Darren A

Erm, as far as I can see, a piece of paperwork has gone missing in the post (just like millions of other peices every day). Presumably you copied it before you sent it off? Just send them the copy. Failing that, you know who took it away, get them to confirm it. Either course of action will prevent a court case, and alot of grief for your Dad.

But hang on Darren....what is the actual offence here? (apart from pissing off a bureaucrat?) A piece of missing paperwork or an unregistered car on the road? That seems to be the question no one is asking.

Surely if you send them a letter stating that the car has gone to the wreckers and is off the road for good, that should be it. If the car were, hypothetically, to be found on the road or involved in a driving offence, then that would be a different story and the cops would soon be round to see the last owner. Perhaps he should report it stolen? That would guarantee no further action then.

Sounds to me more like yet an other chance to raise a bit of revenue at the first opportunity.

I really don't want to come across as a "reverse whingeing pom" but having been away 20 years, one thing I have noticed, reading online newspapers and forums such as this is that there seems to have been a steady, stealthy increase in the number of things you get fined/charged for over there, many of them for administrative reasons rather than the commission of an actual real world offence and, if you fall outside the scenarios of whatever dept you're talking too, you are pretty well knackered....no one can do anything about it....apart from the bloke in the legal dept who files the summons of course.

There is some of this here but IME, nothing like as bad as it would appear to be over there in the UK.

In my part of the world, you receive your registration renewal, (which includes third party insurance). If you don't pay it by the due date, the car ain't registered, but so long as it isn't on the road, no offence is committed. If you leave it unregistered for 3 months or more, then you can't reregister it at all without supplying a roadworthiness cert.

If it was later found on the road or involved in an accident and you didn't notify the disposal, you could be in strife but that would be it.

I wonder if people over there recognise what has/is happening with government over the last decade or so?

If it's something gradual and incremental, maybe you don't spot it but for someone like me who didn't go online until recently, thus didn't know anything of what had been happening for 15 years or so back in the UK. In that situation you spot some pretty major differences straight away. It really does amount to a steady erosion of civil liberties, not so much in terms of random arrests & detention etc, but just the freedom of not being hassled by bureaucratic requirements of the government every two minutes, hassles which invariably seem to involve demands for cash.

It reminds me a little of Henry VII's reign, Court of the Star Chamber, where unlike previous monarchs, he didn't execute people but he fined them instead.

Just my two bobs worth.

[yazzyfooty]

When my lovely convertible was stolen and then recovered totally smashed up and written off by the insurance company I sent a copy of the letter the insurance company gave me attached to the form requesting refund of the 8 monhs remaining tax. I got the tax refund then 8 months later I got notification of a SORN of a £1000 for keeping an untaxed vehicle on the road!

I so enjoyed sending them the shittiest haughtiest letter I have written in my life to a beaurocrat (sp) and received a very terse 2 line reply from them saying in this case they will not be proceeding any further! No apology though.............bloody wankers!!

[Scubee]

Originally Posted by Richard Mason

But hang on Darren....what is the actual offence here? (apart from pissing off a bureaucrat?) A piece of missing paperwork or an unregistered car on the road? That seems to be the question no one is asking.

Surely if you send them a letter stating that the car has gone to the wreckers and is off the road for good, that should be it.

but the DVLA sya they don't have a letter. This should be easily sorted, particularly as they have refunded the tax but if you are supposed to get a response from the DVLA about it, and didn't, then personally, I would have queried it.

Originally Posted by Richard Mason

If the car were, hypothetically, to be found on the road or involved in a driving offence, then that would be a different story and the cops would soon be round to see the last owner.

By which time, other people have been involved. Have you ever had an accident caused by an uninsured car? It is the most irritating thing ever. Why should I (or any other member of the public) be put in a situation where we could end up having to sort out this sort of mess?

Originally Posted by Richard Mason

Sounds to me more like yet an other chance to raise a bit of revenue at the first opportunity.
I really don't want to come across as a "reverse whingeing pom" but having been....(snip)

That is exactly what you do sound like, though. Remember, you aren't here, and rely on the reporting of stories which may be more fictional than an Enid Blyton bestseller.

Why the hell should I pay more road tax because some people don't bother paying at all? If someone gets fined because they choose not to abide by the rules, I for one think that is OK. we can't pick and choose which rules we abide by.

Originally Posted by Richard Mason

I wonder if people over there recognise what has/is happening with government over the last decade or so?

because I don't think is is anywhere near as bad as you think.

Originally Posted by Richard Mason

It reminds me a little of Henry VII's reign, Court of the Star Chamber, where unlike previous monarchs, he didn't execute people but he fined them instead.

I suspect it wasn't as bad as that then, either... all we know about that era is what people wrote down.

There is nothing more irritating than people who run something down when they have not experienced it first hand.

(Gerbil - I hope you get it all sorted out!)

[chrisch]

Originally Posted by Scubee

....
because I don't think is is anywhere near as bad as you think.
...

Given the rubbish in the press it would be easy to come to the conclusion that things are really bad though...

I always find it a (pleasant) surprise as we drive out of Dover that a) we didn't have a road pricing GPS thingie fitted to the car by HMCE b) we weren't strip searched and the car dis-assembled looking for assylum seekers c) there are no gatsos on Dover's marine parade d) there are no Roma begging round the Sea-France terminal and e) there are still English people in Dover.

I do think we brits like to paint a black picture where we can and pretend that everything is crap. In particular we love to moan about the government of the day and at the same time deny any of us voted for them

Chris