O.K this is not a rant about unlicenced cars or a post about an unlicenced car in the street I pass regulaly.
Rather it is seeking advice on my own unlicenced car. My tax disk expired at the end feburary. The car was reported (on the 05/03/08 at 14.00) to the DVLA as being unlicenced where I usally parked it on a public road after my tax disk expired. I got a letter with the date of 04/09/08 from the DVLA informing me of this, plus a request to pay them £45 in the same letter.
I subseqently wrote my car off on the 21/03/08.
My thoughts on the matter is that:
1. Yes I was wrong not to get my car taxed
2. Why does it take 6 months for the DVLA to bring this matter to my attention and issue a fine?
I could imagine a situation where someone did not tax their car for months and only when the letters start to come through did they find they owed thousands in fines.
3. I suspect the police or a member of the public reported the car on the road. Why do we have this system of 'reporting'? The DVLA has all the information it needs on it's computer systems already. If the car was not being used on the road it should have been SORNed. In the absence of the car being SORNed the DVLA could assume it was being used on the road. In this case the 'Reporting' system seems a little defunct. Couldn't the DVLA issue fines of lets say £10 a day on owners where don't SORN or tax their car, rather than relying on this 'reporting'?
4. How many times can a car be reported as untaxed but on a public road in a defined period, and how is that period defined? If a member of the public/police did report the car on the 05/03/08 at 14.00, what is to stop them reporting the car in the same position the hour or day after? In short what could my maximum liablity be?
5. NIPs for speeding have to be posted/recived (I am not to sure which one) less that 14 days after the offence. Is there any provision like this concerning untaxed cars?
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Can you clarify things here
Reported untaxed on 05/03/08
Letter on 04/09
You wrote the car off on 21/03 - what do you mean wrote off? Accident or do you mean Sorned? If accident surely the ins company would have taken ownership of car?
Are you sure all facts are correct, there was a recent post on similar lines and it turned out reason for dealy was that the car was not registered to correct address?
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You have broken the law in some way or the other! I reckon £45 is cheap, compared with your proposed £10 a day for not being SORNd. On the dates you have supplied this proposal of yours would have cost you £160! You are going to have to pay something and £45 looks like a bargain. If you have nothing better to do, engage them in a long, detailed and accurate/truthful correspondence on the matter - they might give up before you do! When you 'wrote off the car' did you tell DVLA? If not your liability could be ongoing.
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2. Why does it take 6 months for the DVLA to bring this matter to my attention and issue a fine?
You're hardly in a position to to be able complain to anyone.
5. NIPs for speeding have to be posted/recived (I am not to sure which one) less that 14 days after the offence. Is there any provision like this concerning untaxed cars?
Speeding is an offence at a specific time.. Having an untaxed car is an ongoing offence covering a period of time.
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Edited by b308 on 10/09/2008 at 10:55
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4. How many times can a car be reported as untaxed but on a public road in a defined period, and how is that period defined? If a member of the public/police did report the car on the 05/03/08 at 14.00, what is to stop them reporting the car in the same position the hour or day after? In short what could my maximum liablity be?
This is the important bit seems to me. So far, your 'fine' seems to relate to the period from expiry (end of February) to the date the car was reported for no tax (05/03/08) - just a week in fact - cost £45!
I would suggest (if you haven't already) you move your car off the road PDQ before another 'reporting' turns up.
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I wonder why you only got fined £45, I thought it was a minimum £80 for leaving a car on the road untaxed?
Our neighbour got charged £80 when he left a 3 year old 3-series on the road with no tax. It sat there about 3 weeks before we saw it with yellow sticker and penalty charge thing stuck on the windscreen.
"What if you don?t tax or SORN your vehicle":
snipurl.com/3ouxr [www_direct_gov_uk]
Edited by Rich 9-3 on 10/09/2008 at 11:20
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When I ran a small business (as opposed to working for myself, by myself as I do now) we had a small van that was involved in a no fault accident with a foreign lorry. While it was sat at the acccident repair centre (wrangling with Polish insurer) its tax expired as did its MOT, it could not be MOT'd because it was not driveable so it could not be taxed, eventually it was repaired and MOTd about four weeks after the tax expired and accordingly taxed. As it happened - not by design - it missed a month of tax, i.e. expired end Feb, retaxed 1st Apr and we got a fine of £80 - no amount of explanation would convince DVLA otherwise.
They are so inflexible it is just not worth trying to argue with them over £45.
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Bobby G. By 'wrote off', I meant had an accident that made the car unrepairable. After the accident the car was taken away to an off-street compound.
AS. I know I broke the law, it was number 1. in 'My thoughts on the matter' - so to put it eloquently, shut up.
On the other point you make about whether my £45 pound fine is cheap or not, I feel you missed the point I was trying to make. I am not saying anything relating to the amount of money, but rather the system for catching people who don't tax/liecence their car properly.
At the moment we have a system that takes up civic minded peoples and police peoples time up by reporting offences to the DVLA. The DVLA already has the information on you, so isn't this system wasting police time? It would be much beter if the DVLA used it's computers rather than outsourcing the catching of offenders to the police/civic minded people.
What also gets my goat is the system of people 'reporting' offenders is unfair, in that it all depends if you are lucky or not in who passes your car. Computers take no chances, and treat people equally, so why don't the DVLA actually use their computers rather than people off the street?
Since I have writtern my car off, I have informed the DVLA that it's been scrapped.
L'escargot - I believe that people in public office have a duty to change behavour that they don't like, rather than treat it as a cash cow. Posts about people entering into bus lanes for a few meters in London everyday for two weeks without realising it, and then getting two weeks worth of bills landing on their matt has arroused great sypathy on this forum. I for one value fast and fair public services.
Woodbines - Lets hope your right regarding fines being in proportion to the period of which my car went untaxed. I only hope the DVLA has systems like that, and thus my liablility is a quantifiable amount.
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"AS. I know I broke the law, it was number 1. in 'My thoughts on the matter' - so to put it eloquently, shut up."
Charming - only trying to help! To put it eloquently - I hope your next poo is a hedgehog!
Edited by Armitage Shanks {p} on 10/09/2008 at 14:32
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£45 Cheap pay up and move on DVLA won't drop it, they may even take you to court or knock on you door. Regards Peter
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We have a system that works well for nearly all of us. Why did it not work for you? You get a reminder sent to you to tax the car, or SORN it. You didnt - you got caught, you got off lightly. Doesnt matter when the fine came in.
I think you are peeved because you thought you got away with it.
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It would be much beter if the DVLA used it's computers rather than outsourcing the catching of offenders to the police/civic minded people.
From the DirectGov link I posted:
"The DVLA carries out a check of its records each month to identify untaxed vehicles. They have the authority to carry out enforcement action against you using the information held on their records."
At the moment we have a system that takes up civic minded peoples and police peoples time
I'm sure members of the public who take the time to report a car dont do it grudgingly, they must have some personal interest for wanting to report it?
Luckily it sounds like you dont live in a city where untaxed cars are towed away and impounded, and you have to pay a fortune to get it back:
snipurl.com/3oyn5 [uk_search_yahoo_com]
Edited by Rich 9-3 on 10/09/2008 at 19:01
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I'm sure members of the public who take the time to report a car dont do it grudgingly they must have some personal interest for wanting to report it?
Like why should they pay tax and someone else not, perhaps?
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