DVLA Nightmare

[deano.1]

Beware! After SORN ing my donor Sierra for 2 years whilst i built my Westfield and filling in all the relevant DVLA forms i recieved a tax reminder for the Sierra at the end of November, after ringing DVLA twice to explain i then recieved a failure to license notice along with a fine of £40 which would increase if i didn't pay it by a certain date! I eventually got it sorted by means of the following letter along with a copy to my MP, it seems they are a law unto their selves! They eventually replied to my letter with  "under the circumstances we will take no further action on this matter"      

January 10, 2006

Reference: *******

Dear Sir or Madam:

SUBJECT: H*** **E

Regarding the “Failure to relicense vehicle” notice that I have received for this vehicle.

I first purchased this vehicle in October 2003 as an Mot failure and immediately notified DVLA by means of filling out and sending off the relevant portion of the V5, I also filled out a SORN application form for the vehicle which would be in force for the next 12 months. During these 12 months I decided to use the vehicle as a donor for a kit car project which was completed in May 2005 and passed an SVA test on the 16th May 2005. During the build period I received a renewal notice for the donor vehicle which was once again notified to the DVLA as SORN. Once the kit car (Westfield) had passed the SVA I contacted DVLA to enquire how to go about registering it for the road and was told that I would need to fill in forms V55/5 and V627/1 which would cover registering the Westfield kit car and take into account parts used from the donor vehicle in order to issue the Westfield a donor vehicle age related registration mark. I filled these forms in accordingly and after a 5 hour wait presented them to the cashier at DVLA Birmingham local office along with an SVA pass certificate, V5 for the donor vehicle, receipts for parts not taken from the donor vehicle, and a cheque for license due. I asked the cashier if I would be able to keep the registration from the donor vehicle and was told that this was not possible as this registration number would need to be taken out of circulation and a new number issued for the Westfield, the V5 for the donor vehicle (H*** **E) was taken from me and I was assured that I would not receive tax reminders for this vehicle in the future! The cashier then informed me that I would be required to present the kit car for an inspection by a DVLA inspector in order to confirm the information on the V627/1 which of course deals with the major parts of the donor vehicle used to build the kit car. After a short time I then received a new V5 in the post for the Westfield kit car with a new mark (H*** **D) as had been discussed. At this point in time I believed that I had fulfilled all of my obligations to the DVLA with respect to both the kit car and the donor vehicle and had carried out everything that had been asked of me! In October 2005 I then received a V11 for registration mark H*** **E which I no longer have because it has been used to build a kit car (H*** **D) which did have a valid license at the time and is at this point in time notified as SORN. This prompted me to ring DVLA Swansea to explain my problem (it took me over 1 week in order to get through to someone), I spoke to a lady who informed me that I would need to write to her explaining the situation, I politely pointed out to her that I had already spent 5 hours waiting in a DVLA local office, hired a breakdown truck in order to present the vehicle to a DVLA inspector, took 2 days holiday from work and spent over a week trying to get through to her on the telephone and that it went against the grain to have to write explaining my situation! She agreed and said as Birmingham office seemed to be at fault she would ask them to ring me back, which they did! I then spoke to another lady who said I would need to write to her, once again I explained that writing to her went somewhat against the grain, she then informed me that she would sort the problem and I would hear no more on the matter! (I wasn’t convinced). I then received a letter from yourselves in the post dated 3rd January 2006 asking me to pay arrears of duty, fine of £40 and either inform you where I had disposed of the vehicle or if I have re licensed or declared SORN on the vehicle. I can only issue the following statement: H*** **E was broken up and the major parts used to build kit car (H*** **D) and minor parts left were disposed of at scrap metal yard, V5 was kept and handed in to DVLA Birmingham, new registration number was issued for the kit car which is presently declared SORN. I trust that once again I have fulfilled what you have asked of me and I am sincerely hoping that our next correspondence will be a letter from yourselves informing me that this matter is now concluded and that I will no longer be sent V11’s or be connected with this registration number in the future. If for any reason there is no satisfactory conclusion to this matter I will be formally contacting my Member of Parliament for advice, as to be frank I have felt somewhat intimidated by the DVLA who for some reason do not seem to be able to discuss this problem at my level, I find it most frustrating that after all the time I have spent making sure that I am within the law with a simple project and endeavoring to give DVLA all the information that you require within all the time limits that I appear to be treated like a common criminal!

Sincerely,

Dean M Steggall

cc: Khalid Mahmood MP

[Owen9364]

   

Had problems doing a straightfoward plate change on the tin top recently , makes me blood boil .

Paul .

[deano.1]

   

Had problems doing a straightfoward plate change on the tin top recently , makes me blood boil .

Paul .

I had problems with that as well, they lost all my documents and i couldn't tax my car, rang them for help, nothing they could do        

[darthurs]

I had a similar problem, but they told me to just write them a letter stating that the donor car had been scrapped, even though DVLA Manchester was suppose to have sorted that out for me when I registered my westfield.

Hopefully it all should be sorted now for me.

Dan