This Forum is now CLOSED use the link to get more details viewtopic.php?f=4&t=13925
User avatar
By Wheaters
#92573
SORN and DVLA:

I have an old car which was the family spare. Because of the pandemic and other personal reasons I had no use for it in the short term (my other car was doing less than 30 miles per week because I wasn't travelling to work and there are three other vehicles here already correctly on SORN - they are ongoing projects). I decided to take this car off the road and correctly declared a "SORN" via the DVLA website, some six months ago. It does have a current MOT and is still fully insured but is kept off road, on my private property.

Today I received a letter from DVLA reminding me to tax it if I intend to use it or park it on the road (our road is unadopted and privately owned by the residents, but no matter).

Fair enough. But since SORN is these days is "enduring" (I'm aware it originally wasn't) and I have other vehicles in similar circumstances, I wonder why they think I might not have kept things legal with this one in particular; I wouldn't be so stupid as to drive it untaxed, seeing that I'm very aware that there are fixed ANPR cameras at either end of our village and many more in the local area and these are presumably linked to the DVLA database.

I went onto the .GOV.UK website where the SORN declaration is done. I entered my vehicle's details and it confirmed the SORN remained valid so I didn't need to take any action.

If this is a general reminder, I should have already received similar reminders for the other vehicles; they have been SORN'd far longer. Maybe I'm about to receive more, one fore each vehicle? Just made we wonder how much these reminder letters cost. Is the owner of every SORN'd vehicle receiving one? There must be hundreds of thousands of them.

Anyone else in this situation?
User avatar
By Wheaters
#92581
This car is still insured and MOT'd - maybe they think I might risk not taxing it and begin driving it to take the kids back to school etc.

But my kids all grew up and have their own cars now.... :mrgreen:
By ericpode
#92583
Three days ago my brother had a similar letter from DVLA about a trials bike that had been on SORN for years. I think they may be just sitting around getting bored and like stirring us up occasionally. :roll:
By Rattlebattle
#92585
I don’t know about them having nothing to do; I get the impression that the office isn’t fully staffed due to Covid 19. I’ve just removed a personal plate from one of my bikes using the online facility. It said there that using the manual form would cause delays because of the staffing situation ( working at home). No bother to me anyway as I use the online system whenever I can. Who knows where the truth lies?
User avatar
By stinkwheel
#92588
In fairness, I got one for one of my bikes today and had totally forgotten I'd SORNed it at the start of lockdown. Dodged a bullet there I think.

DVLA in does something helpful shocker!
By Rattlebattle
#92614
To be fair I’ve always found gov.uk websites to be pretty good. Using them I’ve obtained several lasting powers of attorney and wound up my mother’s estate in three months flat, saving around £10,000 on solicitors’ fees and getting my hands on the dosh in time to buy a new bike for the riding season last year...The DVLA may cause issues if you’re trying to register some imported old relic without proper papers but overall I find it pretty good. I like the rfl and, particularly, the MOT reminders.
User avatar
By Wheaters
#92628
DVLA......I could tell a tale of how my wife bought a vehicle (a van for her craft fair business)) previously in the disabled tax group. We tried to tax it on line but it proved impossible. The debacle went on and on. They cost her money because we had to hire another van for her business use. It took them seven weeks to sort out. When I finally discovered it had been taxed (DVLA didn’t bother to tell her) they had counted the previous month when they told us it was wasn’t taxed. So she had hired a van for no reason.
User avatar
By stinkwheel
#92630
I painted a black bike green and sent in the completed V5c along with a covering letter. They sent it back as still black. I re-sent it five times, kept coming back as black.

They did the same thing when I told them they had mis-spelled my name on my driving licence. Just repeatedly sent it back unaltered.

I just tell them these things once now and keep a record of when I did it. As far as I'm concerned, I have a legal duty to tell them about these things. Once told, if they choose to ignore what I've told them, it ceases to be my problem. I'm confident that would stand up in court too.

Thinkng about it, I really should tell them the 612 is no longer 500cc. They will no-doubt refuse to do that on the first time of asking. I'll probably get a proof of posting on that one to cover my arse.

When I moved house and informed them of the change of address, they added a new keeper to all of my vehicles.

Shop for accessories at Hitchcocks Motorcycles