Arggg......I'm a criminal not (furious)

[Sootchucker]

As you might know, the wife and I collected our new cars (mine a new GTD and hers a Polo Blue GT) on the 14th May from our local VW dealer. That was obviously 6 months ago.

Imagine my surprise when I came home from work on Friday evening to find a letter from DVLA, which when I opened is was an Enforcement letter stating that my car was pinged by an ANPR camera on the 29th September and it came back as my car wasn't taxed.......WTF I thought, so I immediately went onto the DVLA website and typed our details in and sure enough, both my car and the wife's car were showing as having no tax !

Needless to say I stormed into the dealership on Saturday morning all guns blazing, and threatening them with solicitors etc. however they looked really puzzled. They said it wasn't possible for them to complete their paperwork for handover without the car being taxed by them (which incidentally was £0 for the first year for both cars).

We had taken both paperwork packs with us, and they looked though them and picked out two pieces of paper. One was a document entitled "Confirmation of Registration Details" with a unique reference number, where it showed clearly - Licence details - Period of Licence - 12 months, Tax Class - 49 DC and Duty paid £0.

The second document was a computer printout of a receipt from the DVLA's own AFRL ("Automatic first registration and licensing system"). This again clearly showed the same CRD number as the previous document, the correct chassis number (on both documents against each of the two cars), with the same details as above for tax (i.e. Period of Licence - 12 months, Tax Class - 49 DC and Duty paid £0.), and a banner across it which said - "VEHICLE FULLY REGISTERED".

The dealership are taking this up with DVLA this morning on by behalf but tell me that these two pieces of paper categorically prove that the vehicles were taxed and that it must have been a computer glitch at their end on the day the card were registered.

Anyone ever heard of this before, and do you think I'm going to have a real battle convincing DVLA that I'm innocent and the cars have always been taxed, or should it be fairly simple (my previous experience of government offices is not very good).

I'm going to call DVLA this morning in parallel (don't want to leave this totally up to the dealer), but am really surprised that this has affected both cars, and if it was a computer glitch on the day, how many other cars that they registered on the same day are also blissfully travelling around illegally thinking they are taxed ?

As you don't get a tax disc any more, it never occurred to me to check on line to see if the cars were taxed. I'd advise everyone to check their own cars just in case (but I'm sure with my luck this year, it will just be mine and the wife's)

Not happy - watch this space - 

[monkeyhanger]

It'll come to nowt - you have the paperwork to prove your innocence. The tax renewal situation is ridiculous for cars that attract no road fund license. The wife's A1 1.6 TDI pays no tax, yet you still have to apply every year for your free electronic tax disc, as I found out when I got 2 heavy handed DVLA reminder/threats to pay my car tax. I assumed these cars would be exempt from the admin exercise of applying for a free road fund license. After all, they know who owns it.

[fredgroves]

The reason why they don't just "exempt" some vehicles is that the zero rate is just a temporary thing. When they stick the duty up you need to be aware of it at renewal.

[Sootchucker]

Right, spoken to DVLA, and they say the fault lies with the dealer. Bascially the wife and I have had private plates on our cars for years. When we traded in the old cars for the new ones, obviously the plates were moved across, but according to DVLA, the dealer section of the old V5C documents wasn't filled in correctly by them indicating that the number plate was being re-used and so the tax was cancelled on both cars against those plates.

I'm not sure if this is BS as the "Confirmation of Registration Details" and the AFRL document i have both state our private plate numbers and against the new cars chassis numbers, and my V5C document also has the correct private plate shown against it. I'm thinking it's a case of the left hand not knowing what the right hand is doing !

In any case, I'm assured by DVLA that the vehicles are legal to drive and a case has been opened to re-instate the tax on both cars and this should be completed within 2-4 weeks (why so long ?).

If it was even possible I went even more grayer over the weekend 

[monkeyhanger]

The reason why they don't just "exempt" some vehicles is that the zero rate is just a temporary thing. When they stick the duty up you need to be aware of it at renewal.

Those cars already registered and currently attracting zero road tax will continue yo do so when the new showroom tax plus flat rate £140pa for all comes in and applies to newly regisyeted cars registeted after that date only. Fair do's if the rate on that car does change, but while it attracts £0 banding, why not leave the owner alone?

I was quite confused when I got the letter demanding payment, wondering why it had gone up from £0, but it turned out to be a generic template based on money needing to change hands in most cases. DVLA could save a lot of admin costs by putting a "leave them alone" flag on the records of cars with £0 annual tax.

[dubber36]

Whether a car is subject to RFL of £0 or not, it will still need to be shown on the system as on the road or SORN. If RFL is not paid on a vehicle that would otherwise attract a fee, is does not automatically attain a SORN, that has to be applied for annually. That said, if you pay no RFL and want to take a vehicle off the road, why bother registering it as SORN?

[GTD22]

Does anyone else think the DVLA just try to make things hard?

[monkeyhanger]

Does anyone else think the DVLA just try to make things hard?

They definitely do! If you have a car that attracts no car tax, they shouldn't give a sh!t if it is SORN or not, because either way you're not giving them any money.

In that situation, the only reason for SORN is to justifiably not have an insurance policy on the go, but if you're not out driving it to be caught on those plate recognition cameras to flag up the fact that you have no insurance then again, why should they care?

[GT4]

I think the new system is by and large a good one ... getting rebates on sold second hand cars is a nice touch! The only problem is the lack of tax disc and therefore the lack of surity that the car is actually taxed - every time I pass one of those Police vans it always makes me think twice or even three times ... 😅