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Buying
a V8 with the tax expired, then take care how you make the SORN
to the DVLA
We have
received an email from James Fairchild of the Transport Yorkshire
Preservation Group highlighting an extraordinary difficulty he has
had with a SORN. (21.1.05)
| I
came across your website and the SORN pages via Google and thought
you might be interested in our recent experience following the
submission of a SORN for a vehicle we had bought for spares
- the DVLA are presently trying to sting us for an £80
fine for a SORN related issue.
My friend
and I run the Transport Yorkshire Preservation Group (and
the website when I get te chance) who own seven preserved
buses. The background to the case is we purchased a Freight
Rover Sherpa panel van, which will be used as spares for the
two Freight Rover Sherpa minbuses we own. Whilst we were in
the previous owners' front room and on the day the tax expired
on the vehicle, we filled in the V5C and he (presumably) sent
it off to the DVLA to advise them of the change of ownership.
I then sent off a SORN form and later had a standard letter
referring to the SORN as a reply from the DVLA a few weeks
later - and the V5 VRD had come back before that.
However,
a little while later, we received another letter from the
DVLA, saying that we need to pay an £80 fine for not
registering a SORN. It was only on re-reading the 'standard
letter' that we realised that the letter said words to the
effect that "as you are not the registered keeper on
our records you cannot declare a SORN" for the vehicle
- despite the fact that another department on a different
floor at the DVLA was processing the change of keeper there
and then!!!!
Please make
your members aware of this potential problem, and of the need
to file all DVLA paperwork to back oneself up.
Regards
James Fairchild
PS - as Freight
Rover is tenuously connected to MG Rover, I attach a photo of
the van - D 705 HUA - taken in central Leeds when it was new
in 1986. |
DVLA helpline 0870 240 0010
www.dvla.gov.uk
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V8 Register - MG Car Club
Freight Rover Sherpa minibus D 705 HUA, taken when acquired
as a new vehicle (No 1705) by the West Yorkshire Passenger Transport
Executive in 1986, and now preserved by Transport Yorkshire Preservation
Group. (Photo: © Malcolm King)
James Fairchild of the Transport Yorkshire Preservation Group
reports he is being fined £80 by the DVLA despite having sent
in a SORN. It is an extraordinary case which could easily hit V8
enthusiasts who buy a car where the tax has expired and a SORN is
due, then register the change of ownership in the usual way, and
send in a SORN but do so before the change of registration has taken
effect. Yes it seems incredible but the DVLA has fined James for
sending in a SORN and refuses to accept it because on the day the
SORN declaration was made he was not the registered keeper - although
legally he was the owner at that stage having completed the purchase
of the vehicle. This type of heavy handed nonsense by the DVLA is
clearly unreasonable but as we have already noted the DVLA approach
to SORN has been aggressive from the start with an unpleasant and
slightly sad macho management style.
For
overseas members, "DVLA" is the Driver &
Vehicle Licensing Agency which is a UK Goververnment agency,
and "SORN" is a Statutory Off Road Notification,
a formal document the registered keeper of a vehicle has to
return to the DVLA if the vehicle is not taxed for the road
use on public roads through the payment of a road fund licence.
Links to
other SORN pages on the V8 Website
| SORN1 |
warning
of new SORN arrangements |
| SORN2 |
laying
up, what is the procedure? |
| SORN3 |
SORN
case study |
| SORN4 |
DVLA's
aggressive style |
| SORN5 |
take
care with your SORN declaration |
| SORN6 |
SORN
your V8 online with DVLA |
| SORN7 |
take
care with SORNs |
| SORN8 |
renewing
online |
| SORN9 |
another
bad SORN experience |
| SORN10 |
can
you SORN early? |
| Leaflets |
DVLA
leaflets |
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