The DVLA dont waste much time.

[fozzza]

In mid December I purchased my MK3 project car and received the new log book just before Christmas. The ink hadn't even had chance to dry before the DVLA had sent me a warning letter about either taxing or sorning the vehicle. or face a £1000 fine or the vehicle being towed away . The vehicle hadn't previously been sorned anyway, and the database showed the tax had expired in 1995 with no MOT details held.
Surely with a car that has been off the road for over twenty years and that has no MOT, common sense should have said, the car isn't going to be taxed any time soon .
Even though I have sorned the vehicle online above a week ago the database still shows untaxed, so it looks like another letter maybe on its way.

[Stuart]

Ah the joys of the DVLA. I have cars that also pre date the introduction of SORN and am unable to declare them as SORN. I've not had a warning letter though.

Your car and mine are outside of their normal system. I understand that we do not need to SORN them, and the system won't allow us to anyway even if we try.

[benofbrum]

On the other hand, it sometimes works in our favour. Last year I sold two Quantum H4's and a Moto Guzzi. On all occasions, the tax refund came through within 2 weeks.
I think I now have got H4's out of my system. Brilliant roof system, but they don't handle like a Midas and they have a bonded in chassis which eventually rusts.

[kelvink]

It's because the change of ownership has gone through the sytem it then triggers the other bureaucratic paraphernalia and the computerised system springs into action. If you have a form with a reference number on it relating to your car to enable you to SORN then do it. Whilst I know that there's cars that aren't in the SORN system. (I have one too) I think that when a vehicle reenters the DVLA's database it then joins all the other cars in the system and all the red tape and revenue raising systems kick in.

[fozzza]

I think you are exactly right Kelvin, regarding the recent activity that has put the car under the DVLA spot light. What threw me initialy was that I couldn't sorn my MK2 for the same reasons that Stuart has mentioned, and because this MK3 wasn't also on a sorn and had been off the road for a similar period of time, I thought it fell into the same category as my MK2 and thats why the warning letter came as a bit of a surprise . As soon as I read the contents I got straight onto the website to sorn it and received a conformation email , but my only concern is the public data base still hasn't updated and still shows the vehicle untaxed from December 1995 instead of showing sorn even though it has been way more than the 5 days it can take to update. Perhaps the DVLA are still enjoying their Christmas festivities or maybe a bit peeved they are not getting any extra revenue from me at the moment . On a positive note with the MK3 being correctly registered as a Midas, Im glad it hasn't got lost in the DVLA updated system like some wrongly registered vehicles. ( no worries there then )

[kelvink]

Yes the all singing all dancing database that the authorities like to lead us to believe is so infallible and all seeing is in fact rather unreliable as a source of accurate up to date information, I've had several conversations with DVLA about a couple of vehicles as their system more often than not does not cater for anything more than taxing and changing address of a vehicle. Fortunately the folk at Swansea are very pleasant and helpful, they have always been amenable and understanding of vehicles that don't fit the ideal model that the database is built round so as long as everyone pulls in the same direction things run fairly smoothly thanks to there being real live human beings on each end of the phone. Of course there's always someone some where who wants to buck the system and do some fiddling and rightly so these need to be handled firmly but if everyone is honest then there's really no problems I've always found.

[Jin]

DVLA

common sense?

Err, no