DVLA and Historic problems

[malc4d]

Went to the local PO today. 5 mins later walked out with a 'free' tax disc. easy peesy. Although they knew nothing about it until they tried on the computer......

[mike@thenook]

You still have the issue (temporarily at least) of Failure to Display, or failure to SORN.

They will get you either way Mike...

Well I'm certainly not going to stop using it so i guess i'll take the chance - its all irrelevant anyway, I'm not avoiding paying duty, just giving these useless idiots some paper to push around at our expense.

This brings to mind devolution for Scotland - now I know Alec Salmon wants to float his own boat but how about we look at it from the other sensible perspective....we loose Scotland and Wales as being surplus to our requirements and save ourselves lots of ag' like this with the DVLA - base it in England!

Nothing against all my Scots friends of course and the one from Wales (that now lives in England)

[jasper]

My Free tax disk and all my documents arrived yesterday

[mike@thenook]

I'm still waiting for mine with the corrected V5

amazingly, having checked the vehicle details on the DVLA website it actually says there "year of manufacture date 1973" yet below this it says the annual fee is £230.00!

Absolutely appalling - they obviously cannot even read their own information

[DJT]

Same here

Sent the V5 and a verified copy of my Heritage Cert in plenty of time. Still not received it back. Just had a non-productive 1/2 hour on the phone to DVLA. The woman phoned the V5 section for me and all they would say was 'It takes 4 weeks'! So now I'm in the situation where my current VED expires at midnight tonight, and I can't tax it as Historic as the new V5 hasn't been issued. As far as DVLA are concerned, I can't drive my Stag after midnight tonight. Alternatively I can use my V11 to tax it for 6 months as normal, then when I get my new V5 (which could be tomorrow for all I know) apply for a refund for 5 months unused tax.

The really annoying thing is that I went into my local DVLA office last November just before it shut permanently, and was advised what to do, which I followed to the letter.

Blockheads................

[arriva1]

Got my V5 back yesterday and this morning cheque for refund of old tax disk, relieved that all sorted.

Trev

[mike@thenook]

Moving on no further - today, having been promised this day last week by some number in DVLA on the phone I would have my free tax disc by today or "they would have to have an enquiry" I haven't got it, or the new V5 so I used their email system to lodge a complaint;
So, I'm going to use the car without the tax free disc on the basis I now have a very large wad of paper which says I don't need to pay for my tax and that DVLA have apparently issued one albeit I've not received it.
Oh, and no mention of a refund either...
Makes me think (being cynical) someone on here works for the DVLA and got bit upset at my remarks.......

Hmm

[Paul Goldsmith]

Sorry to hear you're all having to wrestle with DVLA, I know what just a PITA this is with any large organisation that hides behind a call centre

I assume the key issue here is where the year of manufacture is incorrect ?

If so, luckily both my Stag's manufacture and registration year are 1974, so I assume that I'll automatically qualify for historic class after April 1975.

For my other classic which was first registered 30/04/1975, I guess there's an outside chance that it was manufactured in late 1974 and that I should be follow this up now and, if luck is on my side, get DVLA to amend my details well in advance of next April - I haven't seen anything mentioned on the DVLA website which prevents them from correcting details at any point


Good luck in resolving all your current DVLA debacles !

[mike@thenook]

Hi Paul,

there is a bit on the DVLA website now which mentions the historic vehicle class https://www.gov.uk/vehicle-exempt-from-car-tax but it doesnt't link in at all if you do a vehicle enquiry like I have to see if any fee applies.
If I put my car details in it says y o m 1973 (so historic) but underneath it says fee due £225 - absolute boll*cks!
Nothing in government is ever joined up as we all know (just the pockets of the people agreeing to purchase systems/equipment from companies and the sellers of said systems/equipment etc) but this is the pits!

I'd get moving now and just maybe by next year they'll have your sorted!

Cheers!

[Paul Goldsmith]

OMG !!!

So it's not driven by the YOM data held by DVLA behind their Vehicle Enquiry form - hell, just how hard can that be ???

My historic status on the Stag which is 1974 YOM being due in April 2015, surely all I need to do is setup an annual direct debit for £ 0.00 to DVLA to settle up ;-)

IIRC from November this year no tax discs will be issued and they'll rely on their electronic information alone. As my YOM is correct and I'll have paid the amount due, zilch, so nothing more for me to do and no risk of 'failure to display'.

Yep, that'll work !

We're paying nowt for the car tax, so they're peeing other people's money up the wall making their process so bureaucratic and non-transparent

[mike@thenook]

You've hit it Paul!

It is purely a case of organised job protection by and for the DVLA employees - they've no incentive to make this work because they know they are on a looser.
I don't like to hear of people loosing their jobs but in this case my sympathy is about nil