Taxing!

[Stevekid1]

Hi,

I know this has been discussed at length but just looking for a little bit of clarity. I have just received my road tax renewal at £255. Car was registered in March 1978 but I have a heritage certificate to prove it was built in May 1977. If I take insurance cert, heritage cert, proof of MOT and V5 to a main post office are they able to deal with it or do I have to send everything off to DVLA? Also do I need to have anything else to get it into historic class?

Thanks in advance, Steve

[Ritchie6]

My 1976 Stag was converted to Historic vehicle at my local village post office when I first bought the car last year. I simply took in the change of owner slip which was torn off the bottom of the log book. Our postmistress filled in the relevant form for me and then sent it off. About a week or so later I got my log book back, now in my name and showing "Historic vehicle" which of course means free road tax. It was dead easy and if a tiny village post office can do it then there's no excuse unless they can't be arsed!! Also I did it without a heritage certificate as I don't have one but I think she asked for the MOT certificate

Richard

[barkerwilliams]

I have switched two cars to historic status. One I took to the local post office and mentioned historic status, they turned to their computer screen and it was done. The second car's details on the computer would not allow a switch to historic so I had to telephone Swansea.

I would suggest if everything looks to be in order then try your local Post Office but if there is any query telephone Swansea first, they are very helpful. I believe you have to ask for Historic status it is not done automatically.

Alan

[Carl Reading]

Mine was registered end of Jan 78. Took the relevant documents to the Post Office and they tried and failed to change to Historic, so they sent the docs of to Swansea. Swansea sent my docs back a few weeks later with the car still taxed as PLG. They also sent a polite letter pointing out that they cannot change the status until next year as, due to legal changes, it is now the date of registration that defines historic status not the date of manufacture

[Phil S]

my experience differs from Carl. it was only when l got a heritage cert to prove age that Swansea then changed mine over. born Sept 76..christened Jan 77
they seem to apply different standards depending on the day of the week and what's on the menu for lunch.
Phil

[Stevekid1]

Ok thanks for replies, I guess I will just need to go and give it a try. Carl, did you have a heritage certificate? if you did then it would seem that its not about the car being 40 years old its about whether the government has had 40 years of tax out of it! If that is the case I shall put mine on SORN at the end of the month until next year. They are not getting a penny more out of me.

[sjclark]

Tried to change to historic status last year. Car build date was in mid 1976, first use was March 77 - just too late to qualify last year.

I called DVLA to check and they told me the car was first registered in mid March 77, but the build date on DVLA records was Dec 31 1977, so too late to qualify. When I pointed out the inconsistency in the dates, the person I spoke to told me they could not (would not?) change the build date - even though it was obviously wrong, being nearly ten months after first use date. I needed to tax the car starting the next day so the DVLA agent could only offer me the choice of paying for tax then waiting for a refund of the unused months - which, to give credit where it's due, came through in about a month.

They insisted I needed a Heritage certificate to change the incorrect build date record on their computer.

I already had the Heritage Certificate, so sent it to DVLA.

Their next response after just a few days was a new V5 showing PLG status, and next day, a letter explaining that the key date would be first use / registration before March 6th 1977, i.e. tough luck on Historic status despite the 1976 build date on the Heritage Certificate. The following day came a second V5 showing Historic Status, and a letter describing the enclosure of the Heritage Certificate - which wasn't in the envelope. A phone call to DVLA resulted in the advice to wait up to 6 weeks for the missing document to arrive, as it must be lost in the post.

After 7 weeks, with no sign of the Certificate I sent a letter detailing the situation and was advised to wait another 6 weeks.

After several more emails etc. I got a phone call from DVLA telling me they thought the certificate had been lost, but they did a check and found a photocopy of it in their records. They could/would not send me a copy, however! They did offer to pay for a reissue of the Heritage Certificate. This took nearly four months in total to process, with lots of moany emails from me to help them keep it in mind, but I did finally get a money order from Swansea.

[Stevekid1]

Update: could not be done at the post office as system indicated first registration as March 1978 so I have taxed for another six months. In the meantime I will post everything off to DVLA and hope I get it back together with a refund. Will let you know.....