SORN lost in post - What to do

[danny_kiernan]

Hello All,

This SORN issue seems to be becoming a pain for quite a lot of people now, so I would like to address some points:

Lost in Post:

Firstly, the lost in the post argument DOES hold water, the UPU (Universal Postal Union) Act states categorically, that all post remains the senders until it arrives at the recipients, except for the UK where the post becomes the recipients property as soon as it enters the postbox. This applies whether it is sent recorded delivery or not.

Letter to DVLA

• Make the DVLA aware that you know the UPU Act, include partial or full text from the Act in your reply to them.
• Fill out a 'lost in post' request to the Royal Mail, photocopy it (and any other correspondance from the Royal Mail) and send with your letter.
• Illustrate the point about the DVLA losing data, do a search on the net, they lose data all the time, feel free to quote any references, taken from reputable sources.

At County Court

• A county court judge may or may not be aware of the UPU act, depends on the judge you get, you have to make them aware, so it is worth putting that in your defence statement.
• Make sure you fill out a 'lost in post' form with the Royal Mail, this fulfills 2 functions:
  • It proves to the judge that you have looked for the lost in post document.
  • It puts the onus on the DVLA and the Royal Mail to sort it out and trust me, the DVLA and the Royal Mail won't be taking each other to court anytime soon.
• Illustrate the point about the DVLA losing data, do a search on the net, they lose data all the time, feel free to quote any references, taken from reputable sources.

Civil Fines are Illegal

Civil fines/penalties - whatever they are dressed up as, are against the main constitutional document we have, the Bill of Rights - as has been proved by so many reclamations of parking/bank/dvla charges.

For both the DVLA and court, you can copy my template letter and adjust it to your own requirements - a copy is on this thread: I want to take on DVLA, anyone help?

I wonder if any nice moderator will add it to the template library, pretty please

Arguing a Supplementary Charge

The DVLA will try to argue that a supplementary charge is allowed in the RTA 1988, however there are 2 flaws with this argument (at the moment):

1. The wording on the V5, states a penalty/fine (dependant on year received) - not a supplementary charge, so it falls under the Bill of Rights as an unlawful fine.
2. The RTA does not repeal the Bill of Rights, so is therefore governed by it, so supplementary charge is just a fine dressed up in a fancy outfit.

Hope that helps you all out

Dani