Found my V5 certificate and redid the direct debit but it's only starting from 1 June so the car is not covered for the months of April or May, and to add insult to injury I got this popping up throughout the process: "There is a Direct Debit due to auto renew on 1 April 2017. If you continue with your application you may be charged twice. This will auto renew if you have a valid MOT (if applicable) and insurance (if the vehicle is registered to a Northern Ireland address) when your vehicle tax is due." So I'm apparently paying my tax twice and my car remains clamped. Or at least it better - after reading through these fora I intend on sitting in it all day to make sure nobody crushes it while I'm on the phone with the DVLA!

UGH! This is a long one, so please bear with me :/ Last year, I had precious little faith in the DVLA's new auto renew direct debit for car taxing, so I set up a new one. As you may have guessed, they wound up double dipping and took months to stop. This year, because I was still leery, I emailed them back in March before my MOT to ask if I would need to manually set up a new direct debit. The response came back as follows: It may help if I explain that periodic scans are conducted on the MOT databases at time of renewal. Provided there is a valid MOT in place by the last scan date of 01/04/2017, the Direct Debit will automatically renew for a further 6 or 12 month period. A new payment schedule will be issued to the preferred communication method chosen when the Direct Debit was initially set up. The first payment will be taken within 14 days of the renewal date. My MOT was in place the week before the 1 April (the DVLA database confirms this, so it's not a problem with that) and I thought all was well, last week I received a penalty notice demanding £80 by 2 July or run the risk of having my car impounded and crushed. I called on Saturday and spoke with Olive in Team 31, who didn't know why it hadn't auto-renewed, but graciously agreed it should have and that I should use that email as evidence in a written appeal. Given that the penalty notice itself said I had until 2 July, I wasn't panicking or anything, and thought I could respond to the penalty notice in writing on Monday - until I went to do my grocery shopping today and they'd clamped my car! Now the contracting company is demanding £100 not to crush it. I'm sorry, but this remains, as far as I'm concerned, the DVLA's fault, not mine. I'd even *checked* with them, and have it in writing complete with a case reference number. I couldn't contact anyone helpful today - the clamping company gave zero hoots when I rang them, and I couldn't call the DVLA as they're shut on Sundays. I cannot lay my hands on my V5 certificate so couldn't even tax it online. I can't get to work in the morning (the trains are particularly difficult as I'm on Southern - a whole other consumer action story! - and struggle with the very long walk to and from the station near my office as I've got osteoarthritis and sometimes need to use a cane) and will be on the phone with the DVLA first thing, obviously, but the idea of paying either of these penalties is infuriating me. OH and to top it off, the spot the car is parked in is fine for parking on a Sunday, but on Monday it's a residents' only, and it'll be a straight shoot out to see if the DVLA's flunkies tow it before the council does, despite the fact I obviously cannot move it right now myself. Any suggestions?!