Just an update for anybody following this, since the final demand letter back in October, I haven’t heard anything… Guess they don’t think they really have a case, but they’re happy to try their luck with threatening letters.

I sent of an email to DVLA complaining about the DCA’s behaviour (see below) and got this back: “If you have received a notice from a debt collectors agency, this is now out of our hands. You will need to raise any questions that you have with regards to the penalty with them.” OUT OF THEIR HANDS!? Impressively not answering any of my questions… I'm thinking I might go with some individual questions, just to see if I can get an answer. Starting with a request for DCA guidelines (as normal guidelines don’t apply). Here is the email I sent, explaining my situation and raising issues with the DCA - if you can be bothered reading it, I’m guessing the DVLA couldn’t… Sent DVLA 15/10/12 Hello, I’ve tried explaining my situation to the debt collection agency, but they seem to now think they can change the penalty for late licensing to a “fine” for not updating the DVLA records, while continuing to threaten the following actions: County Court Summons/Judgment (being made against your person) and/or 1 Statutory Demand (against yourself) 2 Charging Order (against property you may own) 3 Attachment of Earnings/Benefits (against your income) 4 Bankruptcy petition. I would like to know if you have any guidelines for their Collection correspondence!? If not, why not? And if there is somewhere I can escalate a complaint? I would like to point out, that the DVLA records have been updated (I have the V5C for the new keeper, dated 23/09/11) Could you please explain to me, if you didn’t receive the notification, why you have issued the V5C to another person, and why I didn’t receive a reminder for tax renewal in March? I did send off the V5C form via royal mail (which I believe is my legal requirement). I’m sure I did this and willing to sign a statutory declaration to this effect as I sold the car to a friend, and wanted to ensure the ownership changed smoothly. I have an email to him (with response) asking for details to complete the V5C form. I also confirmed with him that he had received his V5C form, indicating to me that the DVLA had updated their records for this vehicle. I’m not sure how you can claim to hold 2 people responsible for the same vehicle at the same time!? He was late paying his tax on this vehicle for March 2012, and I have the receipt from the enforcement section for payment of the arrears.

Hi Vax2002, thanks for the reply, but I’m not sure I’ve got the balls to go in with that. Although I do like what you’ve done with it. I have heard that they aren’t authorised to issue fines, which is nice. Although they do state they can issue a penalty for not informing them of sale – so that may be valid after the change of current keeper (although a year after is pushing it?). And as I have stated, I did meet their requirements of sending in the V5C form (which has been argued on several threads here). They have processed the change of ownership… Which raises the question, if they didn’t hear from me, why did they proceed to issue a V5C form to another person!? I would like to know if they have any guidelines for their Collection correspondence!? If so, I’m guessing they have breached them – if not, why not? Might do a little more research into the Parliamentary Ombudsman over the weekend and draft something for Monday. Cheers, Craig.

Hi again, well back from the holidays, so thought I’d update this. DVLA just say deal with Philips. I’ve sent a couple emails to Philips, but while I was away, the letters kept coming. Now up to “COURT WARNING – FINAL NOTICE” saying: Several avenues have now become available to us to clear your arrears. County Court Summons/Judgment (being made against your person) and/or 1 Statutory Demand (against yourself) 2 Charging Order (against property you may own) 3 Attachment of Earnings/Benefits (against your income) 4 Bankruptcy petition Goodness me! So I sent them this: Good morning, I’m a little confused by this. I thought this was a penalty for late licensing, not failing to inform of change of ownership? Can you please clarify? As for not updating their records, I did send off the V5C form via royal mail (which I believe is my legal requirement). I’m sure I did this and willing to sign a statutory declaration to this effect as I sold the car to a friend, and wanted to ensure the ownership changed smoothly. I have an email to him (with response) asking for details to complete the V5C form. I also confirmed with him that he had received his V5C form, indicating to me that the DVLA had updated their records for this vehicle. I’m not sure how they can claim to hold 2 people responsible for the same vehicle at the same time!? He was late paying his tax on this vehicle for March 2012, and I have the receipt from the enforcement section for payment of the arrears. I’m unsure of my legal responsibility to have received and kept the acknowledgement letter, could you please identify this for me? I feel the language and threats you have used in your correspondence have been in breach of the CSA & DBSG guidelines. Kind regards, To which the responded: Thank you for your email We have noted the account with the information provided We can advise that the fine is for not updating the DVLA records and receiving a acknowledgement letter within the 28days as stated on the log book. On the V5 it states on receipt of notification of keeper chhange.DVLA will issue an acknowledgement letter after 4 weeks confirming that the keeper has been changed.you should keep the letter as a recipt in the event that you recieve further correspondence concering the vehicle. All letters are approved by the DVLA before being sent out we can advise CSA & DBSG guidelines are only for consumer credit regulated debt only which this case is not. You can call the office on 0844 800 4588 to make payment of the £80. Kind regards Philips Interesting they say CSA & DBSG guidelines don’t apply to them… I wonder if the law applies? I’m also ‘impressed’ that they can just “advise that the fine is for not updating the DVLA records” (rather than late licensing at this point in a debt recovery procedure? Anyway, off for the weekend, and will look at this next week. Hope you enjoy your weekends. Cheers.

Yeah, I don’t really understand it… but I think they are just trying to put as many scary things in (i.e. £1000 fine, CCJ and clamping) to try to scare people into just paying the £80. Sounds like they are not actually able to do any of these things (especially clamping as they wont find the car at that address – as it has been sold). Not sure if it’s illegal, but it certainly doesn’t seem right to me.

Hi Renegadeimp, thanks for your reply. I have emailed DVLA with a scanned copy of the V5, so will wait to see what they say. But my initial correspondence that just stated I had sold the vehicle was pushed back saying to deal with Philips. Not sure what they are acting as. They letter is titled “Notice of Instruction” with “regarding: Late Licensing Penalty on behalf of DVLA”. I’ll try to upload a copy of the text, but traveling at the moment, so will just be a phone photo job. Thanks again, Craig.

Excellent site guys, I spent a few hours reading through posts last night. I am having a similar experience with the DVLA (and Philips Bailiffs in my case) for what I consider to be an unreasonable fine, with nobody prepared to listen to logic or reason. I sold my car last year and sent in the V5. I didn’t hear anything further until August this year, when I received a “Notice of Instruction” letter from Philips claiming I had failed to pay a late licencing penalty on the vehicle from March 2012. The letter came with scary threats to pay £80 now, or face fines of more than £1000. Luckily I sold the car to a friend, so took a copy of the V5 and sent that (with new owner named from 23/09/11). They are saying they cant accept that, and want to see the confirmation letter from DVLA that I notified them. I cant remember if I got the letter, but wouldn’t have kept if for more than 6 months even if I did. It was late being taxed (by my friend) but he did tax it in April, and has paid a penalty to backdate it to March already. It seems that this is different in that the fine for continuous licencing may be a legal one, but it shouldn’t be issued twice on the same car. I’m going to send of another letter to the DVLA to see what they say. But if it is pushed further, any thoughts on the result if it goes to court? Cheers, Craig.