The following statement was released a few days ago by the Government. This is in response to a Daily Mail campaign earlier this year regarding individuals who have found themselves unable to get a mortgage or credit because of the existence of a judgment against them that they were unaware of (usually because all correspondence had been sent to a previous address). Depending on the outcome, this consultation could have far reaching consequences for bailiff enforcement. Currently, in relation to council tax arrears, a local authority are permitted to issue a summons to the 'last known' address. In relation to an unpaid penalty charge notice, correspondence must be addressed to the address held by DVLA at the time of the contravention.

Hy. My problem is that the dvla send my new dl and my ID back but i didn't recived anything from them... Since 1month...i talk whit them several times and they investigatr my case but i really feel that they won't solve anything... Did somebody was in my situation? And what happend next? Thank you

Hi all, i received a letter from dvla this week saying they have photographic evidence of may car in july 2016 as not having tax. on the back of the letter it has a four part statement to fill in. What should i do ? many thanks

The DVLA are [removed]! I bought a car,& taxed it for 6 months, but almost immediately decided I didn't like it so applied to get a tax refund and they are saying I'm not the registered keeper, because the dealer didn't send his part of the registration document back to DVLA... so where does this leave me...? I can't afford to throw £120 away... Is there a complaints procedure, please? TB

Hi, hope for some advise. I paid my road tax via the DD scheme at my local post office back in September and set up the monthly payments via my bank. I have not authorised my bank to stop payments but the DVLA have stopped requesting payments and are now claiming that my car is not taxed. I have had no letters stating wht payments have not been requested and paid as agreed but it would appear that i am being held accountable for the DVLA breaching the DD scheme which seems a bit unfair. Any advice would be appreciated.

Hi anyone that can advise! In June 2016 I got clamped for having no road tax. I realised I hadn't renewed it since moving address, I paid the Road Tax & Clamping Fine immediately. I did update my License with the DVLA when I moved but forgot to update the vehicle V5C and thus did not receive a reminder letter from DVLA. The period I was unknowingly driving around without tax for was almost a year. (around June 2015 to 10 June 2016) I got captured on camera 5 times on these dates: £262 for offence on 03/01/16 £329 for offence on 05/03/16 £296 for offence on 03/04/16 £396 for offence on 02/05/16 £430 for offence on 10/06/16 (Day I got clamped) £100 for Clamping -------- £1813 Total DVLA filed two of the fines with the court and (in my absence) I was sentenced by the court on both occasions. I never knew any of this was happening as all the dvla/court/bailiff documents were allegedly going to my old address. The first I knew of these fines was when the court sent bailiffs to my flat to take possession of my car. I explained to them that I got clamped but knew nothing of the court cases. I paid the bailiff to avoid having my car removed. I then filed "Statutory Declarations" and the court voided the first case & relisted the 2nd case. After that I phoned the DVLA in an attempt to pay them a settlement. (This is when the operator told me I have 5 fines to pay, and would I be paying £1713!!?!) I told him I would pay the original fine £262 but I can't afford to pay the rest. I also sent the DVLA an appeal letter but they have not responded to my questions and given me a final chance to pay the out of court settlement fine. Before you say "ignorance is not an excuse" I just want to say that I simply forgot to update my V5C when I moved. As I updated my license I guess I just thought to cross DVLA off the list of notifications and moved on to let me bank, work etc know. So when I didn't receive a reminder to pay tax it all spiralled out of control. It's not deliberate tax avoidance. My question is if I go to court I'm sure the DVLA will raise 4 remaining cases but will the court see this as one offence as it was impossible for me to pay 5 fines I didn't know about, or will they side with DVLA? have I been given the opportunity to correct my mistake or do I have to plead guilty to 5 separate fines separately? Vehicle Excise and Registration Act 1994 Section 29 states: In the case of a conviction for a continuing offence, the offence is to be taken for the purposes of subsections (6) and (7) to have been committed on the date or latest date to which the conviction relates. I'm not sure what this means if DVLA raise 4 different court cases which I predict they will?? Thanks for reading, Mark Other notes: *The bailiffs did not issue me a warning letter at my current address. They approached me at my new address on the "enforcement stage" which is wrong *The tenants at my old address binned most of my mail but afterwards I did recover some documents sent by the court & one from the bailiff but absolutely nothing from the DVLA.

Hi Looking for information here. We purchased a little Citroen the other day Collected it after it had been taxed at 9.10am. My wife then used it for work transport and parked it on a side road. When arriving back to her car at 2pm there was a clamp and sticker on it saying no tax. i rang the number given on the leaflet and was told car was not taxed. Yet we had purchased in the morning. The lady said the car was clamped at 10.05 in the morning. Surely DVLA would know that tax would be on it? So i paid the fine to release the clamp. £100. How do i go about getting this back as they are in the wrong. My next question is , i was going to cut the clamp off, what would be the legalities regards this??

This morning we had our car impounded by the police because DVLA informed them that our car was not taxed. When we got home we checked and have a receipt etc from DVLA for the tax which had been paid in February 2016. I checked the site and it shows the car as untaxed. Contacted DVLA and they are checking and will call us back. My question is how do we proceed to make a claim for vehicle recovery, taxis while without a car, hospital and doctor's appointments etc where we need to hire a taxi from DVLA. It's obvious;y their mistake. I should add that we are both elderly and unable to get around easily either.

I received a letter recently from the DVLA i took my vehicle off the road a couple of months ago and therefore cancelled my direct debit but forgot to declare sorn until the start of this month. ive just seen a letter from the DVLA saying im required to pay the existing £181 of direct debit within seven days!!!! ive only just seen it and that was sent two weeks ago. Surely they cant expect me to pay £181 just like that?

Hi All, Thanks for looking at this, I'm after a little advice after the DVLA revoked my licence following me surrendering it. The story: I had a seizure in December 2014, the first and only seizure I've had in my 40 years. I dutifully surrendered my licence under doctors orders and was told to just apply in six months and that would be that. I applied for it back and got a 'no, we're revoking it instead, wait longer' type letter, so the rules say six to twelve months so no problem maybe they're just being safe. I applied again after the 12 months, only to be told that it would be subject to intense medical scrutiny because I had an alcohol problem! That was news to me, sure there will be times where I exceed the guidelines set out by government but they are extremely low in reality and they aren't seeking me out to write a documentary. I did happen to have the seizure following a night out so the discharge letter does say alcohol may have been a factor. So my concern is now I'm going to be branded as a raging alcoholic and that is likely to lead to many other problems down the line. I would like to try and get the DVLA to reverse their assessment of me, has anyone got any advice on how I might do this and if it is even possible? Thanks Dave

A couple of years ago the police broke into my friends house on a few occasions and discovered small amounts of herb which was for personal use, each time I got cautioned. Then letters started arriving telling me to go for medical tests Since then I have already had a drugs test then an eye test then another doctor's test then a psychiatric test and now it's come back to them wanting me to go for another drug test as I got letter from dvla yesterday morning. This is causing me a lot of stress. Are they able to do this? Thanks

Ok so this one can probably afford it . Doesn't look as if there is the leeway we thought there was. http://www.chroniclelive.co.uk/news/north-east-news/what-driving-licence-rules-landed-11394450 & http://www.chroniclelive.co.uk/news/north-east-news/sunderland-star-steven-fletcher-picks-11393089

Hi guys, I'm currently in a sticky situation with the DVLA's medical branch. Approximately three months ago I stupidly decided to falsely inform my doctor that I was suffering from blackouts in order to get a sickline from work (the real reason being stress, but being so young I thought he wouldn't have listened to me). Well anyway, the Doctor knows my family and knew that I was a bus driver (little did I know..). He immediately informed the DVLA without notifying me he was doing so and referred me to a Neurologist with suspected epilepsy. I went back to him within a week to say I was indeed lying and apologised for any problems caused as I didnt want to fill spaces in the Neurology clinic that people genuinely needed. A day later I received a letter from DVLA revoking all of my licences (car, bus, lorry and motorbike). I asked my Doctor what to do and he told me to keep my Neurology appointment as did the DVLA doctors as they required contemporaneous confirmatory evidence. I explained everything to the Neurologist when I attended and he sent me for a brain MRI and ECG. He sent the results as well as a supporting letter of his opinion that I did not suffer any blackouts and that they were indeed fictitious through to the DVLA. Throughout this process the DVLA contact centre said they were just waiting on the MRI coming through. Well, they received all of the documents and they were reviewed yesterday and no further action was taken. I cannot understand how the DVLA can still revoke it after all my tests came back clear and the medical opinion of a consultant was that I was fine? Do I legally have a leg to stand on? Does anyone have any advice for what I should do?

Nightmare !! started my HGV training today, after having paid £3250 for class 1 & 2, done theory tests where my licence was checked and all ok, passed theorys with flying colours. I booked my training course for class 2 and they did a check code and all was ok. Turned up to drive today, did the 1st day then called into the office to be told I have just been driving illegally as todays check code states I'm only licenced to drive a car!! where did my 7.5t go and provisional entitlements? I have been driving 7.5t for 12 years as a job, now I have lost job and £3250 as DVLA cant rectify their computer glitches and told to take tests again.. like I can afford all that money again just like that, obviously they don't class it as much money which just goes to show they are over paid and under qualified! they just don't care. Got my MP on the case now, but doesn't alter the fact I am now unemployed, a single mum that has always worked and saved up for this HGV training for 3 years.. Never been on jobseekers before, but that's the route I'm now having to go down!! Thankyou DVLA..

Hi All Need some advice regarding correspondence from a debt collecting agency about a £80 fine from the DVLA for being late in renewing my vehicle tax. To bring you up to speed here is what happened. Moved address about a year ago. Phoned up DVLA at the time to speak to an adviser about everything i would need to do regarding my license & vehicle details upon moving. This adviser only ever mentioned about sending my driving license in with new address. Failed to mention VC5 log book. I am completely unfamiliar with this process. Consequently my tax renewal reminder forms were sent to my old address and without a physical tax disc to see the exact date of renewal i ended up being late in paying my vehicle tax. I was sent a letter from the DVLA that i retrieved from old address stating i owed £80 with the option of writing back if you thought the fine was unfair and to explain why exactly that was the case. I wrote back explaining that even tho i specifically phoned & asked a DVLA adviser to tell me absolutely everything i would need to do following an address change, their oversight of not mentioning the VC5 had lead to me being fined . I immediately paid my vehicle tax & all money owed in arrears and promptly set up a direct debit to automatically pay all tax in the future. I also sent off my VC5 log book to register the vehicle at my new address. I sent this letter off to the DVLA and waited for a response . Nothing happened for months. No correspondence at all from the DVLA. I thought it had been written off. out of the blue i have started receiving letters from a DCA called Advantis demanding payment of £80 for their client the DVLA . I have ignored so far all letters. I have neither contacted the DVLA or Advantis. Is there any way i can avoid paying this fine? What will happen if i dont pay? Will i receive visits at my current address &/or old address? Will this escalate to going to court? Also very importantly i will be looking to take out £15,000 loan in a few weeks, will this debt/fine come up on my credit check and will it effect my ability to get the loan? Would it just be best to nip this in the bud now or do i have any rights in being able to avoid this? Any advice will be very much appreciated. x

No doubt this is one of hundreds of similar cases. I part exchanged my car on 25th August 2015 to a car dealer. Completed the log book properly and handed in the V5C over the post office counter at the same time as purchasing tax for the new vehicle on the day of purchase. The post office gave me a receipt which states V5C handed in. I cancelled the Direct Debit for the tax a couple of days later for the vehicle that I was no longer the registered keeper. Fast forward to January - I get a letter from a debt collection agency saying I owe £80 for an outstanding late licencing penalty which, I would like to point out never received any communication from the DVLA about this directly. This was the first time I was aware of it. I sent a letter to the DVLA explaining I was no longer the registered keeper and was not the registered keeper on the date of the alleged offence (1st September 2015). I provided the bill of sale and the receipt from the post office as evidence. Unfortunately, I had no longer got the acknowledgement letter they sent to me as I disposed of it, thinking once I had received it, all was well. I have had two letters from different depts. at the DVLA - one stating that they have updated my records and the other, to say that the original decision that I am liable still stands. Anyone got any ideas about what I should do - I don't see why I should pay for something I am not responsible for. If I had not cancelled the direct debit the DVLA would have refunded the payments anyway so surely the fact I have evidence to show I was no longer the registered keeper and that I handed the V5C to the post office on the day of exchange of vehicles prove that I am not responsible for the payment of tax on a vehicle I no longer owned!

My mums partner sent a SAR to DVLA as his licence was suspended due to a 'high' CDT reading - they suggested that he was alcohol dependant'! He is not and only has a drink at weekends and not to excess. He has been having an annual medical for the last 3 years due to having temporary suspension of licence due to a blackout (alcohol was involved at the time but long story so please don't judge). When the details of the SAR were returned it was only details of his latest application and medical report, nothing from previous medicals or any of his blood test results at all. Are they obliged to release this information or can they hide behind some legislation. Thanks

I want to make clear I am NOT offering legal advice here - I wish to draw people's attention to an area of law that the general public are often not aware of - but the DVLA exploits this lack of knowledge to often bully people into submission for the vast majority of their fines. I have seen countless examples on here, and I myself have also been on the receiving end of it, and the routine typically goes - 1. DVLA threatens to prosecute driver for alleged offence (late licensing penalty, keeping an unregistered vehicle on the public road, various offences under VERA, etc.) 2. Initially they scare the person by claiming that they could be subject to all sorts of criminal penalties and maximum fines if found guilty 3. Then they offer some reduced out of court settlement offer that if you pay on time will let them agree to close the matter 4. Some people scared pay up immediately, others who begin by making their case only continue to be threatened and ultimately pay in order to avoid the fear of going to court In the vast majority of cases the result is the same - the driver gets fleeced by the DVLA. What I want to bring to your attention is that all offences DVLA can/threatens to prosecute people for in relation to vehicle registration are SUMMARY OFFENCES. Please do not be confused with motoring offences prosecuted by the police such as driving under the influence, failing to name a driver, etc. as these can be either way offences. SUMMARY OFFENCES Under Section 1 of the Magistrates' Court Act 1980 proceedings for a summary offence must be commenced within 6 months of the alleged offence being committed. In my case they contacted me last November threatening to prosecute me for an alleged VERA offence that took place in January (11 months prior). I told them that despite the fact that I protested my innocence they would not be able to prosecute me as they had not commenced proceedings within 6 months for this Summary offence, so I would not be entertaining their allegations. I continued to receive threats for a while but ultimately they shied away and said the case had been closed giving no reason - the reason was because they knew all along they were unable to prosecute me at that time and their threats were nothing more than hot air trying it on to try and extract some money from me. In a great number of cases I have seen people post on here the offence being alleged occurred much longer than 6 months ago and they are still playing ball with DVLA who are simply trying to get them to fork up for something they no longer have any authority to prosecute. LIMITATION PERIOD - 6 MONTH RULE I have to make it clear that if DVLA are contacting you within 6 months of the offence they are alleging then please do not misunderstand what I'm saying - DVLA can and do prosecute people where they are able to AND THE TIME LIMITS APPLY! If however you are like me and many others on the back end of DVLA's inefficient backlog, and they are contacting you about an allegation that occurred more than 6 months ago then keep in mind they are now statute barred from bringing any prosecution against you so their threats are effectively lies to get you to pay them as there is very little action they now have the ability to take against you. In this case, I would always simply tell them that I'm innocent however as the limitation period has now expired for them to commence proceedings against me I will take any further threats of prosecution in these circumstances to be false statements and I will not be entertaining this matter further.

It took over 3 months for the DVLA to take action over a car that I reported to them as having no car tax. They actively encourage you to report a non taxed vehicle and when you do they do virtually nothing about it! When I complained about their inaction I just got a letter back stating there were things being done 'behind the scenes' and it was NOT an 'on demand service'. In the meantime the untaxed vehicle ( and therefore uninsured) was a menace to other road users. N.B. The Police are also powerless to act.

Hello Everyone. I'm new here. After days of being frustrated, I have finally joined the forum to share with you all, my recent experience with Newlyn, with regard to parking tickets, to seek advice. Please help. I recently corresponded with Newlyn plc., who were pursuing a payment from me last March. I was unsure why; I’ve subsequently been explained by them that the vehicle, the ownership of which I transferred to now an unknown man with the mobile number of ............ on 12/04/2013, had contravened a parking regulation and received PCNs (11 of them!) issued by Tower Hamlet Council on 02/05/2013 (and presumably later dates for subsequent PCNs). I had not received any of these PCNs or Notice to Owner because shortly after the sale of the vehicle, I moved to a different address before the tickets were issued (proof of which I have in the way of credit card bills etc.). At the time of transfer of ownership of the said vehicle, I had lost the V5C document and was not in possession of the document and hence I advised the man who had purchased the vehicle that he would have to complete V62 in order to complete the transfer of ownership and that it was his responsibility to re-register the vehicle under his name . Although it turned out that he had not done so, DVLA’s Sensitive Case department carefully considered the case, they agreed to amend the records to show that I was no longer the keeper of the vehicle from 12 April 2013 (the exact wording is "I have amended our records to show that you are no longer recorded as the keeper of this vehicle from 12 April 2013"). I sent this letter to Tower Hamlet Council, London and Newlyn. The council told me that the matters are now in Newlyn's hands. Newlyn rejected the letter from DVLA, because of the ambiguous wording. Last Friday, an enforcement agent working for Newlyn called me at work, asking for around £4500 or else. I nearly passed out when I heard this. I called Newlyn to put a hold on this and they temporarily put a 28-day hold on it/ Now it's been more than a year since the original tickets have been issued. So from reading various posts on this forum, I understand it's too late for making any appeals to the council and that I would have to fill in Witness Statement forms TE9 & TE7 and email TEC, in order to at least stop the recovery warrant/procedure. And if that's successful, I have only the original PCNs to deal with, am I right in thinking that? Please advise me anyway you can and ask me any questions to clarify the situation further if needs be. I am very distressed. What can I do?! Thanks in advance.

Hope someone can help with a SORN question. To cut a very long story short my son's car became undriveable so bought another. Phoned DVLA after getting a fine what he needed to do to SORN it as he hadn't received the log book from the DVLA and couldn't do it online. He was told to send in a letter which he did. After a couple of months he got a summons from Stevenage Court for not having insurance. He wrote to them and explained he'd sent a letter and lo and behold, notification and tax refund was received the next day and dated back to the receipt by them of the letter. He has now just received a further letter saying that as the SORN was backdated the offence of no insurance still stands albeit well after the date that the vehicle has been SORN'd. He has an acknowledgment from them stating "Your SORN starts on 11/09/2015" Summons states that he had no insurance on the 6/10/2015?? Is this legal?? Surely if the vehicle has an official SORN date and the tax refunded back to the 11th, how then can they say it was uninsured after that time? Any help would be gratefully received.

Dear all, I desperately need advise ... here is my situation (long text as i am writing a complete recollection of what happened): On Saturday 24 October 2015 i received a letter through the box from Collection and Compliance Titled "Further Steps notice" In essence it says that since i have failed to make payments as directed following steps will be taken ... a few lines of VERY scary stuff. After that they give me 10 days to pay 800 pounds or the scary stuff will start to happen. Now this comes as a complete shock i had NO idea what this is about. On Monday i called them and they told me that there has been a court case against me and they have been ordered to collect this money by the court. I have never been aware there is a court case to begin with. They put the collection on hold for 28 days and gave me case reference number. On Monday 26 October 2015 i went to Levender Hill court to check what is this all about. I was told the following that the current case against me is for failure to provide information to the DVLA related to traffic violation or accident in addition to that for failure to show up in court and a few other failures related to the fact i never got anything. I asked what adress all of this was sent out and they gave my old address. They said that one of the notices were sent september. After talking with a friend he said i should check my V5C i just did that and it is on the new address. I checked the dat eof the document and it is 29 04 15. This should mean april, if they sent the stuff in September no idea why they were trying my old address. I also checked my driving license and it is on the new address since April as well. I made a Statuory statement .. or something like that not sure what it was named, that said i never received anything and the first time i becase aware of this issue was Saturday 24-th. They took my details and scheduled a court date for 10-th of November. I still have nothing through the post 29 October 2015 and i still do not know what the original offense is. All they said that the current case is for failure to provide information which carries 6 points and 660 pounds fine the rest is fines for not showing up and not paying when asked first time around. This is as much as i can say right now and as much as i remember. I am completely lost. Never been involved in accidents, i have one speeding ticket in my entire life from 5 years ago and it never went on my record as i took the speed awareness course. Neither have i ever had problems with the police ... so you can imagine how scary this all feels right now. Any advice is very welcome, initially i thought of just going to the court and being honest but i was advised by friends and also someone sort of related to law that i should not do that and i definitely need advise especially since its has gotten to the court and one needs to know what and how to say ... so here i am.

I have had my Group 2 driving licence revoked by DVLA as I am type 2 diabetic now using insulin. As I was required to do I informed DVLA and they suspended my licence immediately and then took 6 months to revoke it. I am hyperglycaemic (and have high blood sugar) rather than hypoglycaemic and all the data and criteria for revoking a Group 2 licence only relates to hypoglycaemia. The reason they gave was that I did not have 3 complete months readings on my blood sugar meter which is completely untrue. I contested the decision in August and it has taken 3 months, countless e-mails to DVLA and direct contact with Oliver Morley the CEO of DVLA, and my MP, to move the paperwork from someone's desk. They now say they want further information from my GP and have written to him and I must await another decision....why? they should be dealing with this based on the fact I am contesting their original decision. No-one in DVLA can tell me why they use the same criteria for hyper and hypo glycaemics even though they are two opposite ends of the spectrum. I only have until 6 December to lodge an appeal in the Magistrates' Court against this decision and I feel they are dragging things out to make sure I run out of time. Can I lodge an appeal before they get back to me? Appreciate any advice.

received a letter from dvla saying im not insured.....phoned insurance company I am insured sent a copy to dvla recorded post, letter back saying fine stands as they checked with my insurers and im not insured phoned my insurers again im insured and they had no contact from dvla checked myself on MID online and it shows insurance, should I just let it go to court

http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?452870-Bailiffs-demand-reverse-checks-from-DVLA From our media section ^^^^^ Full story HERE