I have received 2 letters from COLLECTICA who say i need to pay £80 because i have not SORNd my motorbike which i sold 3 years ago. I have tried to say I don't even know the buyer now or have his details. I am saving for a new business and £80 on this is not happening. I had a brief email back saying 'we don't care if it not your bike you need to pay' (along those lines). Guys what can i do.

Hi, My oap neighbour has asked me fot help and i dont know what to say? Their old car tax run out on 31/10/12 so it was parked at the rear of our property - off road and sorn sent off a few days later. On 07/11/12 the car was put on a wide pavement layby at the front of the property for it to be collected and moved to a different storage area for longer term. The lane at the back is very narrow, inaccessible and dead end, and the side street a total nightmare with double parking, dead end and awkward shaped so you cant tow a vehicle out or get a lorry down it to have towed their car out so had to be brought to main road to be collected. It was not on the main road for 30 minutes maximum, while waiting for the tow truck. However, typically a PCSO passed and booked it, literally 3 minutes after it was to be picked up. My neighbour is not used to dealing with things like this, suffers depression and had no idea what to do so left the paperwork that she had from dvla about the fine. Now this court case papers arrived this morning, and the court date is on 5 June and she has a medical appointment which she has been waiting for a few months to arrive. i have scanned and uploaded to photobucket so will try to upload them here. now, she is guilty of the fact the vehicle was on the road for the 30mins, but was doing it as an emergency and very temporary basis to allow it to be removed for storage and had no way of getting it moved any other way, and certainly not from where it was. however, can these be classed as mitigating circumstances? if so, how can she plead, guilty or not? really lost with this 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6.

Hi everyone, Last July, I sent off a V14 for my car to get a refund of vehicle tax AND to declare SORN. I have a scanned copy of this document here: imageshack.us/a/img6/5034/taxrefundscan.jpg Around November, I started getting letters from the DVLA saying that I had failed to insure my vehicle. I wrote to them to inform them that I had applied for a refund of vehicle tax and to declare SORN but got no response. I am now being taken to court for this offence - which is completely unjustified since I did everything required to comply with the law. A scanned copy is here: imageshack.us/a/img844/9491/failuretoinsure.jpg I now have two choices: 1) Pay £50 to settle the case, losing out on my £65 refund in the process. 2) Go to court and argue my case. Can anybody please give me some advice on what to do? Thanks in advance!

Hi Guys, im after a small bit of advice please. I have an old car that was SORN up to 2009, by which time i had put it into storage and forgot about it (out of sight-out of mind) and not renewed the SORN since then. If i re-SORN now am i likely to face a hefty fine, or the usual £80 for not renewing? Thanks in advance for your help. Dan

I've got myself in a bit of a mess and I don't understand the rules well enough for my options to be clear to me. Any advice much appreciated! The car is a 13 yr old Fiesta with just over 100k miles. Not worth much. Has Generally been good to me though. My tax ran out about a week ago. Partly due to procrastination, partly lack of funds. The police found my out of date disc and slapped a £60 fine on my windscreen. Ouch. I asked for that one though. Haven't paid it yet but I will of course. I have 28 days max. I got the MOT done today. The bill is £360; suspension problems. My 20 mile route to work goes through some horrible little lanes - poor car With the repairs, MOT fee, fine, tax, and the usual insurance and petrol..... I'm screwed financially - i really think I'm going to have to scrap it and get the bus from now on. the bus tickets cost roughly the same as the petrol, never mind comparing to all the other expenses of having a car. Where it gets tricky is, after I've sent it to the big carpark in the sky, I have to tell the DVLA, and presumably declare it SORN or something? Won't they get upset because it was on the road untaxed for a week, and fine me? They could insist I get it taxed for 6 months, but that means getting a valid MOT and... I start going round in circles then!

Bit of a long stroy this one. My car has been on SORN since 2007. Always declared it online no problem. Seemingly in 2011 I didnt do it on time. Now thinking back I remember getting a letter from DVLA to which I rang them and they said if I send the declaration off that day everything would be fine (think it was within a month of SORN expiring). I got a notice of SORN back from them and forgot about it. On to last year where we moved address and sent all docs off (licensce, v5 etc for all cars) to get changed over. Never heard anything back regarding the SORN'd car but as I dont use it, it went un-noticed. with that change address not been acknowledged the SORN renewal must have gone to the wrong address even though we had mail redrection? last month I got a fine through for not decalring SORN. I emailed them stating that I had sent off all documents and they/royal mail must have lsot them and I was unwilling to pay a fine for something out of my control. They dismissed this and said £40 fine still outstanding. To get them off my back I rang to pay this. Just as she accepted the payment she says, "oh, theres £80 outstanding from 2011, do you want to pay that?". I told her to stick it and come scrap the car. This morning the letter has come through from Collectica wanting £80 or they will come and clamp the car. Ha, they can clamp it for me, stops any pikeys stealing it off the drive!! But on a serious note, how far can they take this. I begrudge paying it as in 2011 the DVLA said the matter was dealt with although no proof of this. Im going to look through my old paperwork and see when the sorn was actually decalred that year. My main question is, out of the hundreds of thousands of cars that are on the road illegally, why the hell are they spending so much time chasing me for NOT using my car and keeping it on my drive. Im such a criminal. rant over, any help on the matter very much appreciated Steve

I Have received a late penalty notice from Cash Cow Inc (DVLA) which they have now passed to Phillips to collect. This is for a motorcycle which has been sorn continually for the last 3 yrs. No reminder was received and I only knew when penalty arrived with a sorn form to complete, which was done and sent with accompanying letter explaining. The bike is in pieces and land locked with no possible way onto public land without removing neighbours fences. Still being persued ,will they take me to court for non payment or do I have to take them to court for being incompetant. The bike has not been used or started for 3yrs,It cannot even be started in current state, and it cannot be moved from my garden . The only "crime " I have committed is to forget ! which as far as iwas aware is not illegal. :mad2: Any advice welcome.

We would be grateful for any advice or information with regard to a vehicle that we declared SORN back in 2000. We have never had any reminders that the SORN had run out and it is only since we declared another vehicle SORN last year and received a reminder recently that we became aware of the penalties for undeclared SORN. However, the first vehicle is a non runner and we originally declared it SORN after it broke down with the intention of rebuilding it. As time has gone by we never got round to this and now the only way the car would run again is with a total rebuild. We had planned to sell the car either as a non-running project or for spares. Alternatively we could sell or give it to a motor scrap dealer. Any advice on where we stand with regard to the DVLA would be much appreciated.

I am keeping my car off road therefore I did SORN online and also I sent V14 with TAX disc to DVLA by royal registered mail. But still they want 100pound penalty. Time lines: 1. Did SORN online on 23rd November12. Got email confirmation saying application made on 23rd November12. However website said SORN will start from 1st December12 (probably because my TAX disc runs out on 31st November12). 2. Sent V14 with tax disc to DVLA by registered royal mail post on 23rd November. I can see on Royal Mail tracking website that it is received by DVLA on 24th November. 3. Got a letter from DVLA dated 28th November that since your car is not insured or sorn as of 28th November therefore you have to pay 100pounds. Please can anyone help me what I am suppose to do now? shall I pay penalty and get rid of the problem or shall I apply for dispute?

Hi all, received a letter through (from debt collection peeps) saying I have failed to sorn a motorbike and I have to pay them £80 or I might go to court. How can I prove I am not at fault for royal mail loosing the sorn letter/application? I am not paying for others mistakes ! Thanks

I have finally re built my Celica after being stripped down to the shell. I never declared it SORN as I thought with the car being in bits it was not road worthy so I didnt see the need to SORN it. Will I be prosecuted if so how much ???

Hi, I took my Triumph off the road in 2003 and informed DVLA it was SORN. I thought that was that until I wanted to tax it again. Wrong!! I read in the press that new rules insist you declare SORN every year otherwise your car could be crushed!!! This is where it starts. Informed DVLA in 2011 I wish to renew SORN, they can't find any record of my car and want V5, birth certificate etc to reunite my car and me. DVLA sent confirmation of SORN but did not return V5. After a couple of letters and about 6 months I receive a new V5c to my disgust, wanted my old one back. Anyway I was happy because now everything was legal again. Then the June 2012 deadline passed and I completely forgot to declare SORN again as there was no reminder. This was until I received a late licence penalty in Sept. This is when I made my mistake, I told them I didn't want it taxed, didn't have insurance or MOT and the vehicle is off road, and submitted a late SORN.....If only I had said I had posted it.....But I guess I'm too honest! I now face a fine and arrears of duty for a car that has not seen tarmac since 2003. If I take this to court, do I have a leg to stand on? Or should I just pay-up?

We may need to store our vehicle which is a grey import for up to 3 years and it will be on a SORN however our question is about insurance. Will we still be able to get it insured even though it is on a SORN? If a vehicle is on a SORN, can it be driven to a MOT station on a pre-arranged appointment and back to the storage depot without having to buy road tax? If not, how do you get around this? Only reason I ask is just in case the vehicle is needed urgently and with MOT & Ins in place, I can get on road ASAP.

My mrs had a sorn fine through for £80 for a moped she sold years ago to a motor trader, she even knew who to and their address. When she sold the moped she sent off the appropriate paperwork etc, the dvla are stating no notification was received until after the late licensing penalty was issued. then quote information via the acknowledgement letter but not long after selling the moped she moved in with me, she had no acknowledgement letter anyhow. They quote teh system is designed to negate any uncertainty that may be experiences by either the sender or the intended recipient, as to whether a notification of disposal submiutted has actually be sent or indeed received. They then state that had an enquiry been made in respect of the absence of an acknowledgement letter been made the issue of the late licensing penalty could have been prevented. We quoted the interpretation act in my earlier correspondence the DVLA response was that it is was the agencys position that it is not sufficient for a person issued with a late licensing penalty who is registered as a vehicle keeper to simply state that a disposal notification has been posted to the dvla. Should such assertion be accepted dvla would be unable to fairly preside over the enforcement of CR and ensure that the aims of the legislation are achieved, something more tangaible than an assertion is needed to prove that a registered keeper has discharged the obligation to notify. This is why the achnowledgement letter scheme is such a fundamental part of the disposal process. They have offered me a reduced settlement of £40 down from £80? can i still argue im not liable, as i wasnt the owner.!

helloo! today i recieved a letter from a bailiff company stating if i didnt pay £80- the fine would go up and i would be taken to court and issued with a CCJ - EEK! the story is: on 14th november 2011 i wrote to DVLA to declare SORN, even though the tax did not run out until 30th November 2011. i did not fill in a SORN form as 1.) didnt have one and 2.) didnt know thats all they accepted. it was just a bog standard letter informming them the car was on private land (300 acres) in a barn and that it wouldnt be used for 5 months thereabouts. On that date i also cancelled the car insurance with the post office. (the car in question is my polo grooms car and he goes back to Chile mid november to mid march. ) I recieved a ''last chance'' renewal notice through the post end of December 2011 and telephoned them. they said the SORN had probably crossed in the post and all would be ok however I should probably write to them again, which i did, informing them that i had already declared SORN. on 1st march 2012 i recieved a letter stating that they had recieved my letter however i had not ''checked up 4 weeks later for an acknowledgement letter" when i informed them in November therefore I was still liable for the £80 fine, £40 if paid within one week. I was so angry i threw the letter in the bin and completely forgot about it .... .... until today, 21st June 2012 i recieved at bailiffs letter threatening that if i didn t pay £80 i would be taken to court....ooops! i telephoned the number (0844) and spoke to AMIR who bluntly told me it was my problem as i didnt read the SORN form correctly where it says ''if i hadnt recieved an acknowledgement letter in 4 weeks to call them''. i told him that i didnt even use aSORN form so how could i have known, he replied one would have come with the reminder letter so you should have read it. having now looked at the tax renewal form, where this SORN NOTICE is written, is not clear enough. it is in a small box, and it doesnt say ""YOU MUST CALL US FOR ACKNOWLEDGEMENT OF SORN AS FAILURE TO DO SO WILL INCCUR A £80 FINE OR A CCJ" .... if that had been the case i would have chased them like crazy!! i told Amir that i want to go to court and that he should instruct DVLA to stop with the bailiffs and debt letters - hassle and bullying i said, as i feel i am being treated guilty when i am inoccent. i am 36 yrs old and never had a late payment fine/CCJ/points on licence and i have been driving since i was 17. any suggestions?? - shall i pay the £80 or go to court??

I inherited my mothers car when she died in 2008, the only reason I kept it is because my partner is a fan of Volkswagens and wanted to use it for spare parts. It has been parked outside our home since then in a private road. This year I forgot to do a SORN, I didn't avoid it deliberately, why would I it doesn't cost anything. I didn't receive a reminder but apparently they don't have to send you one. Anyway in due course clampers arrived and as an incredibly law abiding person I paid up and they removed the clamp. The clampers left with a cheery wave and you'll be OK for another year now then. Then I got a letter from DVLA saying that it was parked on public road and asking for confirmation that I am keeper of the vehicle. I duly filled in the form and also added that I have confirmed woth the local highways dept that this is a private road. Ieven gave the name and email of the very helpful guy I spoke to. Now I have had a letter talking about my reply to their offer of an out of court settlement (that's the first mention I have seen of that) they go on to say that an amendment in 2008 removed the reference to public road, and saying enforcement action can e taken unless it is on land associated with a house or block of flats, eg private driveway, garages, private parking bays. Housing association parking bays etc. This seems to imply that even though our road is private I can't park it here. Then they go on to say I have to provide proof that it is not on the public highway, which I can do as the nice guy in the highways dept said he would happily send me something in writing. However are they just going to turn round and say it makes no difference if the road is private or not? I really wish our road wasn't private as due to a fault in the leases it isn't clear who is liable for maintaining it and it has basically been untouched since the 1930s! So have I inadvertently broken the law by leaving it on our private road or not? This is stressing me out, I don't even drive!!!

Hi guys, I'm posting as I have a SORN problem which I hope you can help with. (I've seen you give advice to individuals in similar situations, so fingers crossed.) I have an old Triumph Herald which has been laid up by my garage since the end of 1997 (It's been in need of some TLC and restoration, which I have never got around to). Prior to that it was used on the road and was taxed. Now here's the issue I have- the car has not been declared as SORN since then. I have now decided that I won't restore it, so I am looking to sell/scrap it- but before that I will need to get the reg docs up to date. I have carried out a vehicle enquiry on the DVLA website, and it states that the Date of Liability was 01 10 1998. This was the date when the road tax expired (I didn't request a road tax refund when the vehicle stopped running in 1997). I am concerned that if I declare the vehicle as SORN now, it will prompt the DVLA to issue a penalty for the years that the vehicle was un-SORNed (all 14 of them!). At the moment, it appears that the DVLA have 'forgotten' about the vehicle. So I am worried that by contacting them it will prompt a huge bill- when all I want to do is scrap the vehicle. On the DVLA website it states "Vehicles which have been kept off-road since before SORN came into force on 31 January 1998 are exempt from this law" Can anyone clarify on this point? The vehicle was off the road before this date, so in theory I am okay, but I feel that they will take the date when the tax ran out, which is after the deadline- In which case I am in danger of being fined. Many thanks in advance.

Hi All, I have created a new government E-petition to try and remove the requirment to renew SORN each year. - I have been stung by this more then once now and need to do something about it. PLEASE help by signing it. - It's only useful if it get's lot's of signatures! epetitions.direct.gov.uk/petitions/33557 Cheers all and good luck with your DVLA dealings. - Don't give in!

Hi I have an old Jeep which was SORN in 2009. Didnt realise that was suppost to renew every year so when I now go to sorn it it says there is a gap in the taxing since 2009 and I may receive a fine. I am in the process of sorting the Jeep out to sell and as I was going through paperwork to obtain new number plates realised that the log book is registered to my old address:| So what do I do and in what order? What fines should I expect to receive any advise would be appreciated!!

Hi All, Bit of a strange one. I received a court summons today from the DVLA stating that I was accused of parking a SORN Vehicle on a Public Road which they state contravenes Section 29(3A) of the Vehicle Excise and Registration Act 1994 (VERA). I have checked with my council and the road is maintainable at the residents (i.e. my) expense. Within Section 62 of the Vehicle Excise and Registration Act 1994 a public road is defined as: “public road”— (a) in England and Wales and Northern Ireland, means a road which is repairable at the public expense, and What am I missing here? Surely the DVLA aren't going to drag me into court over this without checking up on the status of the road?! I have seen other posts referring to 'Public Highway' on SORN vehicles. If I am accused of contravening VERA then surely it's definition of 'Public Road' supersedes any other. Any help would be appreciated.

Hi All, I have a quick question. SORNed my vehicle, then when it came time to move it off the road the car was dead. So car was left on a public highway whilst SORNed. So hands up, that should be fined. However, I have received two fine letters (or out of court settlements) for two separate dates. The letter phrasing is identical, just the dates are different, even the reference is identical. I would assume, that as the vehicle was not moved at all, the offence was the same and therefore can not be fined twice. Is this the case, and if so, is there anyway out of the second fine without taking it to court? To be frank, I'll pay both fines rather than go to court, but if I can simply send them a letter to get rid of the second fine, then it's worth doing. Any comments or views welcome. They have given me until 11th to lodge any appeal or pay the fines. Thanks, Toby

Short story: A friend of mine used my car while in SORN. He was insured but the car was untaxed for about three months. Police stopped him and issued a red notification slip ("this vehicle has been seen on the road...etc...you risk up to 1000...etc). He also signed something, but he did not read it. After that I immediately taxed the car. Questions: What should I expect now? Is there something I can do? The police suggested him to backdate the tax but at the DVLA told me that this was not possible. Thanks in advance.

Hi all, I'm trying to sort out a problem my girlfriend made for herself by purchasing a 2nd hand car six years ago. The problem is that she didn't actually get her drivers licence and just left the car in her parents' driveway. out of sight, out of mind situation...please don't ask. As far as I know, its not registered in her name (we got some paper work that came with the car and that is in the name of the previous owner). She never attempted to take it on the road, and certainly didn't apply for a SORN. MOT is gone by now, too. She'd like to sell it now, but we don't know how to put the paper work in order first so we can do that. Any advice on how to go about putting all the papers right? Thank you!