DVLA & my motorbike

[northarea]

Little like previous threads, i bought a motorbike in June, taxed till end of august, i did not get the V5 so, looked up what i had to do and sent DVLA old address of owner, new address of owner, bike details etc and asked them to sent me a log book so i could retax at end of August. nothing, no logbook, no reply, nothing, contacted previous owner who eventually found V5 and sent it off. September, letter from DVLA with fine for not re-taxing or registering a SWORN £ 80.00.

Wrote back stating, I have insured the bike, I have MOT'd the bike, i cannot tax bike as they had not sent logbook, please send logbook and i will retax and pay any arrears. standard faceless letter came back, £80.00 fine for not retaxing etc. Again wrote back, catch 22, they are preventing me retaxing as they wont send me a logbook, "please read my letter" Standard letter came back, £80 fine, etc. I have now SWORN the bike as I cannot tax without a logbook.

I wrote back with info from this forum (thank You) i now have a letter from debt collectors, i read previously that this was not lawful while in dispute. Wrote to debt collectors ( Rossendales Debt Collectors) pointing out the illegality of their actions and stating.

No further correspondence will be entered into, i await my day in court.

 

Any comments/advice

[Desperate Daniella]

Hi northarea, and welcome to CAG!

 

As this is an old thread I have asked the site team to set up a new thread for you.

 

I didn't think they would pass it to a debt collector when the whole matter is in dispute but nothing surprises me with DVLA.

 

I had to go to court over an issue with them when I flatly refused to pay a fine for taxing late when there was a postal strike and they kept insisting I hadn't paid for a month despite the fact that I sent them a copy of the tax disc! Their own legal rep gave up before we ever went before the judge and that was the end of it, but sadly I think it often does end up in court before they will ever back down. I'm beginning to think they can't have any legal advisors at all at their offices; they just quote from a script and won't back down.

 

So at the moment, you can't use the motorbike because they won't let you tax it?

 

DD

[northarea]

Thanks for the reply, I agree, whatever i write, i get the standard letter back, i even invoked their dispute procedure, I'm sure they dont read any correspondence and just send the standard " you remain liable for the £80.00 LLP" and expect people to pay "because they say so" on a number of letters i have stated " take me to court" I'm sure this constitutes a grievance in any language other than theirs!

Your right, I cant ride my bike till i get tax, cant tax without a V5, they wont give me one, catch 22. I had planned to take the bike of the road during the winter anyway but, that should be my choice, not some faceless/nameless jobsworth. (none of their letters are signed)

Paul

[Desperate Daniella]

Hi Paul,

 

It's very fortunate that you didn't intend to use the bike over the winter and don't need it to get to work. As you say, that shouldn't be forced on you by the nameless jobsworths.

 

It took them at least six months to take me to Court. Maybe their new approach is to try to scare people into paying up by sending in the debt collectors without having to incur court costs. They must incur a lot of those when they lose cases!

 

Somewhere I have got excerpts from a Hansard Report of the House of Lords' debate on SORNs, etc., and how they are not supposed to penalise normally law-abiding motorists. It's not where I thought it was but I'll keep looking and post it up shortly.

 

DD

[northarea]

Thanks for the info, the more I think about it the more I would like to be taken to court, could be a fun day out and i can ask for an £80.00 "fine" for the time and effort wasted!

 

Paul

[Desperate Daniella]

http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/ld200203/ldhansrd/vo031114/text/31114-01.htm

 

This won't all apply to you, but Lord Simons' statement that "the innocent motorist must not be the scapegoat for the lawbreaker" applies to everyone who is being fined by DVLA in cases like yours and mine.

[Desperate Daniella]

Thanks for the info, the more I think about it the more I would like to be taken to court, could be a fun day out and i can ask for an £80.00 "fine" for the time and effort wasted!

 

Paul

 

You can certainly ask for your costs.

[ploddertom]

Own thread created

[northarea]

Had two more letters from debt collectors, one says i should take my complaint up with the DVLA, last DVLA letter stated " no further correspondence would be entered into" 2nd letter stated proceedings halted for 28 days whilst my complaint is investigated. still no sign of a court date! getting interesting

 

Paul

[Raykay]

Your problem was that you didn't apply for the V5C when you bought the bike. DVLA won't send a new V5C in reply to a letter, it needs a completed form V62 and, unless you have the new keeper supplement from the sellers V5C, £25.

[northarea]

It now 2nd of May 2014, just had my 9th letter from Rossingdales debt collectors, despite my 8 replies on the lines of "I WILL NOT PAY" this one is worded, "Please be assured that this matter will not go away and we have every intention of collecting the outstanding balance" also " It is disappointing that you continue to ignore correspondence from ourselves" 8 replies is hardly ignoring!

Any idea how I force a court case?

 

Paul