Caravan Club Magazine

[Mel E]

Some of you will recall the recent article about taxation of motorhomes. It claimed that all motorhomes should have a registration document (V5) and tax disc showing the motorhome as an LCV (Light Commercial Vehicle). I quote: "On the registration document and the tax disc, therefore, your motorhome is an LCV and taxed accordingly." This was clearly wrong and I challenged CC. The person who wrote it insisted that it was correct and she had checked all the facts in the article. I emailed, pointing out what was wrong. She checked with her source who has now admitted his error(s). A correction will be printed. I have suggested that what the article should have said was something like: " Although on the registration document and the tax disc, your motorhome is shown as 'Private/Light Goods (PLG)', it is taxed as an LCV and not as a car. In virtually all other respects, however, your motorhome is treated by the law as though it were a car. Thus it is subject to the Class 4 MoT Test for cars and NOT the Class 7 MoT which applies to LCVs (this is the case for all motorhomes including those over 7500 Kgs MAM/GVW)." Note that a key difference is that motorhomes are subject to LCV speed limits if their unladen weight exceeds 3050 Kgs (a throwback to 3.0 Imperial Tonnes). Since unladen weight is not given on the vehicle plate and is rarely quoted accurately by manufacturers or converters, and is often changed by the addition of permanent fittings such as awnings, refillable gas tanks, scooter or cycle racks, etc., this is an almost impossible law to apply in practice!" Note that the DVLA use the term MAM (Maximum Authorised Mass) rather than either MPTLM or GVW as used in the article. The writer's source has now agreed that this is correct, tho' he claims he was only trying to CLARIFY . . .