602 Posted March 10, 2008 Share Posted March 10, 2008 Hi, I've been away for a few months.....or at least off-list. I've had to change my identity to get back onto this site. In October I fell over, quite gently, in my garden in France. Two days later I developed frequent headaches. Drove home to Wales, went to see my doctor. Ha! In December I went to see my wife's doctor....who seemed to care, she arranged for me to have a brain scan. Later in December, we bought a van, planning to convert it into a camper. I insured it and drove it home, using its existing tax and MOT. As we were not planning to do anything until the weather improved, I parked it in our back lane which is not repairable at public expense. On January 1st, my wife declared SORN online, and made a note on the tax reminder. She does not recall getting an acknowledgement. A couple of days later we changed our PC, although we still have the original hard drive. A couple more days later I went for my scan. I was called to the surgery that afternoon, and told to report to the local hospital. Apparently I had a sub-dural haematoba (bleed inside my skull). They waited a week, then drilled a hole in my skull. No details other than a large bleed, under pressure. Do not drive for six weeks! I started driving yesterday. The van has sat in the back-lane all that time. Last week I recieved a letter telling me that the van was not SORNed, and to send them £80. As far as my wife is concerned, she did SORN it, and thats good enough for me. Proving it is more difficult. I have raised the matter on other groups, and it appears that this is a fairly common occurance. Even when the keeper has received written confirmation. Frankly, we have had more important things to worry about, and don't know how to go about proving that we have acted correctly. But we intend to fight this. Has anybody encountered anything similar? Advice, comments, support......all will be most welcome. I understand that if the vehicle had not been insured, the powers that be can assume that if they have no record of the SORN, they are now allowed to assume that I have driven it uninsured, and can demand a further £80 602 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
colin Posted March 10, 2008 Share Posted March 10, 2008 When declaring a SORN you should have recieved an email conformation virtualy straight away, this tells you that you will recieve a letter that also confirms. As far as I'm concerned the only people who get caught out by the SORN system are the honest, it seems to have made no differance to whose who wish to fiddle the system, I got caught out when buying a car for spares, it had been previously SORNed and I had mistakenly thought it lasted 12 months like tax, but no each individual owner has to SORN a vehicle, when I pointed out to DVLA that I had all the leaflets that came with logbook and none mentioned this(they do now) it was to no avail. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mel E Posted March 10, 2008 Share Posted March 10, 2008 When this happened to me I simply wrote to the DVLA enclosing a copy of the V14 with SORN declaration pointing out that I has SORN'e the vehicle. They begrudgingly wrote back saying that, on this occasion, they would withdraw the penalty notice. The answer is that, whenever you send something to a government department or agency, take a photocopy. You can buy a Lexmark multi-purpose printer/fax, scanner, photocopier for a mere £25 from Aldi in its frequent offers. They work and save a lot of hassle. Mel E ==== Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BGD Posted March 10, 2008 Share Posted March 10, 2008 If you did indeed SORN it on-line, you will have received an email confirmation back the same day from them to say that your declaration has been received, and that you'll be getting a hard-copy SORN certificate through the post in a few days. So the next question is, what did you/she do with that email confirmation? Did you save it to your computer? If so you can get it off your old hard drive. Did you save it in a remote email account (hotmail/yahoo etc). If so, just log in to that account and look back for it. (Incidentally, I just love my Yahoo email accounts now; fast, dead easy to access and use from home or anywhere else, and NO LIMIT on storage space anymore, so no need to delete anything except spam; very good automatic virus scanning an anything coming in to your inbox, and on all attachments; and you keep your email account it even if you you change internet provider). Just one other (negative, sorry) thought.....is your wife absolutely sure that she got through the whole SORN application process successfully on-line.....because the lack of your possession of the confirmation email back from them makes me wonder if maybe not???????????? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
colin Posted March 10, 2008 Share Posted March 10, 2008 THIS IS AN AUTOMATED EMAIL - PLEASE DO NOT REPLY AS EMAILS RECEIVED AT THIS ADDRESS CANNOT BE RESPONDED TO. Confirmation of Statutory Off Road Notification (SORN) Thank you for using DVLA Vehicle Licensing Online. Your SORN declaration has been successful. Reference Number: 1234 1234 1234 1234 Vehicle Registration Mark: ABC123A Application made on: 08/03/2008 23:31:41 SORN Period: 12 months The SORN confirmation letter should arrive in the post within 4 weeks. The above is how the SORN email should look Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
602 Posted March 11, 2008 Author Share Posted March 11, 2008 Hi, Thanks for replies. No, my wife has no recollection of receiving an email conformation....it over two months ago. Nor has she any recollection of being advised that the email had failed. No, she did not store anything. At that time we both had more important things on our minds....like my possible imminent demise. But she DID make a note on the reminder. She SORNed another vehicle recently, and the writen confirmation took several weeks to arrive. Is all this a criminal or civil matter? 602 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Usinmyknaus Posted March 11, 2008 Share Posted March 11, 2008 Under the Labour Terror the honest and hardworking are criminalised while the true criminals are showered with benefits beyond their wildest dreams. The admistrative standard of most government departments and their semi-privatised agencies is woeful. Consequently, when dealing with any aspect of officialdom which could result in penalty, it is ESSENTIAL to protect oneself by both keeping copies AND, most importantly, sending all official documents using the "signed for" or "recorded delivery" mail service (depending on value). This is an extra expense, but necessary. (Effectively, the government uses its own inefficiency to subsidise the Royal Mail!) I received a £100 penalty notice from the tax office. I phoned and told them I had submitted the correctly completed form five months before the deadline so no penalty was payable. They insisted they had not received it and the fact that I had a copy was meaningless as it was "my responsibility" to ensure it was "delivered" to them on time. When I pointed out I had sent it "signed for" and offered to obtain the signature details from Royal Mail the attitude changed. A few hours later I received a call apologising for the mix up - the form had been found sittting on the desk of someone who was on long-term sick leave. The person I dealt with advised that if I had not had the proof of delivery, the (unjust) penalty would have been enforced. I think I had my 90p's worth of postage on that one. When using the post office for renewing road tax, I check the clerk has stamped the disc correctly or it may be invalid. Happened to me this month but fortunately I spotted the error before I put it on the car. With SORN's and changes of keeper etc I think it is wise to put a bring forward date 3 weeks into one's diary and send a reminder by "signed for" delivery as well and keep doing so every 3 weeks until positive confirmation is obtained. This is necessary, because regardless of errors, omissions or any other failing of the DVLA, a vehicle remains the responsibility of the keeper last recorded at DVLA until such time as DVLA condescends to agree that that situation has changed. If we procede on the principal we are guilty until we prove ourselves innocent and continuously gather evidence to defend ourselves, we should not go far wrong. Bob Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
piote25mx Posted March 11, 2008 Share Posted March 11, 2008 despite all of your problems ,how is your HEALTH,are you ok now Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ranger Posted March 11, 2008 Share Posted March 11, 2008 Hi 602, hope you have now recovered, lucky in a way you did not get a stroke along with the bleed which often happens. I am not very well up on these P.C.s but supposing you FWd the original email to DVLA would it not show the date it was first sent to them? Just a thought! Have you talked to them, DVLA is just minutes away from me, they are all amazingly human, and understanding, even helpful. Get well soon, David.........PS don't tell anyone you drove home, I have had a few strokes over the years, not nice.......... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kelly58 Posted March 11, 2008 Share Posted March 11, 2008 A slight dicresion if you have to send your driving licence to DVLC make a copy of it because if it comes back with any of your groups missing you will have to retake a test for the missing groups ,because they do not keep records of peoples groups of entitlement to drive, this happened to a friend of mine who returned his licence for change of address and they missed his motorcycle group off his new licence he did not know until he was stopped by the police and asked to produce his docs he had passed his bike test 20 odd years ago. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
602 Posted March 11, 2008 Author Share Posted March 11, 2008 Hi, How am I now? Better, but generally knackered after any exertion....particularly washing the dishes....but slowly gaining stamina Er....I worked for 13 years at DVLA. Some pride, some contempt. The last of my old friends retires soon, then it will be open season I've heard of lots of people who have "somehow" lost their entitlement when changing a licence. I do not believe that they do not keep a record of your groups.....it will cost you £5 to get a copy of your licence history. 602 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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