DVLA VEHICLE CHANGES CHAOS

A recent article published in Classic Car Weekly warns vehicle owners to beware of being sent penalty charge payments which they might not need to pay. DVLA Swansea are pursuing thousands of motorists with penalty charge payments relating to alleged unreported vehicle changes, where it is the seller’s responsibility to inform the DVLA Agency of any changes by post that they no longer are the registered keeper of the vehicle. Even after a recent Freedom of Information request showed that almost 2000 cases had been dropped before making it to court the DVLA were still continuing to issue fines to motorists who had sold their cars on. With the recent closure of all local DVLA offices most had to rely on the postal service to send in documentation notifying DVLA of the changes.

An example being where a gentleman received a Penalty Charge Notice for failure to notify the sale of his vehicle which he sold in 2005. Despite him having sent the completed V5C logbook via Royal Mail to DVLA Swansea the DVLA are pursuing him for a £55 fine and are threatening court action if he does not pay.The gentleman defended his case by forwarding the new keeper details along with a signed statement saying that the V5C logbook had been sent off at the time of transfer to DVLA Swansea. DVLA are stating that it is a matter for the original owner of the vehicle to pursue confirmation from DVLA that they have received such notification.

The full article can be found along with 7 questions that were put forward to DVLA, in Classic Car weekly 6th August 2014 edition.