Pete M vs DVLA

[Pete-M]

This morning I was in court for "Not notifying the DVLA about change of keeper" on the SD1 I sold to Bren.

 

I sent off the logbook the day I sold it, so wasn't going to take this lightly. Tried ringing them to explain, but they insisted that I'd have to tell it to the court, so this morning I went to do exactly that.

 

Whilst waiting, the DVLA woman asked me to sit in a booth and explain what was happening.

 

DVLA - "So, you're here, I take it you're pleading not guilty"

Me - "Yes, because I did what is expected of me"

DVLA - "Did you send the logbook off?"

Me - "Yes"

DVLA - "Which part?"

Me - "All of it other than the green slip, I gave that to the new keeper"

DVLA - "We wrote to you in February explaining that you could pay the £35 fine"

Me - "Which you can't ask me to pay as I'd done my legal duty, I explained this to the girl on the phone who said I'd have to go to court"

DVLA - "Swansea?"

Me - "No, Preston"

DVLA - "Oh, Why didn't you contact us after 28 days?"

Me - "There's no legal requirement to do so, it states 'Contact DVLA after 28 days', but not how long after 28 days"

DVLA - at this point she began to stutter "Um, ok, we must have lost it, we'll drop the case. But it will be a legal requirement soon, you can go now".

 

That's twice they've tried this trick.... and twice I've kicked their arse.

[ashmicro]

Bravo! When a Civil Servant tries to bust your balls (like the DVLA bird at the court), remain calm and state the facts. They can't cope with that!

 

Good work Sir.

[nigel bickle]

Well done.

 

However, if you'd produced a copy of the letter you sent them - warning them you'd be claiming costs- you'd have got your day trip paid. £100 a day (s/emp) plus 40p a mile, and parking.

 

Been there 3 times now. Each time they agreed to settle my expenses- outside the Court Room, when I insisted on Proceeding for a 'Not Guilty' .

[Negative Creep]

Good to hear, the enitre system is a joke anyway. Its unbelievable that in this day and age you cannot do this electronically.

 

Still waiting for my court date on the same matter

[barefoot]

nothing constructive to add, I just wanted to say well done

[myglaren]

Well done. It needs people to stand up to them and not let them have things all their own way.

Shame you didn't get the expenses but a good result anyway.

[Rocket88]

Can you insist on them NOT dropping the case, and dragging their sorry ass through the judicial system? They've just discovered over here [Jersey] that every parking fine since about 1836 may have been illegal [incorrect law drafting] I await developments with interest.

[Bren]

Pete,

 

Well done - the DVLA has become a corrupt monster that seemingly does'nt have to answer to anyone (a bit like FIFA).

 

It took the idiots nearly two months to get me a log book for the car. I sent all my paperwork to them recorded as you cant trust the imbeciles that work there to do their job properly, then they try and leg YOU for their fuck up.

 

We are having cuts in healthcare, policing, education and other public services. I suggest the government look towards Swansea.

[Pete-M]

Thanks for the tips Nige. I've only been twice and it only took a couple of hours out of work so the expenses wasn't too muchcof an issue - probably cost me £5 in the end but if they try it again I'll be adding a few hours for 'research' next time as well as loss of earnings.

 

Citizens Advice Group has a few handy tips if anyone needs 'em, but the way I did it was enough to get them to drop it sharpish.

 

They're not as powerful as they think, so it's worth knocking 'em down a peg or two.

[Luxobarges_Are_Us]

well done, although I would have proceeded just to embarrass them, then written the local rag a letter about it on the off chance they had the balls to print it.

[wuvvum]

Nice one. I've been to court with the DVLA and won twice now - both times for SORN issues (they tried to claim that the places where my vehicles were parked were public highway, when I knew for a fact that they were not). It's an immensely satisfying feeling.

[pompei]

Good lad! Wish I'd done that now when I got rid of my motor - the finance company insisted I send them the whole log book as part of the voluntary termination and DVLA insisted I still should have dealt directly with them After much arguing, I sent DVLA the money. That was only because I was not sure my case was legally watertight.

[boobydoo]

Good for you. The ineptitude of DVLA at both Swansea and local level beggars belief.

[504GL]

Good to hear, the enitre system is a joke anyway. Its unbelievable that in this day and age you cannot do this electronically.

 

Yep. I remembered that the tax is up on the Fiat at the end of this month and thought "Ooh I could pay for it early and have the tax disc here nice and early" so I fished out the V5, putthe details into the site and it said it would do it from the start of this month rather than the start of next month. Sure I know I could cancel the insurance sometime this month and be driving around uninsured, but I could also do that the day after buying the tax with the reminder....... Silly.....

[gtd2000]

I read somewhere, that supposedly if we stopped paying the road tax and got rid of the DVLA at Swansea - the country would actually save money....of course it would still all be squandered elsewhere I suppose.

 

Here's some advice for the folks that would like to take the appearing in court situation a step further...

 

[theorganist]

Nice to see someone taking the jobsworths on!!

 

I always worry about DVLA related paperwork going missing in the post or at the offices themselves. I tend to try and send documents recorded now. I too wonder why you can't do stuff like this online!

[Station]

Well done Pete, I've received numerous letters from the DVLA but I'm not going through the process of being shafted over a barrel and paying the 'OK, it was me, sorry' fine. Fuck them.

[Andrew353w]

+1 to all the earlier comments! I'd also add that had you insisted on "having your day in court" you'd be able to explain to the Judge that you had stuck to the law, done everything required of you yet STILL the DVLA have taken you to court. It's possible (... possible...) that the judge might make a recommendation that the DVLA tighten up their procedures and save the next person going through the ringer.

 

Well done, anyway!

[Luxobarges_Are_Us]

+1 to all the earlier comments! I'd also add that had you insisted on "having your day in court" you'd be able to explain to the Judge that you had stuck to the law, done everything required of you yet STILL the DVLA have taken you to court. It's possible (... possible...) that the judge might make a recommendation that the DVLA tighten up their procedures and save the next person going through the ringer.

 

In any event, irrespective of whether the Judge would be interested in making recommendations to DVLA, they most evidently are wasting public money by taking these hopeless cases to court. Bet whoever was there for DVLA today got a nice mileage-based payout and a free breakfast paid out of my taxes...what for? To harass a citizen who had done nothing wrong! Aren't they supposed to have a duty of care for that money?

 

I'm beginning to think that it wouldn't be a bad idea to mimic the Daily Fail readers and start writing letters to MPs etc whenever one is confronted with state-funded nonsense like this.

[Pete-M]

I think at the moment it's better to just let sleeping dogs lie.

 

If the DVLA are 'outed' about this, they'll get a load of tax-payer funded lawyers in and think of something mega-draconian to replace it with. They may be a shower of shite, but at least they're incompetent. If the Daily Wail or the Waily Mirror started shouting about this then it'll make actually beating the bastards difficult.

 

As it is, car people can win, Joe Public gets shafted.

[Mr_Bo11ox]

I agree with Pete-M, leave the DVLA alone, if you make a big fuss it'll only get privatised, then it'll be even shitter and you'll have to pay £££££ just to ring them up (ring up their new indian call centre I mean) or have them receive a letter you've sent.

[HillmanImp]

I actually got an email yesterday from a recently absent shiter which might indicate that I am about to get into a similar amount of bother. I might have to bookmark this thread for future reference.

[Luxobarges_Are_Us]

I see where you're coming from, but it's already really quite shit. In a country with rather extortionate fuel taxes, the massive road tax/SORN administration/enforcement operation is just a very expensive way of keeping a little Welsh town alive (plenty of places have things like insurance discs and/or MOT stamps on the numberplates). Try exchanging a European licence and have fun getting passed from pillar to post and asked to furnish them with documents that don't even exist! They'll sell your personal details to all and sundry...and actually you normally DO have to pay them handsomely just for calling them (thank goodness for saynoto0870.com!). Privatisation can't happen because a lot of the stuff they do cannot be farmed out by the state unless it opens to competition (whoever tries it will get egg-faced in the Eurocourts), so I can't understand the 'take it on the chin' mentality, especially from free-spirited people like you two!

[Mr_Bo11ox]

Hey dont get me wrong, stories like this one where the DVLA gets the big FO at the end invariably warm my heart. I love em! But equally I am certain the DVLA service would be a lot more dismal for everyone if it was privatised, which it would be if too much fuss is made about it. At the end of the day the service off em is OK 93% of the time.

[CortinaDave]

I didn't have a problem with them until the last couple of years when this whole culture of fines came in. Literally at every turn they seem to want to fine you for something, regardless of the actual provability of their case. The whole SORN thing irritates me as well... It's my car, and if i dont want to use it on the public road, it's no one's business where I'm keeping it or what I do with it!

 

I have a fishing rod which I dont use, but i dont have to make a statutory declaration to the local river police every year that I'm not using it, and give them the location of the shed its in. Same thing IMO.

[Lankytim]

Its already semi-privatised at the moment and set to become fully privatised by 2014 or something. (unless I remember wrong)

 

Regarding sending everything recorded delivery, the DOOVLA have already said in another court case that they only want normal unrecorded "losable" mail. Apparently a judge in a case revolving around missing paperwork asked the DVLA if they could in future insist on all paperwork being sent/received recorded delivery. Apparently they don't have the manpower to deal with it so they insisted that everything had to arrive via normal post. Not that insisting on recorded delivery would expose the DVLA's completely shit internal mail system or anything....

[Luxobarges_Are_Us]

Regarding sending everything recorded delivery, the DOOVLA have already said in another court case that they only want normal unrecorded "losable" mail. Apparently a judge in a case revolving around missing paperwork asked the DVLA if they could in future insist on all paperwork being sent/received recorded delivery. Apparently they don't have the manpower to deal with it so they insisted that everything had to arrive via normal post. Not that insisting on recorded delivery would expose the DVLA's completely shit internal mail system or anything....

 

One MOAR reason to send everything recorded delivery, then!

[504GL]

I agree with Pete-M, leave the DVLA alone, if you make a big fuss it'll only get privatised, then it'll be even shitter and you'll have to pay £££££ just to ring them up (ring up their new indian call centre I mean) or have them receive a letter you've sent.

 

You mean the condem's don't already have a plan to privatise it?

[Luxobarges_Are_Us]

I agree with Pete-M, leave the DVLA alone, if you make a big fuss it'll only get privatised, then it'll be even shitter and you'll have to pay £££££ just to ring them up (ring up their new indian call centre I mean) or have them receive a letter you've sent.

 

You mean the condem's don't already have a plan to privatise it?

 

They can't. Even the current SORN system fails to comply with European law- it's just a matter of time before someone decides to spend some time and money on getting it through the legal system.

[dollywobbler]

The 'fine' thing really pisses me off. 'Clever' twats who have no understanding of things keep coming up with new ways to fine people, in a bid to get at those who don't insure/tax their vehicles. Perhaps if the self same twats didn't keep cutting Police funding, some actual on-street- enforcement could take place rather than vehicle ownership just becoming a massive pain in the arse for everyone who's actually trying to do it properly and legally.