car tax and sorn

[mgrileystandardfan]

I am sorry if this old chestnut has been discussed to death already but i feel i have to have a go at the government and particularly the DVLA. Everyone complains that speed cameras are a cash cow for the government but how about the reminder service for car tax and sorn?, let me explain, i have a modern daily driver as i commute quite a few miles every day to work and need to run an economical diesel, with this car i received a reminder that my tax disc was going to run out in about 6 weeks time. I.E the dvla are chasing me to retax my car and pay them some money. Now i have just received a letter from them telling me that my sorn declaration on my 1985 horse box ran out last month and i now owe them £80 for the fine in not re-sorning at the appropriate time plus a charge of £13 for unpaid road tax. I seem to remember that when sorn first came in there were rumours that there would be a reminder service for sorn but the dvla seem to be very slow in instigating it. this must be the easiest way to print your own money. If i were more organised then this wouldn't have happened but i am a 56 year old male who has just recently had my first heart attack and been made redundant (luckily able to get re employed)and so i have had other things on my mind. If i were more organised i wouldn't need a reminder for my car tax for which i have a piece of paper stuck in my windscreen to remind me anyway. Why does the DVLA not send out reminders for sorn then? As i have said before, it is an easy hidden tax on people who are not even using the road network!!!
Does anyone else feel this way and can we possibly do anything about it

[Pilkie]

Did you recieve a reminder that the tax was due on the horsbox about a month or so ago?
If you did,then that is also the reminder that if you dont tax it you need to sorn it!!
If you do nothing,they will wait a month to see if it has been sold and a new owner is about to register it!
You could plead and apologise to them citing the fact you were recently in hospital,and knew nothing of it,that a partner not wanting to add to your stress may have regarded it as junk mail and binned it!!
I had a car that I was restoring a few years ago,as the new owner I declared sorn when I bought it,and every time the tax reminder came through I re-sorned it till I was ready to tax it.

[JPB]

i am a 56 year old male who has just recently had my first heart attack....

I hope it'll also be the last. As Pikie said, tell the folk at the DVLA about your medical malfunction and chances are they'll be reasonable. They hide it well but are actually capable of using rational thought.

[mgrileystandardfan]

Many thanks for the advice and yes, i am in contact with them. The situation i get annoyed with is if you have a long term rebuild and put it on sorn for consecutive years you get no reminder, i have had the horsebox for a few years and took it off the road a couple of years back to do repairs to the box body. this is the second year of sorn and i received no reminders or any other notification until receiving the demand for money. DVLA just don't seem to be so quick with the reminders (non existent) for sorn as they are for road tax. Or is it just me?




Under sorn at the moment
1967 Spartan kit car
1970 Spartan Kit car
1954 Standard ten
1962 Nuffield 460 agricultural tractor
1955 Riley Pathfinder
1979 MG midget 1500

[OneCarefulOwner]

You get a reminder a month before it's due, and another a month after warning you that if it doesn't happen "soon" (7 days? end of the month? can't remember or find one atm) then you'll get fined. This second letter has been active for at least a year as I've had it happen twice.

[Topaz]

There are plans to make SORN just a 'one off' and it will remain in force until the vehicle is taxed again - so no more reminders and no more paperwork. No idea when this will come into force but it was announced at the end of last year
http://www.dft.gov.uk/news/press-releas ... s-20111215

Mike

[mach1rob]

SORN used to be a one off, and if you owned an untaxed vehicle when it was introduced it was automatically declared SORN so you had to do nothing, if you still own that car, and have not taxed it since then the SORN on it is still valid, so that wreck that disappeared under the hawthorns 20 years ago is still OK.

If you're unlucky enough to own a car that's been taxed or had a SORN declared since, then I'm afraid you have to renew each year. The DVLA do send a reminder, it's the same one they send you if it were your tax disc about to expire, you just tick the SORN box rather than the 6 or 12 month box. This was brought in by the last lot in power as a way to raise a few extra £s from people such as yourself who forget, or just never get round to it for whatever reason.

As above, they are looking to change it back to the one off declaration, and the sooner they do the better.

Also, don't forget you also now have to declare SORN if your vehicle is uninsured!! This always causes an interesting discussion when the vehicle is still taxed! Even the DVLA don't really know what happens if you declare SORN on a taxed vehicle as it's uninsured, and then insure it at a later date on a disc the computer says is off road. I have had so many different answers I gave up.

[OneCarefulOwner]

That's not quite accurate Rob; pre-SORN vehicles are flagged as unlicenced but not due for renewal, which is different to being SORN. If any car changes hands then it has to be declared SORN by the new owner as soon as possible regardless of its previous status as SORN supposedly isn't transferable either, although I'm pretty sure that when I did a re-declaration on my last project the SORN period didn't start afresh but simply continued from when it was previously declared by the former keeper.

The whole system's a bloody mess, and like so many of these ideas it only really affects those who try & do the right thing but make a mistake; those who didn't care before the change in the law are unlikely to suddenly start caring afterwards.

[1900sr]

Also Rob, when you declare SORN on a vehicle that is currently taxed you are supposed to return the tax disc,and claim a refund on any unused months remaining.

[mach1rob]

Not according to one reply I had from the DVLA, they stated if you wished to keep the disc you could! Like I say even they themselves don't know the full ins and outs!