scrapped van - now dvla court warning

[richj]

I had a van scrapped about a year and a half ago. Filled in the log book and sent it off.

I got a letter today from a debt collection agency saying that I hadn't replied to the DVLA's correspondence, so they are taking me to court. £80 for an out of court settlement.

This is totally out of the blue and has me somewhat baffled. I haven't received any letters from the dvla about the van.

I called them up, was advised to write to my local enforcement office, which I am doing.

Has anyone here had anything like this happen to them? Total shock getting a random threatening letter like that. £80 at this time of year

 

[Makrakin08]

yep, i just tell them i sent the forms off and its there fault if they cant find them and my 2 cases were dropped

 

[richj]

thats reassuring, thank you. Did you write to the 'local enforcement office' ??

 

[NeX]

yep, i just tell them i sent the forms off and its there fault if they cant find them and my 2 cases were dropped

well i had a car scrapped and they said there is fine print that says you have to contact the DVLA if you haven't recived a distruction form from them. if you don't contact them then you are still responsible for the vehical.

 

[Pete]

Alex had a car written off, we'd filled all the forms, both solicitors and the decomissioning centre had advised the DVLA too. Got the court warning, I wrote a snotty letter for her and she got an apology.

Don't worry to much about it yet.

 

[Makrakin08]

no i phoned in i didnt write a ltter or anything, they were threatening me about insurance and tax, But i told them i had sent the documents away that it had been scrapped and was sorn etc etc, I would just phone them and explain this to them tell them you would rather talk to someone rather than write a letter,

 

[richj]

I phoned them, after getting ####ed off by the never ending menus I pressed random buttons until someone answered. She said I should put my complaint in writing and gave me an address.

 

[butta]

how the DVLA act is wrong they bully people into paying these fines because nobody wants to go to court against a government agency and end up with court costs on top i had the same thing a few years ago when a mate bought my car we sent off the log book with change of keeper he wrote the car off the next day the insurance company informed the dvla the car was scrap and i got a court summons for not buying road tax 6 months later, after hundreds of phone calls and letters they droped the case but with all the bills for calling and stamps etc... i should have just paid the fine! if i could register my car with someone else i would but we have no choice!

 

[richj]

Yeah I can see this becoming like the £110 parking fine i got. Went to get something out of my van, parking guys were walking away, they had left me a ticket. Thing was, it had been snowing, I had a valid ticket, the snow on my windscreen hadn't been touched, but was blocking the view of the ticket. I got done for 'failure to make the ticket visible' or something very similar. I mean, it was snowing. WTF am i going to do. I'll write to them and see what happens.

 

[Ceirwan]

I had something similar, when i was involved in my motorcycle accident, my bike was scrapped by the recovery company because i refused to pay a £125 recovery fee and then £20 a day for the 3 months i was in hospital (more than some B&Bs lol).

I informed the DVLA at the time, two years down the line (no reminder or ask for tax in for the first year it was a gone) i get a notice through the door saying i owe them an 80 quid fine because i forgot to retax the car. Naturally if i paid by a certain date then it would be reduced to 40!
I sent them a letter explaining the circumstances and they 'let me off'.
A letter is probably the best thing you can do.