DVLA PROBLEM: FAILURE TO NOTIFY...

[Jamesy04]

Right...

Basically sold my Renault three months ago to some fella from Sheffield.

I have now recieved a letter in the post with the header of "Failure to notify disposal of Vehicle: **Reg Mark**

Okay so three months have passed and I haven't recieved an ackonlwedgement letter saying I am no longer of my old vehicle. It's blown straight out of me head tbh. didn't think anything untoward as I haven't sold a car in a long while and forgot about recieving this little letter.

But this is where the Plot thickens...

The Registration Number in the Letter I have recieved off the DVLA is in-correct. It is the same year, make, model & colour as my old vehicle, but has a slightly different registration number...

I've since done a registration check on the number plate of my old vehicle and it is "unknown to any database" but the one qouted in the letter is correct.

Previous to me buying the vehicle I did a check and it was all correct and my insurance company found the vehicle straight away when i read them the registration number over the phone.

I don't have the buyers details of my old vehicle anymore as they were on the V5 when i sent it off and stupidly i never made a note of them or kept a telephone number. not one thing.

Basically what should I do and what has gone on here??

Has somebody tried to swap the reg on it since my ownership and tried to register it as a written off vehicle?

When i filled the V5 out to purchase the vehicle it came back correct within a couple of weeks. So I can't understand how this has come about really.

The letter asks me to pay a fine and notify them as to which scrap dealer i have sold the vehicle to or to not pay the fine and inform them as to who is responsible for the offence...

I'm totally narked. no idea who's done what and I'm being screwed for a vehicle that I have never officially owned...

Any help, guidance or previous experience would be great.

Thanks!

James

 

[Bluebeard]

Tell them the date you sold it, pay the necesary fine.

There's not a lot else you can do.

 

[Jamesy04]

but the reg in the letter i have recieved is in-correct... I never owned a vehicle with this reg...? Only one number matches with the reg i had. all the other characters are different... :S

 

[Bluebeard]

So send them a letter stating that you never owned a car with that reg. :S

 

[DannyR]

I had this once as forgot to send off a V5, just called and said I did send it and must of been lost in the post. Sure I never had to pay the fine.

 

[LiamR172]

I had this once as forgot to send off a V5, just called and said I did send it and must of been lost in the post. Sure I never had to pay the fine.

That old trick eh... LOL

 

[MicKPM]

I got done like this with a SORN before that I actually sent via post and guess what (? Rhet) I still had to pay the fine.

They've got your name and address against that registration mark (which show every other detail as being correct) so if you're sure it's not yours and refuse to pay a fine then you have two options:

Ask them to prove you owned that vehicle and sort it out IF its a genuine error (but be prepared to pay a fine if proven to be your car)

Or

Let them take you to court (and you'd better turn up) to explain to the magistrate that you've never owned this vehicle and its the DVLA's mistake.

 

[TheEvilGiraffe]

Send a pic of your old car with the plate shown and say that's not yours.

If they come back to you and say tough .. give us some money .. then so be it. Man up and pay it.

If they leave you alone, you're sorted.

 

[CrippsCorner]

I understand your situation is a strange one, I'd phone them and ask... ultimately though if they still say pay you could either pay and forget about it, or take them to court. Most people win when they do this, there's plenty of help over on the consumers forum (can't remember the name now) I went along with it for a while but I suffer from anxiety and couldn't be arsed with the hassle in the end

 

[Yellow Dave]

i had this. turned out the new owner put in a request to change the nunber plate to a private plate before the dvla had received the filled in v5. took months to sort out with them threatening action. luckily i made 2copies of the sale receipt and kept one. forwarded that to the dvla telling them they were reckless for allowing a unknown person change the reg on a car that in their records he didnt own

theyre hopeless and just throw threatening letters to whoever they have on record.