Dvla & Sorn !!??

[Bonzo]

A strange thing happened recently, I thought I would pass it on

As you know, I was recently given a Mk5 Escort GTI fitted with a 1.8 Zetec engine. ( Currently breaking it )

As it was a friend who gave it to me & the Tax just run out, I asked him if he had declared SORN on the car ( He's useless at remembering things like that )

True to form he hadn't even thought about it

Being a mate, I said I would do it for him, only takes a few seconds online, told him that at least his ass would be covered.

He signed the V5 & gave it to me to sort .... Before I get slated, I know it is the registered keepers legal duty to notify DVLA of any changes.
But mates is mates & all that

As soon as I got home on the Saturday morning, went online & SORN'ed the Escort, received an automated confirmation Email from DVLA.

First thing Monday morning I sent the completed V5 off to DVLA.
Change of keeper & Mondays date as the date of change.

About a week later, the new V5 turned up in the post as expected.

Now here's the rub, for some unknown reason I went to DVLA's web site to make a vehicle enquiry on the Escort & to my surprise the vehicles status was " SORN expired "

Needless to say, I soon sorted that out.

Had I not checked DVLA's records, I would have been oblivious to the fact that SORN ends when the vehicle changes hands & the new keeper has to do it again !!??

The first I would have known about it would have been when the fine arrived in the post.

Some of you may know this but it was news to me.

Moral of the story, if you buy a donor car that is currently on SORN, when the V5 arrives, you'll need to declare SORN as soon as possible otherwise a fixed penalty notice will be arriving in the not too distant future !!??

[mark]

This explains why i got fined by those lovely people at the DVLA then

When i got my donor it had a couple of days tax left and the owner said he would declare sorn for me, so i drove away with my donor happy as larry

Sometime later recieved a fine in the post, rang them up and they said it wasnt sorned and i was liable as i was the registered keeper, i tried to explain the situation and the fact the car was now a pile of bits but they didnt care and i had to cough up

I paid straight away so they halved the fine, nice of them eh, t*@ts!

Good job my wife stopped me going around to the previous owners house to make him pay it, he assured me he would sorn it right away and in light of this i guess he did! i was ready to pay him a visit, good job the red mist faded before i got to my car

[RAYLEE29]

yep sorn expires as soon as its reregistered new owner has to resorn.
found out by accident myself lol
currently got about 12 vehicles on sorn and only one on road
Ray

[flyerncle]

The law is an ass,but still the law and still an ass.

Thank the lord for government NOT

[Deanno]

I had the same thing but i got an £80 fine and when we moved house we re-registered the focus (Our everyday car) and totally for got to register the Escort Mk5 and when we moved. and our old Landlord failed to send us any mail we received then we had a letter from a collection agency and surprise surprise they gave us that one. and i thought once you SORN a car its sorn'ed till you tax it. tut tut.

[Eternal]

BUGGER! just checked my donor car this was Sorn before i bought it. I now have a 7 month fine this is stupid!

[twinturbo]

I thought this would be common knowledge by now.

TT

[Eternal]

Dont suppose anyone knows how much of a ass pounding i will get from the dvla for 7 months on a cosworth scorpio?

Humm thinking about it what gets me wound up is the fact i never recieved any letters saying "hay you dont have any tax!" from them. Also re reading the V5 nothing on there states that you have to renew it. only 1 line that says more info can be fount at www.blah blah blah.bs

[Bonzo]

Originally Posted by Eternal

BUGGER! just checked my donor car this was Sorn before i bought it. I now have a 7 month fine this is stupid!

SORN it online now mate, at least your ass will be covered from the start of this month

As far as I know, there is a standard fixed penalty for failure to declare sorn, not a sliding scale according to how many months have elapsed.

who knows, if you are lucky and if you SORN now, you may not hear anything from DVLA

Rob

Complete news to me & I have handled a fair few cars since all of this SORN malarkey came into force !!??

Nothing on the V5 to indicate that if you do not intend to tax the vehicle then SORN must be declared by the new keeper .... Could be a viable defefence for appealing any fixed penalty notice.

Mind you, probably wouldn't be wothwhile appealing as the penalty is doubled if you don't pay at the first time of asking.

In my defence, whenever I get a new vehicle, I always make sure that I take care of things at my end

[Bonzo]

Originally Posted by Eternal

Dont suppose anyone knows how much of a ass pounding i will get from the dvla for 7 months on a cosworth scorpio?

Humm thinking about it what gets me wound up is the fact i never recieved any letters saying "hay you dont have any tax!" from them. Also re reading the V5 nothing on there states that you have to renew it. only 1 line that says more info can be fount at www.blah blah blah.bs

Well that's not exactly informative information from DVLA .... Making the assumption that the reader has access to the WWW