DVLA in the dock

my husband bought a trike sent off the log book and they sent it back as a motor bike now we have to take it to chelmsford to have it inspected at our expence

When I tried to hire a car in 2008 but had mislaid my license, the car hire rep said ' no problem, we'll call dvla, they will verify you'. The dvla told the hire car rep that my license had been revoked for an unpaid fine. I asked to speak to them and the dvla employee told me that my license was revoked in 1992. I had been driving for 16 years with a revoked license!! I have had 2 speeding fines since 1992 and had to send in my license for the endorsement to be put on. They didn't pick up on it then! I have produced my documents at a police station and they didn't pick up on it either. They have NEVER sent any correspondence relating to what they said was the original unpaid fine or sent any communication to me about revoking my license. I have paid the road tax on my car for all the years I was revoked which also involved having a full license. Apparently I'm not the only one this has happened to. Many others have had the same problem. Mike Craft.

My car was getting on a bit and beyond economical repair, the gas guzzler had to go!

I used a registered dismantler that was licensed by the DVLA and informed them automatically, in fact they advertised that they did this.
The man turned up and took the car and handed me the remnants of the ownership documents. He said "hang on to that". This was a mistake, I was supposed to send the slip to the DVLA.

The DVLA then fined me £80 odd for not payment of car tax!!!

I rang the registered dismantler and sure enough they had told the DVLA that the car had been correctly and safely disposed of.

So the DVLA merely fined me for a mistake in my paperwork. They KNEW the car was off the road.

I then tried to appeal, but it turns out the signatory on the letter is an "invented person" used by the DVLA and what's more there is NO APPEAL PROCESS. So.. I was ripped off, they threatened me with further fines and bailiffs if I did not pay immediately.

It occurs to me that we live in a free country, and there should be no law, or by-law applied without the right to appeal without incurring extra costs. I am also told that you cannot appeal against speed camera fines unless you almost certainly wish to pay considerably more, perhaps £340 more?

Is this a free country or what? Maybe the new coalition government will tackle this nonsense?

i got a bad deal from the dvla last year. i passed my moterbike teast in 1988, had a few bikes over the years. was told to check my license recently and found i no longer had moterbikke entitelment on my lisence. i queried this with dvla and the basically said they had no record iof me passing my test and i have to do my cbt and RESIT my test. 22 years i been riding bikes. as the test was quite easy in 1988. now i gota resit my test and pay up to £600..

I have had my motorcycle entitlement removed from my licence when I changed my address last year. I passed my test in Nov 1987 and now it has disappeared off of my record. No explanation why..my insurance companies have been insuring me for 20 years. Now I have no licence!

I have asked the dvla to amend my licence to show that I wish to be noted as an automatic driver now rather than a manual transmission due to a spinal deformity I have been having problems with. They have sent me a medical declaration form 3 times, which I have always sent back, last time even getting an acknowledgement letter back. Today came back another declaration telling me that my licence will be revoked on 2nd June, if I don't get the form back to them. As it is bank holiday, it is not even possible to do this.

i passed my test in 2003, never got any point only ever sent my licence off to amend my address, i never got it back........now when i ring them up they tell me i have never had a licence, however i do have a licence number, im now getting prosecuted for driving WITHOUT a licence and im going to be banned and have to re-take my test, where have my details gone :O

When my partner moved into my address we applied for his licence to be renewed via the internet so he could have the correct details, we paid the fees and three weeks later we had not recieved the licence. When we called the DVLA they told us that wee had put his current address as his old address and his old address as his new address, We know that this is false as we recieved via post a signiture form for him to sign to send back. The DVLA have told us that we would have to re-apply for the licence pay the fee's again as they will not amend the fault.

I gave my V5 over to the post office when I taxed the car as I had just moved. They assured me they would send it to be updated.

6 months later I had never received it back. Called the DVLA and they claimed they never received it. I called the post office and they said they keep no records of documents sent.

I got charged £25 for replacement and I was without my car for 4 weeks as I could tax it again.

DVLA are a joke, I sold my van after owning it for 12 years from new. I cashed in my road tax, DVLA sent me a letter saying they need to check if I was the owner and while they do my road tax refund will be less as I will get it from the month they complete there checks. I called them and they told me that they had no record of my ownership even though I had years of records of road tax demands. 1 month later I got my refund in full with no appology or reason. I have other stories about the DVLA that you just would not believe. They are not in the real world!!!

Applied for a new photocard licence last month and the DVLA took the £20 payment and then returned my application and refused to issue the new licence as i didnt send payment. I checked my bank and they had taken the money.

I finally got my licence 4 weeks later after several phone calls.

Not happy

my son sent his licence back to the dvla for change of address and the distroyed it and he is still fighting to get it back this happened in november last year

i brought a car in early january and two months ago i realised i didnt recieve my log book so i sent of my green slip and a form of to dvla to get my regestrasion document and still havent recieved it yet, but i sent my husband one of the same day and hes recievd it but i havent i phoned them up today cos my tax is due and they said they havent recieved it and that i have to pay 25 pound and put my car in a garage or driveway cos as from monday i cant drive it and it will take six weeks b4 i recieve the v5 doc i have three young children an d one is disabled so i need a car so if in emergancy i can take him to hospital i need a car!!

We have a problem wherby the DVLA recorded the new owner for the car we sold without taking our name off the record. We have been receiving Congestion charge penalties for the period after we sold the car and threatening follow up demands because the DVLA records were wrong and had two people recorded for the same vehicle.

What about DVLA when all the info they hold is correct but they FAIL to carry out their own procedures? they did that with me, and issued a V5 to someone who said they had bought the vehicle from me, DVLA sent them a replacement V5 at thier address in their name, that person got a replacement key and DROVE my brandnew merc off my drive....I and the police were pwerless to do anything.It cost me thousands to take this person to court.
This chairman is talking rubbish, I want compensation...they admitted thy got it wrong....I have it black and white

It seems a little strange that the issue of motorcyclists losing their entitlement seems to be washed over. Not even a question asked to the DVLA man what he was going to do about this.

I find this troubling as a motorcyclist and due to send in my license.

Why was the question not asked. At the moment I will not be returning my license until this issue is looked into and remedied. I cannot afford to take another test and find it ridiculous that I must if the DVLA screw up. Especially seeing I have had my license since I was 17.

I passed my driving licence in 1978 and should automatically have the A1 catargory for riding a low power scooter. When i first had my licence i did use a moped.
Yet when I checked recently it has been removed the last time i renewed my licence for a photo licence.
Trying to get it added again will cost me £20 which is what was said when I applied with an application form.
DVLA Should automatically renew mine and anyone else's licence whome passed when I did.
What should I do?

dear watchdog - I have received someone elses Reg Certificate in post today!! I wish I did own a Daimler but I dont, so why has it come to me, is there a risk I will now get all this persons possible future fines etc???????? help:) whats the point in doing this, is it the driver or DVLA mistakes???????????

I changed my car last year. I rung to pay a normal parking ticket only to be advised I had an outstanding fine amounting to over £200. I had had no correspondance and was simply advised even though I had sent the change of details to the DVLA because they hadn't recieved I had been fined etc.
I had to take a day off work attend court and swear on oath that I knew nothing about this. I was told by the Magistrates that I should hopefully hear no more.
Shortly after I recieve a letter from the DVLA advising they were continuuing with the prosecution.
Yet another day taken off work. The usher at the court said he ha dnever heard of anything so stupid and was annoyed with the amount of time wasted in court. I was also advised if you send notification of change of vehicle etc by recorded delivery this is not proof, however if the DVLA send something recorded delivery it IS proof.
I had to endure a complete trial where I had to swear on oath, explain myself and await a decision by the magistrates. The DVLA rep said this is happening all the time, it will be thrown out.
After 1 and half days off work, numerous court hours and paperwork the case was quite rightly thrown out.
As an ex police officer I would love to know how the DVLA get away with throwing away money through court action. I fought and won - what a complete farse!

DVLA needs to start accepting responsability - if I hadn't been suffering ill health I would be requesting an apology!

No sympathy for the lady that has lost her car, she received a parking ticket which she didn't pay, it would have been on her wind screen, (had parked illegally) didn't arrange for her mail to be forwarded to her new address, sounds like her life generally lacks reposnibility. Perhaps a hard lesson learned!

my brother moved to port talbot some years ago but i am still getting his sorn at my address even though his car reg documents are registered at his new address and his driving licience is what are they going to say about that at the dvla?????

When i had to update my license photo i went to the trouble of sending my old license by recorded delivery as in these times of id theft such an important document needs to be protected. the dvla sent it back by normal post and it was lost, well they say they sent it but how can they prove that when it wasnt recorded, its nice to know that somewhere in the country a copy of my license it floating around making it easy to steal my identity and do all sorts of things because the dvla cant be bothered to do things properly and send these documents securely.

Last year someone apparently registered their car to my address - the first I heard was when I started getting letters addressed to "Nark White" (a made up name if ever there was one). I returned them to the sender, but started opening the ones that were obviously from bailiffs and worked out that they were demanding money for two unpaid parking tickets.

I called the DVLA and explained what was going on - and that I didn't even have a car - and they told me to write to them to explain the situation. They wrote back pretty quickly and acknowledged the situation, and once I forwarded their letter to the two London Boroughs and debt collectors, they left me alone.

I know that it's an offence to not have your current address on your driving licence - perhaps, if it isn't already, it should be the same for vehicle registrations.

Hi the dvla have failed to remove a totting up ban from my licence since january despite numerous phone calls from myself. I was found guilty of failing to provide information but the prosecution was sent to the wrong address. I made a statutory declaration and had the points removed, but the dvla only removed the 6 points and didnt remove the totting up ban i incurred as a result of gaining 12 points.

I was stopped by the police and had my car seized. This cost me hundreds of pounds and caused me to be hospitalized on the day in question with a panic attack. They wont send me my driving licence back. As they say I am banned. They wont let me update my details as i have recently moved, as i dont have my driving licence. They keep sending me letters asking me to send my licence to them. Even though they have it!!

its a complete joke I have had to get a solicitor on the case to try and gets things sorted.

The DVLA is using again the "Harold Shipman" line of defence :I left more patients alive that I killed.

I was taken to court and fined for pulling a trailer without the correct licence dvla took the ability off me when I moved house and didn’t let me know and now deny I ever had it I passed my test in 1976 over 30yrs ago

My wife ended up recieving a CCJ from the DVLA because they failed to register the SORN form she sent in for her car. Because we had moved from the property she was registered at the time, we only found out 2 years later when we tried moving house and credit check was performed that she had recieved the CCJ. It took us two months of hard work to get it removed - and they still did not admit fault. We had to take it to the county court, but still had to pay £60 to remove the CCJ...

DVLA lost my V5c document and retension document to move a private number plate onto our dream car , this was done in May 11th. last week having checked x5 times to see where was my current car document to be used for an exchange this week -they said its been lost .
I now have to wait x6 weeks to now reapply for a dupilcate V5c document. this has cost us an extra £1000 as a bond to BMW for us to now use our dream car on holiday .

They are so awful i nearly had a break down . Dont send in the post they lose it all. Complete useless system. Adrian Bewsey

Last year I applied online to declare my car as off the road and had to try three times because I didn't think it went through and because I recieved the same message three times I believed I did it until I recieved a letter about 2 weeks after saying I never declared my car as off the road and recieved a £100 fine and another form to SORN it

I got married in 2000 and sent my licence to be changed.
I got it back with my maiden name with my new sig.
I phoned them up and they said to send it back!!! I sent it back and it again came back with my maiden name and my new sig!!!
What is a person to do when you follow the rules but they can't be bothered to be acurate

I currently have a letter from the DVLA for the previous tennant to renew the photograph on her driving licence & I have informed the DVLA that they have not lived here sine Jan 2005

hello i was watching watchdog this eve about dvla i sold my car march last year 09 and sent the documents off with the new keepers details i recieved a letter saying i had a parking ticket i then wrote 2 them saying i wasnt the owner n that i sound it afew weeks before hand i didnt hear from so thought it was sortedthen a year later from bailiffs saying they want £316 ive had so many letters i feel suididal i spoke 2 the bailiffs n they want the money ive rang dvla plus ticket office n no one will help me im at the end off my teather

I bought a NEW SEAT Ibiza in 2009. Un-known to me the log book the DVLA sent me was for a 1.6 litre engine rather than a 1.9 litre engine.

As I had insured my car using the registration number, and the insurer had just taken the engine size off the DVLA register I was paying for a policy which was incorrect and driving around for a year effectivley uninsure! Even though I was paying a policy that was to the best of my knowledge correct.

Luckily I didn't have any accidents, or get pulled over during that year otherwise I may have been 'caught' in a criminal act through no fault of my own.

There are enough un-insured drivers in this country without the DVLA voiding the policies of those of us that do pay!

I've had a situation myself with the DVLA, quite different to the rest! I lost my id so tried to apply for a new one online, it said it wasn't possible so i had to call up. I rang and they then continued to tell me that my licence was in the name of Mr instead of Miss. My picture was of a girl and I crossed the box that my sex was female however I still ended up being a male! So now I have to apply for a whole new licence as it says i am male!!

The Chair on the show tonight must admit DVLA is not good enough, before any improvements can be made. I do not sense this is the case, so my hopes for improvement are low.

My story:
I passed my car test in the early 90s back home in Northern Ireland. I recently moved to Wales and passed my motorbike test. I applied to update my licence to my new (Welsh) address aswell as the motorbike test pass.
This was clearly too much for the DVLA to handle and I received a licence, in the right address and with the bike category correctly updated, but with my category A (car licence) missing!! When I noticed this (as I knew to check becasue DVLA have such a poor reputation regarding updating bike tests) and called them I was told "do not to drive the car as DVLA records showed I had no licence to do so" - I had been commuting to work.
I wrote a strong letter of complaint and delivered it by hand. DVLA did fix the paperwork but their 'apology' was weak and it continues to deeply concern me that an organisation with such power (the police rely on the records being accurate and up to date) continues to operate at this poor level.

I have just paid £80 penalty for a car I did not own at the time of the offense.
I sold my car in September, and the penalty date is October. I have been threatened with legal action and such unless the fine is paid. I own 3 cars, pay the DVLA approx £700 a year in tax so this disgusts me that I am penalized for a breakdown in their system.
I did not want people turning up at my door demanding payment so felt pressurised into paying a fine for an offence I did not commit.
What now? I will not get my money back without legal action and it's not worth the cost. Seems that this is happening all too often.
James

i'm having problems with dvla i'm wantig to exchange my licence over to a photo 1 i'm being told i have to pay i want to now why because i've already paid once i'm not paying twice for the changes they have made

Suffered exactly same way, DVLA lost post and then fined me £80.

I paid to avoid court when 3 complaint letters were rejected. I want my cash back.

the so called chief of the dvla ... said... complaints about sorn are less than 1/2 % and then said there only 0.6 % hmmm seems like he cant add up... no wonder they get things wrong

i have a 15 week old baby when i have had nasty bailiff at my door threatening to take away my items if i dont pay up for a car fine the thing is i sold my car three years ago and sent of change of details but when complaining to bury council they told me dvla gave them my details i contacted dvla and they confirmed i didnt own the car but im still fighting bailiff these counsils need to do their job as well as dvla

The representative on tv just said do the transaction online. two years ago i declared a vehicle as SORN as I hadn't passed my driving test yet 3 months later i got a letter stating that i hadn't declared my car sorn and a fine of £80 that would rise if i didn't pay it within 2 weeks. Because it had been so long between when i declared sorn and when i got the letter my internet history no longer held records of me being on the webpage.

I just wanted to add to the many complaints about the DVLA. About 3 years ago I sold my car to a local garage and sent the signed document to Swansea to advise them of the change of owner. The garage confirmed to me that they also did their part. 2 months after I had been driving my beloved new car I received a fine for £60 from DVLA for my old car! Apparently I had not informed them of the change of owner and so was being charged as the road tax had expired on the car. I spoke to them about it and they said that they did not make mistakes and they had never received any document. I had no choice but to pay as they threatened to take me to court.

When my husband sold his car recently we wanted to send the document via registered mail so we could be sure that it was received. We were advised this was not possible as no one would be able to sign for it. How are we to be sure that they won't claim they did not receive documentation and fine us again if there is no way that we can be sure they have received the information?

I wish I could be as clever as them and never make a mistake!

How about finishing the story about the biker who had his right to ride a bike removed from his licence!

The DVLA Chief Executive claims that 0.6% of 4 million SORN applications result in a complaint - that'll be 24,000 complaints a year then!?!?!

My partner sold a car last year and sent off the log book but sometime later recieved a letter from the council stating that he was being fined because the car was illegally parked. He tried to fix it with the DVLA but no help. Since then he has had trouble with his bank account being frozen so that they could take the money for the fines. Still not resolved, After watching tonights programme, I am wondering if this is because of the DVLA?????

we sold our 2nd car and sent off the part of the vehicle reg document as required. we heard nothing and presumed everything was ok. only to then receive a £80 fine for not taxing the car, even though i had kept a copy of the vehicle reg doc and sent this copy to the dvla they said the fine still stood. i received a letter from the dvla also saying that they aknowledged we did not have the car at that time, however the fine had been passed to a collection company and again even though we sent copies of the letter from the dvla and the vehicle reg document they would not back down and threatenend court action, my husband paid to stop this, we then wrote to the dvla again asking for the money back sending copies of all documents again registered delivery and still have not heard anything from the dvla at all and that was 5 months ago!!!!!!!

I also got stung for a fine for the DVLA having supposedly not received my SORN....it was my fault for not contacting them after 4 weeks when I hadn't had confirmation...they sent letters out to the wrong address (which I had changed with them when I moved)so the fine mounted until I had a visit from a bailiff. I just paid the money since it seemed I didn't have a leg to stand on - I wonder how many people just pay rather than fight what appears to be an unfightable fight!

Hi, i just find it astounding that someone can believe that less than 1/2 a percent somehow becomes 0.6% ?? surely that makes no sense?

Watching the programme now...

I just received my license back from an address update.

The website wouldn't work for hours when I was trying to do it online. Then I received my license back without my motorbike classification and saying next to my date of birth that I was born in the United Kingdom... this is news to me! I was born in the USA and it has always said this on my license in the past so who told them to change it now??

Now I can't even get anyone to answer the phone and speak to me because the number goes to an automated machine that tells me they are too busy to take my call and cuts me off!

Getting annoyed now

the chair of the DVLA just said they have 4 million customers and that only 0.06 per cent formally complain....going by my calculation that means 240'000 formally complain each year.....THATS NEARLY A QUARTER OF A MILLION!!!!! thats a significant number that the chairman did not go in to detail.

We had the same problem with the sorn document, we received no notice from DVLA, just a letter from a debt collection agency stating we owed them money, we then had to pay and then reclaim the money from the garage to which the car was sold, this was even after we sent the document to the DVLA!..... think someone is doing far to much reycling and not enough processing at the DVLA... perhaps the post man!....

I had a Honda cbr 125 and I stopped using it and put it in my conservatory. 2 months later I got a letter saying if i do not pay the outstanding balance of £85.50p if I do not make this payment they where going to take me to court. I ignored the letters they sent me. in total they sent me 3 letters i haven't heard from them since. so I guess I was lucky compared to what has happened to allot of other people.

I have been waiting for my licence to be returned to me for nearly 8 months DVLA are useless

The DVLA is a public body and is therefore subject to the requirements of administrative law. I had to threaten them with a judicial review before I got what I wanted. Basically they can do nothing that is illegal, procedurally improper, or irrational - this doesn't stop them trying though! Damages are payable in JR proceedings, but the proceedings are very costly.

My father recentley purchased one of the seized cars which were in an auction. When he first bid for the car he was told that it was bought as seen, so he and a few people he went to the auction with looked over the car in detail and only found a few small dents. They also looked under the car to check their was no issues, but when they went to pick up the car two days later the exhaust of the car was then hanging off as well as being bent round back on itself. When they asked what had happened to his car they were told that the car was previously like this and the car was sold as seen, yet all three men deny that the car was like this. They were then told to basically prove that the car was damaged after the sale was made.

I don't use DVLA Swansea, if i have any problems, i always visit my local DVLA office in Chelmsford, where the staff are more helpful..
I would suggest anyone to use their local DVLA office

We received a letter from debt collectors a year after we had notified the DVLA that the car had been scrapped and we were passed from pillar to post for hours of phone calls and told we had to pay the £80.00 and then claim it back from the DVLA as it was their mistake. This was absolutely impossible and we never resolved it. That was February this year and the car was scrapped the previous February!

A couple of years ago, I'd sent my license to the DVLA to change to a photocard. During that time I'd been stopped by police and needed to present my license. Obviously I didn't have but it was ok as they would just check. I got the license back a couple of days later. About 6 weeks after this I had a court summons for driving without a valid license-despite having had my license for 10 years. It turned out they'd changed the spelling of my surname hence the "no valid" license. When I phoned to complain the woman told me they were very busy and put the phone down on me!!!

I sold my car and did not have the log book, so i wrote to the DVLA in august 2009 to say I no longer owned the vehicle and the vehicle was brought by a banger racer and was used privately. The new owner said he would apply for the log book.
I reveived a letter from the solicitors to say i owed £80 for non payment of car tax! I have sent a 2nd letter recorded delivery. I called the DVLA to ask if they received my letter but could not say what was on it, how is this possible as they are the ones who produce it!!! So as I speak I am waiting for the letter to be received from the DVLA, from what I have seen on the show this evening, I will get a letter saying I will still be liable! How can this be right? It is not my fault they have not processed my letter but I will get the blame!
The DVLA are the most incompitent waste of space I have delt with!

The post office printed the wrong expiration date on my Tax disc for my motorbike. It only had 6 months on it, I was told it needed to be renewed in April 2011 by the post office. However it actually expired in October 2010 which is impossible to tax a bike for less than 12months. One morning I woke up to bailiffs and a police man putting my bike in a van. They requested £400.00 for an extra day for me to tax it. I didn't have £400.00 so they took it. To cut a long story short I had to decide for my bike to be scrapped as I couldn't afford paying for their storage costs.

After trying to contact the DVLA explaining they made a mistake they fined me £80.00.

I lost a bike and £80.
Am I entitled to compensation.

Terrible.

My partner scrapped his car and sent the required part in and never got conformation of this and so has had to sorn this car off road every year since as he cant get through to anyone to tell them. The system is completely automated and there is not an option for this!! The car no longer exists but the DVLA insit on it being sorn or he will be fined - what do we do??

I haved recently moved in with my fiancee to her address and wanted to change the address on my driving licence. She agreed to fill in the details on the form - all I had to do was sign it - but she noticed that if the photocard was over a certain age, I had to submit a new photograph. I duly had photographs taken and sent them to DVLA with the forms. I then received a letter stating that I owed them £20 for a new photocard. I cannot understand this - presumably, since DVLA had my address, they could (should?) have sent me a reminder that a new photocard was due. Surely a system-generated letter could be produced as they will have a record of when the photocard was issued.In the meantime I will pay the £20 but considering I went to the expense of getting photos done, I think this is really a bit of a cheek and yet another example of the Civil Service getting one over on the man in the street.

The chairman of the DVLA has just said that the number od SORN mistakes is very small each year compared to the number of transactions they process. The figure quoted was 0.06 percentof the 4 millions but this is still 2400 per year or 200 per mont. This means they make about 6 or 7 mistakes a day with only the SORN applications.

I am sure that other businesses would not allow or be allowed by they yearly audits to just say "it is only a small amount of money / qunaityt we are out"

They need toensure their processes work and work correctly

It is not often you see a chief executive bury their own organisation but we did tonight. He was out of his depth, unable to give a straight answer to the questions. A perfect case of the Peter Principle in action if ever there was one! Complete incompetence promoted to the top.

DVLA don't lose post?? Well they certainly managed to lose my passport 3 weeks before Christmas when I was needing it to travel abroad for the holidays. DVLA claim to have posted my passport and that it must have been lost by Royal Mail...odd as this is the first piece of post that I have ever lost! To top things off DVLA posted my passport back to me via second class mail despite me having sent it to them by special delivery. At no point during the application process did they mention to include a return envelope for special delivery. Who in their right mind sends passports in second class mail.
The whole thing was a nightmare. DVLA eventually compensated me for my new passport but unfortunately this did not make up for the inconvenience of the whole episode!

London and south east stories from a londoncentric bbc

My husband had the exact same thing, his [edited] (50 tonne unit) was off the road & being kept in a private yard because it needed repairs & as we'd just had a new baby we couldn't afford the repairs immediately so my husband filled out the sorn documention & posted it to DVLA. Like the others we were not aware this had not been recieved by them & we got an £80 fine, we rang the DVLA to be told it was our responsibility to chase & make sure it had been recieved, but they would over look the fine on that occassion however we then recieved a further letter advising the fine was outstanding, so again we called them & was then told the fine had to be paid, there was no way around it.
This is one company you would expect nothing less than perfection from, their errors have a big impact on peoples lives & our £80 fine took things away from our new baby especially as I myself was made redundant while on maternity leave, this was a fine we could NOT afford.

i sent my paper provisional back sept 09 for photo and to change my surname to married name i recieved it only to notice they had spelt surname wrong instead of ending in two o's i had one i called and got told to send it back with a letter explaing reason after 3 weeks i rang back to sorry we have not recieved it we are in process of changing around call back in 2 wks so i did to get told no you will just have to pay £20 and send us proof of your name to which i argued that it was not my mistake and you have my passport number to confirm who i am so why should i have to send anything or even pay when they even had me on system in wrong name and i am telling them the problem and all i was getting is its admin fees to change your name and we dont know if you are using the licence illegaly cheek of it i still dont know whether to just pay or what !!!!

We sent our part of log book in to DVLA in Januray 2010 and waited for the new log book, for some reason the log book didn't go on the system until end of March 2010 but our car was lifted by Nerwlyns Bailifs on behalf of Newham Council on the day the car was taken the council was informed that the car had new owners, the council have refused to give our Porsche 911 back even though we have sent them a copy of log book they claim that because Dvla didn't put car on system until after the Bailifs took it but on LOG book it does say car was in our name from 01/02/10 please help...........

Have you noticed they only read out emails and texts that back up what they say is wrong.

DVLA - totally stupid in their service

the ceo is talking rubbish as i have just complained four times with no acknowledgment of my issues yet the issues no resolved mmm.

I had exactly the same with the DVLA. My mum has Alzheimers, so I threatened DVLA with the local papers over her SORN...they dropped the matter immediately!

This is not about SORN or Road Tax, but about Log Books - I sold my car to my neighbour as i was awaiting an operation and brought her car off her as a cheap run around, we sent off the log books to both cars in the same envolope, and about 3 weeks later i recieved the log book for my neighbours old car so assumed that my neighbour had recieved her log book for my old car. About 7 months later i had a court summons saying i had an £60 fine i had not paid saying i had not informed the DVLA of the change of ownership details. When i called the DVLA about this they said it was up to me to follow up to make sure it had been recieved by themselves, when i told them both log books had been sent off together they still come back saying it was up to me to check. I am still being chased for this payment by the court.

I did a sorn on a old van i had in feb 2009. The van was sold and all relevant paperwork and documents sent to DVLA. 2 weeks ago i was sent a letter to pay a fine of £80.00 because The said van was not sorn'd this year. I have a copy of the log book when I sold the van but am still being to;d that the fine has to be paid. Will let the courts decide. D V L A get your act together.

we are glad we watched the show to night as my husband and i sold two cars last year to help for are morage and now we are getting letter from the dvla for not put tax on cars we do not have. for one of them we are haveing to go to court and one they are sending in the baillfs around but we can not pay as my husband is not working and i am on the sick so can some one help please . as i am worry sick about this we have the bills of sale but they do not what to know.

my partner sold a bike in 2006 i sent the v5 to dvla about a year ago they sent him a lettes saying he was being fined for not sending v5 in i wrote to them told them i had sent it in and also gave them the details again of who it was sold to thought that was the end of it untill last month when the were going to take him to court as he is disabled i contacted them and they said they dont make mistakes and agreed to an out of court settlement of £35 which i paid as didnt want my partner going to court

I contacted the dvla in regards to an ex that has not been residing with me for about 3yrs after recieving vodafone bills sent to my address....he had not changed the address of his driving licence and therefore is still listed on his licence that he still resides at my home address...had proceeded to use this as a form of identification to get a contract phone...he is a lorry driver and has no fixed abode now...when i wrote to the dvla and explained this and that he could be contacted at his place of work...i recieved a letter back stating that there could be nothing done as he has to inform them as such...so in the mean time whats to say what else he will use my home address for ...

I tried for two day to get in touch with the DVLA, spent hours & hours on the phone. Trying to inform them that I had sold my volvo to a breakers yard. I wrote to them & they said they did not receive my information. I now have to pay £60.

Listening to the dvla representative who said "The SORN complaints are less than half a percent infact they are 0.6%" when I went to school I am sure that 0.6% is more than half a percent so it's no wonder that the DVLA gets things wrong.

I sold a car in february, I'd owned it for just over a year. Then in march I received a letter from the DVLA telling me that they were going to fine me for failing to notify them of a change to the registration of the vehicle. Obviously to me this was a mistake as i sold my car on a Sunday evening and posted my V5 document, with all the correctly filled in details, first thing on Monday morning. That should have been the end of it. I contacted the DVLA and was told to write to them explaining that I had no knowledge of this new registration number, so it must have been the new owner and they would change their records. So I did exactly that. Then in April another letter from the DVLA landed on my doormat. This one stating it was a final reminder the fine had already increased and if I didn't pay up by a certain date they would be taking my case to court. I haven't paid and don't intend to. I would also like to point out that when you get pulled over by the police, they will check with the DVLA to confirm your licence eligibility. How many mistakes has this caused the police to make?

Mr Chair of the DVLA stated that they process 4 million SORN's a year and they only have 0.6% complaints, that is 24,000 people complaining that's not a small amount and is unacceptable.

I'm just watchin WatchDog. This is the first i've heard about the driving licences so i checked mine. I sent my old one back when the new photo cards came in but i didn't check it at the time. I just checked it and found that i can now no longer use my motorcycle and that i have been driving the college minibus without a licence.
I have a photo of my old licence, would this be enough for DVLA to ammend my licence?

my father gave me his car in feb this year my mother sent the log book off to change keeper details to my self. the DVLA contacted me as i had sent the green form off and were charging me £25 as they had thrown away my green slip as this is normal process and even then when my mother wrote them a letter to confirm her postage i was threatened with a fine if i didnt pay the money to issue me with a new keeper log book

I am watching the watchdog with great interest tonite in regard to DVLA.
I bought a BMW at auction...reg & they forwarded the V5 details to DVLA, i received them & a day later i received a letter to say that i shouldve declared the car SORN on 1st May...i did'nt own the car on 1st May lol... bought it on 15th May lol!
Anyways...i tried to declare it SORN online for my own safety sake,
BUT.... if anyone would like to try this please feel free...
Make BMW,
Reg,
Unique ref number [number removed]
..... IT WONT ALLOW IT TO BE DONE ONLINE. HAHA...

DVLA IS A TOTAL MESS!!...

I HAVE 4 LETTERS SITTING HERE IN REGARD TO CLAMPS THAT WERE APPLIED ON PRIVATE GROUND....NON RENEWAL OF A SORN ON ANOTHER CAR WHICH WAS DONE VIA DVLA INTERNAL MAIL VIA THE POST OFFICE.

SEE YOU IN COURT DVLA IT WILL BE A PLEASURE!!!

in June last year my partner and I traded in our cars using the scrapage scheme. we sent of both the log book information in the same envelope. A few weeks later My partner received his acknowledgement. I never received mine but didn't really think about it as surely if they got one they got both....... same envelope remember! During this time we also moved house (informing the DVLA as we had a new car). A few months later I received a phone call from the DVLA telling me that i had not paid tax on my old car ( I traded it in before the tax was due) I was also informed the fine was £80 as I had not responded to their letters (had never received them as had been sent to my old address). I paid the fine as i was warned that if i didn't they would refer it to a bailiff company, it would affect my credit history and my new car could be removed!!!!!

Hi, the DVLA chairman obviously doesn't know his percentages as 0.6 is higher than half a %.
Also surely it works out as over 20,000 mistakes based on 4,000,000 declarations @ 0.5%.
This is a lot when they dont believe they make any mistakes!!!

i have had this problem with DVLA. i sold my van for scrap and send the V5 back to DVLA but didn't chase the acknowlagement. i then got fined £80 but sent back the from explaining that the van was sold & when & send photo copies of the V5 but they said i had to pay. i have paid the fine but am taking them to small claims to get the money back because the treathen me that when they take me to court i could end up paying £1000 when i lost the case. So by taken them to court i only risk £30

Ive just watched your program had a look at my licence, and what did i see no motorcyle entitlement.I passed my test in 1968 what do i do now

according to the dvla i had/ have a condition which means i'm on a restricted licence ,i asked the dvla time and time again what is this "condition " i have , all they say is "you have a condition" my doctor doesn't know what condition they refer to neither do i since when did a non discript alledged condition affect driving a car ,and has their medical dept have never seen me ,how they worked out i have a condition is beyond me especially when i don't have a condition ,if i did i'd know about it

I requested my credit report last year to establish why i could not get credit and i found i had a court fine which claimant is Dvla so i contacted the court to try and get further information and all they could give me was a car reg. and advised me to contact dvla for more information. DVLA said they are unable to give me anything so i contacted the court again and they sent me a form by email for me to fill in and return which i have done, in the meantime i have done a reg check on the internet and the reg does not exsist. So i have a fine but no answers, Bear inmind i found out in 2009 and the fine took place in 2005, also the best of it is i don't have a full uk driving licence and i have never had a car in my name.

As what has been said on the show, i agree with Anne when she said that the DVLA is a shambles, the reason why i agree with this is because yh people make mistakes but the DVLA should not make mistakes as they are what people get everythink from. I don't drive yet but after seeing this it is really disturbed by this as i going to be driving soon and if the DVAL are going to make mistake then i think i will wait till i know that they have fixed all the mistakes that they have makde.

The DVLA do make mistakes and they do lose post. I work for a company that deals in the motor trade. I have to SORN or process tax for upto 1000 vehicles a month. I will only send anything to the DVLA by special delivery and after I have taken copies for my files. Very recently I sent V890's (SORNs) together with V14's (refunds)as well as trade notifications in the same special delivery envelope. After 8 weeks we still havent received confirmation of the SORN and shortly after I had enquired, I received a "Failure to relicence" fine for each of them. They had managed to process all the V14's/trade notification, but 3 of the 8 SORN's hadnt been processed. They couldnt find the applications. After providing all the copies and evidence(that a member of staff had signed for them), they eventually accepted they had lost the applications. This still took me 4 months to resolve and I know what to do. I would recommend spending the extra few pounds to send anything to the DVLA and always take a copy of any paperwork and also keep the special delivery number for 12 months.

I passed my test originally in an automatic so have an automatic licence - I then passed my manual test and thought all my paper work had been sent off, however due to circumstances beyond my control I later discovered that they hadnt been sent off. I have tried to contact the DVLA to explain this but cannot get through to anyone. I have sent a letter and had no reply - is there a number I can ring as I cant seem to find any number where I actually get to speak to a real person.

My Daughter phoned dvla to ask why her provisional licence had not arrived after 3 months. They said they had no record of receiving it. she then forked out another £50 to get a new one as they cannot tell if damaged or lost in post and the following weds her provisional turned up after the postal order for the first one had been cashed.

Also i had a car towed and impounded and whilst i was going through the complaints procedure my car was sold by the company who ran the pound. dvla have never written to me to inform me of sale without my signature but they have fined me £80 for not taxing it after the pound had sold it...
I am taking DVLA to court now. wish me luck x

I sent the DVLA a logbbog for a motorbike I'd sold, several weeks later I was sent a fine for not notifying them. I then sent them a copy of the loogbook duly signed and dated by both parties and they came back to me and told me it was my fault still for not checking they hadn't received it?!I sent another letter pleading my case and also explaining that I had just been made redundant right before christmas, had no income and 2 children to feed so the only money I had was for my childrens Xmas presents and the fine would be a huge problem for me, they wrote back basically saying "tough".

Nice Christian spirit from the DVLA, what an unreasonable bunch of jobsworths fining innocent people who pay their wages and also can afford it least.

I scrapped by car in January 2010 and got an acknowledgement letter dated 10th February stating that "you may want to keep this letter for your records". Luckily I did as I then got a Renewal reminder stating that my tax was going to run out on 31st March!!

I've not contacted them since but await further pestering!

in regard to post 84...my previous one....i have penalty letters outstanding to the tune of £700 and not one of them should've been issued lol

I can't wait for the court cases!!

Something that keeps surprising me about mail in the UK is unlabeled mailboxes and the resulting mail blackholes this causes. Quoting: "By law Royal Mail has to deliver the mail to the stated address (not the named person)". That seems just wrong. In other countries mail that does not match the name of any of the occupiers is always returned to the sender, who is thus immediately aware of any address problem.

We sold our [edited] to a scrap dealer who delat with [edited] specifically and sent releveant documents off to DVLA in September 2007, in the November we recieved a tax reminder in the post, so we contacted DVLA who said they couldnt discuss it over the phonen and asked us to put it in writing, 3 weeks later we recieved a letter saying it was our responsibility to make sure the DVLA had recieved documents and we had to pay a £80 fine, we wrote to them again with a copy of proof of postage and had no reply, in Feb 2008 we recieved a another letter from them demanding £250 plus back tax on the car as we had failed to declare sorn!!! I contacted them once again, explained the situation, the person on the other end of the phone was sympathetic and said once again it was our responsibility to ensure DVLA had recieved documents and would reduce fine to £90 if we paid within 21 days, if payment wasnt recieved they would start legal proceedings which we would have to pay for, so we paid in fear of legal proceedings, I did also ask why they hadnt taken any action on previous letter and they claimed they hadnt recieved it and told me I should of kept proof of postage which I did. It seems to me the DVLA is out to make money from you which ever way possible, if this had been a normal company you wouldnt get treated like this but as it is a government department as such they are out to rip the tax payer off!!

I was fined £270 for sorning my vehicle and parking it on my driveway outside my house. They said the piece of driveway wasnt private property. My car wasnt blocking anything and was right at the gates of my house. I went to court to fight it on advice from a local council member but lost and had to pay the fine. DVLA is very unfair and very unprofessional!