The DVLA holds the details of 43 million drivers in Britain. It taxes them and issues licences.
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In April 2009, Watchdog revealed how the DVLA were wrongly amending hundreds of licences that had been sent off for updating. One of these belonged to Jon Jones. When he got it back, he found he was no longer licensed to ride his motorbike. As he'd had his licence for 30 years, this was obviously a mistake. Not according to the DVLA - who insisted he re-take his test. At the time Jon Jones told Watchdog, "I've had to book time off work to do these tests. The cost and the stress levels - I haven't been very nice to live with for the last month or so. It's affected my life, big time."
Have things improved since then? Not according to what you've been telling us. Viewers have continued to bombard Watchdog with complaints about this supposedly infallible organisation.
With two small kids, Carl Parsons relies on his car. He only needs the one, though, so he was shocked when, last year, the DVLA sent him log books for two other vehicles he knew nothing about. They didn't belong to him but they'd somehow been registered to his address. The cars were registered to two men with Italian names. Carl called the DVLA, who told him to return the log books to them - along with a letter explaining that the cars weren't his - and they would amend their records. But soon afterwards, Carl started receiving fines and then letters from bailiffs related to unpaid London congestion charges. Carl contacted the bailiffs to tell them the cars didn't belong to him and they said they'd try and verify his story. But he's since continued to receive demands for payment. Only last weekend, the bailiffs posted a letter through his door telling him they'd called. Carl said, "If Bailiffs come, I don't know what I can do to stop them taking my family's stuff. It's just not on, when it's not my fault."
Melanie Hordagoda received a £3,000 Volkswagen Golf as part of her redundancy package three years ago. When she moved house in 2008, she notified the DVLA of her change of address in London. But she soon realised she'd made a mistake and had wrongly given her address as Callcott Road instead of neighbouring Callcott Court. Right away, she called them to rectify the error. A worker in the DVLA's call centre said they would amend Melanie's details but a year later Melanie's car disappeared. She panicked and immediately called the police to report it stolen. But her car hadn't been driven away by thieves it had been towed away by bailiffs. But why was that?
Well, some months earlier Harrow Council had issued Melanie with a parking fine but she knew nothing about it because they'd sent it to the Callcott Road address. The DVLA hadn't updated their records as they'd said they would so, they'd supplied the council with the wrong address. Since then the council had been sending out reminders to the wrong address and Melanie's fine was increasing. It went from £60 to £967. Melanie applied to the county court and they revoked the increased charges, and said that she was only liable for the original £60 parking fine. But it was all too late. When she called Harrow Council to get her car back, they told her they'd sold it at auction.
Melanie said, "I was absolutely gobsmacked, I literally almost dropped the phone, I was really upset... I couldn't believe the £60 could end up to £967 in the first place. And then I couldn't believe my car has been sold without me being told."
Melanie has since received an apologetic letter from the DVLA, who've admitted that they'd failed her. They added that the clerk concerned had been made aware of the error and had been reminded to exercise greater care in the future. But the DVLA refused to compensate her, saying that when they pass on drivers' details to a third party - such as Harrow Council - it's up to that third party to verify that those records are accurate.
Paul Watters, Head of Public Affairs at the AA said, "Well, it's unbelievable that there is buck passing when there is such a severe outcome and someone's lost their car. The authorities really need to get their act together on this one, to find out who is responsible."
For most drivers, a car is essential to their everyday lives, but there's a host of reasons why you may have to keep yours off the road for long periods of time. You might have been ill and unable to drive while recuperating, maybe you've got a job abroad, or in another part of the UK, so your car will be idle for months. Then there are those drivers who become unemployed. For them, the costs of motoring simply become too much; the fuel, the servicing, the annual MOT and the tax. To stop paying the tax, you must make what's known as a SORN - a Statutory Off Road Notification - to the DVLA. It says you can do this online, by phone, at a Post Office branch, or by mail.
Sounds simple enough, but try to telling that to Paul Atkins. When Paul's son Adam went travelling, he asked his father to take his VW camper van off the road. Paul filled in his son's SORN application and posted it to the DVLA.
Paul told Watchdog, "The next thing I had was this form to say that we had been fined £80 for failure to notify them of SORN. So I sent them a photocopy of the one that I'd sent."
But the DVLA insisted the fine still stood, and wrote back to say that Paul and his son were guilty of not checking up to see that the DVLA had received their copy of the SORN - and so he was fined the £80.
In order to see this content you need to have both Javascript enabled and Flash installed. Visit BBC Webwise for full instructions. If you're reading via RSS, you'll need to visit the blog to access this content.
When you send off your Statutory Off Road Notice - or SORN - to the DVLA, they're supposed to acknowledge receipt and change their records. But if they fail to do that within four weeks, they make it your responsibility to tell them. If you don't, the records stay as they were and you'll end up being penalised for not having road tax even though your car's off the road.
Duncan Peck is a motorcyclist who took on the DVLA - after applying to take his vehicle off the road. He posted his SORN application but then six months later he received a penalty for £80. The DVLA insisted they hadn't received Duncan's application and told him it was his responsibility to contact them when he didn't receive acknowledgement of receipt. Duncan refused to back down and refused to pay the fine, so the DVLA took him to court. When the case was heard in March, the judge found in Duncan's favour saying the DVLA has no statutory power requiring anyone to contact them should they not receive an acknowledgment letter.
DVLA's Chief Executive Officer, Simon Tse, told Watchdog:
"Anyone who keeps a vehicle must either tax it or tell the DVLA that it
is being kept off the road. This helps to keep our roads safe by
recording who is responsible for each vehicle and whether a vehicle is
safe and legal to be on the road.
"We do everything we can to make it as easy as possible for motorists
to do this. You can tell us your vehicle is being kept off the road via
our website, over the telephone, at the Post Office or by writing to us.
"We send reminder letters to motorists before their tax disc or SORN
expires, and we have recently started sending additional reminders to
vehicle keepers who haven't told us that their vehicle is off the road
or if it hasn't been taxed. This new reminder letter gives keepers
further opportunity to avoid any penalties.
"We handle more than 120 million transactions each year, and take over
28 million calls. Errors are extremely rare, but we investigate all
cases reported to us and aim to resolve any issues as quickly as
possible."
Harrow Council's Brendon Hills, Corporate Director of Community and Environment, said:
"We sympathise with Ms Hordagoda for this unfortunate incident. It must be extremely distressing to lose your car in these circumstances.
"Like all councils around the country, we rely on the DVLA's records to contact motorists in the event of any traffic offences.
"To carry out further checks on the driver's details would incur an additional cost - as much as £50 for each check - which we would have no choice but to charge to the vehicle owners.
"We want to keep these charges as low as possible and rely on the DVLA's records to be correct. The responsibility for these records ultimately lies with them and the owner of the vehicle.
"The council's procedures take four to six months in which time; the motorist receives a number of notifications and the maximum fine at this stage is £185 to cover the cost of checks, notifications and court proceedings. The fine is then passed onto bailiffs to recover.
"They then inform the motorist that the charge has been increased to include their costs, which cover set fees (as per legislation) and reasonable fees charged for the work carried out to recover the penalty.
"If, at this stage, the fine is still not paid, then it is standard procedure for the bailiff to tow the car and sell it at auction, which is kept by the bailiffs as payment of the initial penalty and bailiff fees.
"If the car was sold for more than the outstanding debt, any additional money is returned to the customer. The council only receives £185 for the initial traffic offence and subsequent court costs."
DVLA in the dock
In order to see this content you need to have both Javascript enabled and Flash installed. Visit BBC Webwise for full instructions. If you're reading via RSS, you'll need to visit the blog to access this content.
In April 2009, Watchdog revealed how the DVLA were wrongly amending hundreds of licences that had been sent off for updating. One of these belonged to Jon Jones. When he got it back, he found he was no longer licensed to ride his motorbike. As he'd had his licence for 30 years, this was obviously a mistake. Not according to the DVLA - who insisted he re-take his test. At the time Jon Jones told Watchdog, "I've had to book time off work to do these tests. The cost and the stress levels - I haven't been very nice to live with for the last month or so. It's affected my life, big time."
Have things improved since then? Not according to what you've been telling us. Viewers have continued to bombard Watchdog with complaints about this supposedly infallible organisation.
With two small kids, Carl Parsons relies on his car. He only needs the one, though, so he was shocked when, last year, the DVLA sent him log books for two other vehicles he knew nothing about. They didn't belong to him but they'd somehow been registered to his address. The cars were registered to two men with Italian names. Carl called the DVLA, who told him to return the log books to them - along with a letter explaining that the cars weren't his - and they would amend their records. But soon afterwards, Carl started receiving fines and then letters from bailiffs related to unpaid London congestion charges. Carl contacted the bailiffs to tell them the cars didn't belong to him and they said they'd try and verify his story. But he's since continued to receive demands for payment. Only last weekend, the bailiffs posted a letter through his door telling him they'd called. Carl said, "If Bailiffs come, I don't know what I can do to stop them taking my family's stuff. It's just not on, when it's not my fault."
Melanie Hordagoda received a £3,000 Volkswagen Golf as part of her redundancy package three years ago. When she moved house in 2008, she notified the DVLA of her change of address in London. But she soon realised she'd made a mistake and had wrongly given her address as Callcott Road instead of neighbouring Callcott Court. Right away, she called them to rectify the error. A worker in the DVLA's call centre said they would amend Melanie's details but a year later Melanie's car disappeared. She panicked and immediately called the police to report it stolen. But her car hadn't been driven away by thieves it had been towed away by bailiffs. But why was that?
Well, some months earlier Harrow Council had issued Melanie with a parking fine but she knew nothing about it because they'd sent it to the Callcott Road address. The DVLA hadn't updated their records as they'd said they would so, they'd supplied the council with the wrong address. Since then the council had been sending out reminders to the wrong address and Melanie's fine was increasing. It went from £60 to £967. Melanie applied to the county court and they revoked the increased charges, and said that she was only liable for the original £60 parking fine. But it was all too late. When she called Harrow Council to get her car back, they told her they'd sold it at auction.
Melanie said, "I was absolutely gobsmacked, I literally almost dropped the phone, I was really upset... I couldn't believe the £60 could end up to £967 in the first place. And then I couldn't believe my car has been sold without me being told."
Melanie has since received an apologetic letter from the DVLA, who've admitted that they'd failed her. They added that the clerk concerned had been made aware of the error and had been reminded to exercise greater care in the future. But the DVLA refused to compensate her, saying that when they pass on drivers' details to a third party - such as Harrow Council - it's up to that third party to verify that those records are accurate.
Paul Watters, Head of Public Affairs at the AA said, "Well, it's unbelievable that there is buck passing when there is such a severe outcome and someone's lost their car. The authorities really need to get their act together on this one, to find out who is responsible."
For most drivers, a car is essential to their everyday lives, but there's a host of reasons why you may have to keep yours off the road for long periods of time. You might have been ill and unable to drive while recuperating, maybe you've got a job abroad, or in another part of the UK, so your car will be idle for months. Then there are those drivers who become unemployed. For them, the costs of motoring simply become too much; the fuel, the servicing, the annual MOT and the tax. To stop paying the tax, you must make what's known as a SORN - a Statutory Off Road Notification - to the DVLA. It says you can do this online, by phone, at a Post Office branch, or by mail.
Sounds simple enough, but try to telling that to Paul Atkins. When Paul's son Adam went travelling, he asked his father to take his VW camper van off the road. Paul filled in his son's SORN application and posted it to the DVLA.
Paul told Watchdog, "The next thing I had was this form to say that we had been fined £80 for failure to notify them of SORN. So I sent them a photocopy of the one that I'd sent."
But the DVLA insisted the fine still stood, and wrote back to say that Paul and his son were guilty of not checking up to see that the DVLA had received their copy of the SORN - and so he was fined the £80.
In order to see this content you need to have both Javascript enabled and Flash installed. Visit BBC Webwise for full instructions. If you're reading via RSS, you'll need to visit the blog to access this content.
When you send off your Statutory Off Road Notice - or SORN - to the DVLA, they're supposed to acknowledge receipt and change their records. But if they fail to do that within four weeks, they make it your responsibility to tell them. If you don't, the records stay as they were and you'll end up being penalised for not having road tax even though your car's off the road.
Duncan Peck is a motorcyclist who took on the DVLA - after applying to take his vehicle off the road. He posted his SORN application but then six months later he received a penalty for £80. The DVLA insisted they hadn't received Duncan's application and told him it was his responsibility to contact them when he didn't receive acknowledgement of receipt. Duncan refused to back down and refused to pay the fine, so the DVLA took him to court. When the case was heard in March, the judge found in Duncan's favour saying the DVLA has no statutory power requiring anyone to contact them should they not receive an acknowledgment letter.
DVLA's Chief Executive Officer, Simon Tse, told Watchdog:
"Anyone who keeps a vehicle must either tax it or tell the DVLA that it
is being kept off the road. This helps to keep our roads safe by
recording who is responsible for each vehicle and whether a vehicle is
safe and legal to be on the road.
"We do everything we can to make it as easy as possible for motorists
to do this. You can tell us your vehicle is being kept off the road via
our website, over the telephone, at the Post Office or by writing to us.
"We send reminder letters to motorists before their tax disc or SORN
expires, and we have recently started sending additional reminders to
vehicle keepers who haven't told us that their vehicle is off the road
or if it hasn't been taxed. This new reminder letter gives keepers
further opportunity to avoid any penalties.
"We handle more than 120 million transactions each year, and take over
28 million calls. Errors are extremely rare, but we investigate all
cases reported to us and aim to resolve any issues as quickly as
possible."
Harrow Council's Brendon Hills, Corporate Director of Community and Environment, said:
"We sympathise with Ms Hordagoda for this unfortunate incident. It must be extremely distressing to lose your car in these circumstances.
"Like all councils around the country, we rely on the DVLA's records to contact motorists in the event of any traffic offences.
"To carry out further checks on the driver's details would incur an additional cost - as much as £50 for each check - which we would have no choice but to charge to the vehicle owners.
"We want to keep these charges as low as possible and rely on the DVLA's records to be correct. The responsibility for these records ultimately lies with them and the owner of the vehicle.
"The council's procedures take four to six months in which time; the motorist receives a number of notifications and the maximum fine at this stage is £185 to cover the cost of checks, notifications and court proceedings. The fine is then passed onto bailiffs to recover.
"They then inform the motorist that the charge has been increased to include their costs, which cover set fees (as per legislation) and reasonable fees charged for the work carried out to recover the penalty.
"If, at this stage, the fine is still not paid, then it is standard procedure for the bailiff to tow the car and sell it at auction, which is kept by the bailiffs as payment of the initial penalty and bailiff fees.
"If the car was sold for more than the outstanding debt, any additional money is returned to the customer. The council only receives £185 for the initial traffic offence and subsequent court costs."
DVLA in the dock