SORN defence options.

[outelligent]

Hello all,

Any advice is appreciated.

 

I have received a SORN penalty

I am sure I sent SORN but I did not receive a acknowledgment letter.

 

What are my defense options if this gos to court?

Will I be Charged a minimum £1000 as they have stated?

Will this be at a magistrate or county court?

Will I need a solicitor / will it cost me money?

 

I am concerned because I have never been to court but I do not want to be bullied into paying up. I am about to send them this letter in reply;

 

Dear Sirs,

 

I confirm I am the registered keeper of the vehicle in question. I have previously correctly informed you of the vehicles off road status however it appears you have failed to update your records accordingly.

I absolutely deny your claim that the amount claimed, or any amount at all, is due to you from me. You may note I will welcome the opportunity to defend your allegation in court and am confident of success.

I am unable to enter any further correspondence with the DVLA regarding this matter since it would not be in my best interest to do so.

 

Thanks for you time.

[buzby]

Your last paragraph is kinda shooting yourself in the foot. If you don't want to enter into correspondence, then how can you resolve the matter without going to court?

 

There is no instant defence they'll accept, and they say they treat each case on its perits. In my case I got to the PO to find a queue out to the street, so I opted to post my form instead, which I did the same day. The first I knew was 3 months ater a fine letter, which I complained to their office about. My first complint was rejected, but my follow up accepted.

 

My issue was that as I have 5 vehicles and never missed relicencing or SORNing, then I was hardly likely to 'forget' this one. Whilst they may argue they send a letter to confirm SORN is active, expecting ME to chase THEM up due to non-receipt of this notification is disingenuous, after all - they could just as easily have written to me to say they still have not had the SORN form, which would have been much fairer than wait intil they wished to fine me.

 

In any event, the law states I have to inform them, and I did so, there is no requirement for me to do anything else (or chase up their response). Thy either didn't get my form, mis processed it, or lost it internally - none of which is any of my concern.

 

I got the letter cancelling the issue later the same month.

 

I now ONLY register SORN's online, and keep all the emailled responses and acknowledgements. It is the only way the RK can adequately protect themselves from these accusations.

[outelligent]

I want to keep my letter brief and to the point they can put up or shut up.

I have not yet sent them a letter but will probably remove that last part and remain open mined.

 

I just wanted to no what my chances are of getting either let off or winning in court?

like yourself I own more than one vehicle but I am 80% sure I sent the sorn off.

[Rooster-UK]

With a letter to a DCA, the letter is assumed to have been received two days after posting. Surely the same would apply here.

 

If outelligent posted the letter to the DVLA, then it is reasonable to assume that they received it two days later.

 

I suppose that it is easy to be wise after the event, but it's a pity it wsn't sent requiring a signature on receipt.

[buzby]

No signature on receipt is called for - as you only have to advise them f your intentions.

 

To the OP being 'let off' suggest you actually erred. How can you be let off for something if you actually complied? As for court - I probably doesn;t come to that, as the only time I'm aware of this is part of VED non-payment, the matter is usally passed to debt collectors, they don;t want to involve the courts with piddling actions.

[outelligent]

Thanks for the advice.

I will send them a brief letter and refuse to pay. They can send the matter to a DCA as the debt is in dispute.

 

The only thing that is worrying me is they have threatened a £1000 fine if this gets to court and I can afford that.

Finally do we know if anyone else has been successful with this?

[hungrybear]

Thanks for the advice.

I will send them a brief letter and refuse to pay. They can send the matter to a DCA as the debt is in dispute.

 

The only thing that is worrying me is they have threatened a £1000 fine if this gets to court and I can afford that.

Finally do we know if anyone else has been successful with this?

 

Tell them that you informed them using their form using the means they prescribe, namely the postal service, of the SORN status of the vehicle. Therefore according to section 7 of the interpretations act 1978 you have complied with your statutory obligations in informing them of the SORN.

 

There is NO legal requirement to have the acknowldgement letter

 

Look here:

 

http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/dvla/230624-dvla-fine-mess.html

 

to see the letter I sent to get them to back off

[originalpickaxe]

My wife is doing her nut with me. I sorned my vehicle in October 2009 but didn't get round to moving it off the road as I was trying to sell it.

 

Anyway yesterday DVLA clamped it.

 

It's not worth releasing from the pound when it goes , but so far it hasn't gone.

 

It's a 4 x 4 with big wheels and they couldn't fit the clamp on the wheel so they chained it around the steering rack.

 

In accordance with the warnings on the red leaflet I have not removed , damaged or interfered with the wheel clamp.

Neither have I interfered with the notices that have been attached to the vehicle.

 

What I have done though is removed all 5 fairly valuable alloy wheels and left the vehicle on bricks.

 

I intend to sell the wheels and the Mrs. thinks i am gonna go to prison.

 

Any thoughts??

[hungrybear]

Interesting one about the wheels. You may be antagonizing them in going for the 1k fine rather than the 40 quid and back tax.

 

Naturally there is a presumption of innocence in the removal of the wheels - perhaps some bloke down the road took them and you didn't think is was worth bothering the Police with:p

[buzby]

Well - the longerr you wait the price that they wish to extract from you increases, so if you have any assets (other vehicle, house) that are realisable, then you're simply storing up touble. You can argue that since the clamping, the wheels were nicked, however none of this is relevant to the amount it will ultimately cost you. If you used the wheel sale to fund the payment of the fine - do it, but other than that - you're just the person they're trying to catch, and they suceeded.