DVLA Clamped 'Written Off' Car

[thegoodgirl]

My husband pranged his car in January after skidding on ice on a country lane and turning the vehicle over. There was substantial damage to the side of the car and due to the engine being upturned for some time this resulted in it 'blowing'.

 

Undrivable (due to engine failure) we arranged for our friend to tow the car back to our private property.

 

My husband claimed on his insurance - Groupama - who immediately sent an engineer to view the car, deeming it a 'write-off'.

 

He liaised with Groupama over the phone and negotiated a settlement figure and agreed that he could keep the vehicle in order for him to sell the parts for spares.

 

He received a letter from Groupama with his settlement cheque stating that the vehicle was a Category C write off, that his insurance policy was now terminated and that in order to re-insure the vehicle, he must apply for a VIC. He was also asked to surrender the MOT.

 

The car in question has stayed on our land ever since, until this week, we finally found a buyer the spares. Yesterday my husband and a friend, pushed the car (remember it has no engine) from its resting point to another position (still within our land) so that the buyer could easily push it on to a trailer. He then popped to the shops, returning 45 minutes later to find it clamped!

 

It was a DVLA clamp! What a nightmare, the buyer was due to turn up within another hour, and my husband had to go to a funeral, so his secretary called the number on the warrant to be told that the vehicle had been clamped as it had no TAX and had not been declared SORN.

 

She was told that regardless of the vehicle being on our private property, they were allowed to clamp the car.

 

Obviously due to the iminant arrival of the buyer of the scrap he needed to have the clamp removed asap so the secretary paid £260 fine.

 

We were under the impression that as the car had been written off that we did not need to apply for SORN as it states this on the Direct Gov website: http://www.direct.gov.uk/en/Motoring/OwningAVehicle/UntaxedVehicle/DG_069727

 

and as my husband had surrendered the MOT, and the vehicle cannot be insured until it has passed a VIC then it would have been impossible to tax it!

 

Anyway, husband called the DVLA this morning, to be told that there was no record on their system of the car being written off, only that it had been involved in an accident and that it was my husbands resosponsibilty to SORN the car.

 

My question is this - surely it is the responsibilty of the Insurer to notify the DVLA that the vehicle is written off? Don't they have to log this fact with the ' motor insurance anti fraud and theft register' and the 'Motor Insurance Database' ???

 

What should we do next? Ideally we would like to claim back the £260 from the DVLA

 

Any ideas????

[nelehp]

I dont know what u can do because i am in a similar situation because .. My car has been ritten off too but due to an electrical fire (the fire brigade put it out) the insurance assesor says the fire brigade dont kno what they are talkin about ...(mmmm ) .. but

I have a sorn document on the car and has had since that day , the car wont work and is in a parking bay outside my house ,and now is clamped so when i asked the company why they say its because it has no tax on it, but a sorn document is on it ,and dvla kno the sorn is on the car and have said the company shouldnt have clamped it .. when i spoke to the company they say its on local authority land so they can even tho its sorned ...but im waiting for the company to speak to the local authority to see where i stand , so keep ur fingers crossed it all works out for both of us ..

[Dragons Dennis]

SORN = Statutory OFF ROAD Notification. A parking bay outside your house is not off road, that is why you have been clamped.

[Raykay]

It would depend on the location of the parking bay, if it is not on a public road - a road maintained at public expense - the SORN notification would be valid.

According to the OP, the clampers are only claiming that the car is on local authority land, which may not be a road.