DVLA delayed refunds

Millie Master

Millie Master

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Back in early March I entered into a new direct debit agreement with the DVLA for the continuation of the VED as of the 1st April, at the time any kind of Covid 19 isolation policy and the closing of all caravan and camping sites hadn't even been thought of.

Then on knowing that all sites were being instructed to close as well as of course HM Governments isolation policy as I detailed on here at the time, on the 22nd March 'Millie' was put onto SORN and I was duly in receipt of confirmation........... job done, I thought foolishly!!

Then this morning my most beloved (who looks after all of our banking transactions) announced "the xyz DVLA have taken the April VED payment, I thought she is on SORN"..... so after my boiling kettle of a brain had calmed down slightly I made several attempts to make phone contact with the darned organisation, all without success, so I then started to look into finding an email address which I found to be like trying to find the proverbial needle in the hay stack!

So as of now I am in a bit of a quandry, the reason being that as I have already got a SORN number following my contact with them on the 22nd March, but now no doubt because of their cock up 'Millie' is still covered by the VED that I had cancelled!

Any thoughts, oh and does anyone have a direct email address for the relevant department?

many thanks

Phil
 
Millie Master said:
Back in early March I entered into a new direct debit agreement with the DVLA for the continuation of the VED as of the 1st April, at the time any kind of Covid 19 isolation policy and the closing of all caravan and camping sites hadn't even been thought of.

Then on knowing that all sites were being instructed to close as well as of course HM Governments isolation policy as I detailed on here at the time, on the 22nd March 'Millie' was put onto SORN and I was duly in receipt of confirmation........... job done, I thought foolishly!!

Then this morning my most beloved (who looks after all of our banking transactions) announced "the xyz DVLA have taken the April VED payment, I thought she is on SORN"..... so after my boiling kettle of a brain had calmed down slightly I made several attempts to make phone contact with the darned organisation, all without success, so I then started to look into finding an email address which I found to be like trying to find the proverbial needle in the hay stack!

So as of now I am in a bit of a quandry, the reason being that as I have already got a SORN number following my contact with them on the 22nd March, but now no doubt because of their cock up 'Millie' is still covered by the VED that I had cancelled!

Any thoughts, oh and does anyone have a direct email address for the relevant department?

many thanks

Phil
Click to expand...
interesting.
After reading this, I decided to log onto my account to check and I have had a payment taken on the 1st April for my SORNed van as well.

I am going to wait and see what happens next month. It may be that due to a high volume of SORNs, there has been a delay in the cancellations?
Reading the info here - https://www.gov.uk/vehicle-tax-refund - which says
  • Your vehicle tax will be cancelled by DVLA. If you pay by Direct Debit, the Direct Debit will be cancelled automatically.
  • You’ll automatically get a refund cheque for any full months left on your vehicle tax. The refund is calculated from the date DVLA gets your information.
So as you (and I) have confirmation of SORN in March, any payment in April should result in an automatic refund, so I would suggest be patient.

If you want to persue this immediately, click on this link:
 
I would suggest that you contact your financial institution and claim a refund under the Direct Debit guarantee on the basis that the DVLA had indicated that the DD would be cancelled and therefore no (further) payments should have been taken. Also, given that they also state that the DD will be cancelled, I would suggest checking using online banking; if the DD is still shown as live, cancel it once you have received the refund from your financial institution and in any case before the next payment is due.
 
wildebus said:
interesting.
After reading this, I decided to log onto my account to check and I have had a payment taken on the 1st April for my SORNed van as well.

If you want to persue this immediately, click on this link:
Click to expand...

Well I have received an automated response from the email address you put up Dave having already gone down that road prior to putting up my original post.

As we have both suffered the same consequence to our SORN notifications, then I suggest that all other people who placed their vehicles on SORN in mid/late March should check their direct debit bank details.

Just in case!
 
I suggest they are understaffed (particularly now) and overworked..I suspect all will be sorted in time (but who knows)
As with many things now we need patience and tolerance.
I hope it all gets sorted for all in a similar position.

PS I paid up for a full year (from March 1st)..I will claim a refund soon and await the cheque.
 
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jagmanx said:
I suggest they are understaffed (particularly now) and overworked..I suspect all will be sorted in time (but who knows)
As with many things now we need patience and tolerance.
I hope it all gets sorted for all in a similar position.

PS I paid up for a full year (from March 1st)..I will claim a refund soon and await the cheque.
Click to expand...
I think a bit of patience in this situation is a good idea indeed. I had the extra payment taken in April but I have full confidence it will sort itself out over time.
One way to look at it also ... One month worth of over-paid road tax is less than the amount you will save by having 6 months worth of Free MOT with the extension.

Jagmanx, out of interest, with your planned USA/CAN trip, assuming that had all happened, would you have SORNed your motorhome for the time it was abroad? I am assuming that the SORN notice is a statement that the vehicle is off UK public roads, not necessarily off the road completely? Same would maybe apply to the folk who go on extended Europe tours as well?
 
wildebus said:
I think a bit of patience in this situation is a good idea indeed. I had the extra payment taken in April but I have full confidence it will sort itself out over time.
One way to look at it also ... One month worth of over-paid road tax is less than the amount you will save by having 6 months worth of Free MOT with the extension.

Jagmanx, out of interest, with your planned USA/CAN trip, assuming that had all happened, would you have SORNed your motorhome for the time it was abroad? I am assuming that the SORN notice is a statement that the vehicle is off UK public roads, not necessarily off the road completely? Same would maybe apply to the folk who go on extended Europe tours as well?
Click to expand...

If taking a vehicle abroad for less than 12 months it must be taxed in the UK. Link
 
wildebus said:
I think a bit of patience in this situation is a good idea indeed. I had the extra payment taken in April but I have full confidence it will sort itself out over time.
One way to look at it also ... One month worth of over-paid road tax is less than the amount you will save by having 6 months worth of Free MOT with the extension.

Jagmanx, out of interest, with your planned USA/CAN trip, assuming that had all happened, would you have SORNed your motorhome for the time it was abroad? I am assuming that the SORN notice is a statement that the vehicle is off UK public roads, not necessarily off the road completely? Same would maybe apply to the folk who go on extended Europe tours as well?
Click to expand...
SORN ?
For Europe I believe you should maintain UK road tax
a) So your insurance is valid
b) as part of the using foreign roads deal ! and as 2CV's post says

For Canada I bought USA insurance so I believe SORNING should be OK although this conflicts with "2CVs Post". But the info on the link seems to me to be (implicitly) for EU as they say things will change post Brexit
I would have retained my UK insurance as .Too fussy/risky to Cancel and then restart
I would have re-taxed the vehicle whilst is was in Transit

ANYWAY another 2 years to ponder that..I do not think attempting this 2021 will be a good plan !
 
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IIRC under Vienna accord any vehicle must be legal for operation in country of registration whilst in other country . that is based on info that I got quite a few years ago tho :)
 
OK So SORNING not a good idea ... (But who would know ? ...IN Canada and USA not Europe)
Not a big deal maybe £200 cost on top of the other £8500 or so !
 
2cv said:
If taking a vehicle abroad for less than 12 months it must be taxed in the UK. Link
Click to expand...
Thanks for the link :) It was just something that came to mind when talking about SORNing.
 
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Reactions: 2cv
I believe the DVLA are struggling staff wise.

They are not taking driving licence applications at the moment.
 
I applied to SORN the mh on 24th March but it kept showing as taxed. I thought it might be due to massive increase in applications so I kept waiting. On 31st March it was still showing as taxes so I tried applying again. This time it worked so I must have done something wrong on the first application. On Monday I received my 11 months refund. 😁.
I think what I did wrong was, after putting all the info in, you come back to a screen with a big button on saying, "Apply for sorn", and I just exited the page because I thought it was ANOTHER application. I mentioned this in the DVLA feedback section and suggested the button should rather say, "Confirm sorn appliction".
I was pleasantly surprised that the system was still working alright and hope that everyone with DD problems gets them resolved quickly.
 
"taxed", not "taxes". 😜
 
I decided to SORN my vehicle, it had only been taxed a couple of months ago. I got a refund in the form of a cheque. Luckily i have six months to cash it in. Next time I tax it can I send DVLA a cheque?
 
I did online sorn got email confirmation but checked banking app yesterday and DVLA have taken out April payment will have to wait and see if I get automatic refund
 
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