13 Jan 2010
Don’t forget to tax your car!
About a week and a half ago – Saturday the 2nd to be precise – I was sat in the bar at the Brewery in Kendal and was talking about chipped windscreens. Some vague connection in my head went off and I started to wonder when my tax was due. Beer soon took over though, and I promptly forgot about it. The next day, however, sitting in my passenger seat I spotted the disc in the corner of the windscreen and took a look.
30th November 2009.
Bugger.
You see, about 6 months ago I moved house. I phoned BT to cancel with them; they screwed up badly and cancelled my line too early. And then tried to bill me lots for it. I told Southern Water I wouldn’t be responsible for billing at my new address, they set up a new Direct Debit. I moved my bank accounts, my council tax, my power, my gas… I moved pretty much everything. Except the registration document for my car.
You see, whilst everything else could be done over the phone or internet, changing the address on your car requires actual writing and enveloping and posting. Faff. I had the document on the floor by my bed all this time, ready to fill in, I just didn’t get around to it.
The downside of not updating your address is that you don’t get the reminder by post to go update your tax, hence the expired disc. As it was a Sunday, there wasn’t really much I could do until the following day, except contemplate the potential fines.
The next day, I went to the Post Office; I couldn’t renew online as they’d send the tax disc to the old house. Sadly, the Post Office still lives in the dark ages; where the online tool automatically looks up your insurance/MOT the Post Office requires the physical documents. Trip home and back then.
Once armed with the appropriate documentation I paid my £120 and was legal to drive again. The lady in the Post Office also mentioned that if I was quick I could phone up the DVLA and pay the back-tax and escape a fine. This sounded good to me, but as the process of buying the tax disc had flagged that I’d missed a month I had to be quick.
A call to the central line suggested I /could/ pay the back-tax but had to send a cheque/postal order to my local DVLA office. More dark-ages. That meant actually locating my chequebook, and deciding which of the 3? chequebooks I had were valid.
You can find the begging letter I sent them here, should you need to do the same.
Yesterday in the post I received a receipt for my back-tax. Hopefully I’m in the clear :-/
Perhaps you should be like your brother and have important docs still sent to your parents address, OK you get a phone call every now and then to say you have an important letter so you have to talk to your parents but at least that is cheaper than getting a fine or writting begging letters to the DVLA
Guess
January 21st, 2010 at 9:22 ampermalink
I forgot an MOT for 6 months once – that threw me into a bit of a panic. I try and have all “car stuff” happen at the same time – annual service, MOT, 12 months’ tax all come up together. Means I don’t forget anything but costs an absolute bomb that month
The most buttock-clenching thing I’ve ever forgotten is our house buildings insurance for 6 weeks. I was phoning round late on a Sunday evening to get the first insurance I could!
Dave Nice
February 27th, 2010 at 7:34 pmpermalink
My service and MOT I usually do around the same time, but it’s about 6 months displaced from my tax.
gavin
February 27th, 2010 at 7:41 pmpermalink