Acquiring 'historic' registration class

[mark_in_manchester]

Hi All

My ural-daihatsu is on an M reg, and according to V5c was registered in Oct 1973. From April (when its tax is due) the rules change, and 'free-tax' (= historic class) moves forward one year to anything manufactured before Jan 1974. So it looks like I can get a free tax disk.

But - local VROs are now closed. I rang Swansea today to ask what to do, and was told the local post office would issue a free disk and send v5c back to Swansea...but they would require proof of manufacture before jan 74. Apparently the fact that this extant vehicle was first registered in Oct 73, presents them with a leap of logic too far.

Getting a dating certificate from the club is a pain, and potentially problematic as the officer is quite rightly a stickler, and I imagine may baulk at the obvious mods to my creation. But I don't want an age-related reg as opposed to a Q plate - I already have a registration document! Another friend says just send the log book back to Swansea with a covering letter and the appropriate change to historic class filled in on the section where you enter that stuff - and SORN it while you wait for its return. But if they challenge it, I'm off the road for ages, and potentially it's no free tax. A devil in my ear suggests 'locating' the suitably eastern-european vehicle-passport for presentation at post office. I'm almost persuaded to keep stumping up £80 a year to avoid the hassle of what might happen if DVLA retain log book and start asking for pictures, club certification, etc etc...retrospective SVA test, anyone?

Any ideas? By PM if you like!

cheers

Mark

[gilburton]

Well according to this as your bike has an existing V5c dated 1973 it would mean it was obviously built some time before it was registered so there should be no need for a dating certificate.
http://www.v8register.net/subpages/sorn22.htm

[jonnyr48]

WARNING!!! mark (and all other uk folks) be VERY careful about sending your logbook/v5 into swansea as they now apparently chuck all snail post straight into the skip! i handed mine into truro local dvla office before they closed down and swansea managed to lose it (and the covering garage letter for the engine change!), this is as well as the previous SIX letters and notifications for different vehicles - several of which were sent by registered post - and of course they then fined me for what was their fault! and when you try and fax stuff their machines are turned off!! so take photocopies of everything before you send it - having lost my v5 they then said they had no record of it on their computer either . i think its another moneymaking govt. scam personally, but then i am paranoid!
cheers, jonny

[gilburton]

A lot of procedures are changing with the need for a tax disc disappearing shortly as well.
As long as you have the V5 you can do all sorts via the Post Office.
So that would be my first option to see if they will issue a historic tax disc and send of the V5 themselves.
There is no argument if it then goes missing.
I presume you already have the engine change registered?? Either way get the historic class noted first.
The fact they have issued a disc means that they have officially noted it so the problem is theirs not yours.

[mark_in_manchester]

All helpful - thanks. Yes, the V5c has all changes already on it - which I obviously don't want to imperil! Conversely, it makes getting a dating cert through the club potentially tricky, if post office want to insist on it.

I think I'll turn up at post office on April 1 with 78 quid and all my docs as usual, and see what happens. Colour scan of V5c sounds like good insurance - thanks Jonny. Sounds like you had a really bad time. I don't deal well with the arbitrary misuse of administrative power (call it a certain failure of maturity) - which is in part why my 'career' is in the state it is .

[gilburton]

It's all done by scanning the bar codes these days so once scanned at the Post Office it's "official".
If you are using a small local post office it might be worth going in beforehand(when it's quiet) and ask their opinion as not everyone might be aware of the extension to the year as they might not have come across it before?
In my view it should be a formality as yours is clearly well inside the new date cut off.
I should imagine a dating certificate would only be required if say a bike had been made before the cutoff date but possibly took some months to sell so got a later registration date so it would have to be dated and verified as inside the cutoff which yours does anyway.
Even if you had to get a dating certificate this would be done on the frame number so there should be no problem.
If it wasn't done on the frame/chassis numbers you wouldn't see V8 Morris Minors etc. in the historic tax class either.
I remember when the historic tax was brought in every year more cars qualified for free tax until the govt. stopped it.
I don't think they had to prove dates as the log book was proof

[gilburton]

Just a thought when you get the reminder try doing it, before it's due, online and see what happens WITHOUT actually paying any money of course.
It may come up as "nil" tax??
If not go to the post office.

[Diesel Dave]

So with the new free tax being 40 years old and no longer set to a specific year - I would have thought the DVLA will need to set this up automatically on their database.

Maybe that's just asking too much though.

[mark_in_manchester]

Well, that was a pleasant anticlimax. I thought I had drawn the short straw at the post office - the bored lady with bureaucratic glasses. But she glanced at my V5, filled out the changes, sent it to DVLA and gave a me a free tax disk.

[gilburton]

I bet you were all ready to argue and jump up and down as well??

[mark_in_manchester]

I'm afraid long-suffering resignation is more my (passive aggressive) style, with a side-order of splenetic inner seething. Perhaps i could go on a course.

[jonnyr48]

it wouldnt make any difference mark,its your british genes! all the ranters and shouters moved to usa, or got "exported" to oz.