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Road Tax Disc - Fixed Penalty
Can anyone advise please, police or traffic warden.................
Road tax expired on 31/8 and went to the car at 8.10am on 1/9 to put the new tax disc on (purchased on 19/8) to find a fixed penalty notice had been issued at 8.00am citing "Failure to Display valid tax". Would the person issuing the ticket have been able to check the car was taxed in the same way they know you are waiting for a new disc to come in the post if you purchased online?
I assume that the new disc can't be displayed before it becomes valid ie, the first of the month, so if we had put it on the car the night before then that could also be classed as "invalid".
My question is should I put this down to experience or it be worth appealing the fine?
Thanks in advance:)
Road tax expired on 31/8 and went to the car at 8.10am on 1/9 to put the new tax disc on (purchased on 19/8) to find a fixed penalty notice had been issued at 8.00am citing "Failure to Display valid tax". Would the person issuing the ticket have been able to check the car was taxed in the same way they know you are waiting for a new disc to come in the post if you purchased online?
I assume that the new disc can't be displayed before it becomes valid ie, the first of the month, so if we had put it on the car the night before then that could also be classed as "invalid".
My question is should I put this down to experience or it be worth appealing the fine?
Thanks in advance:)
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You could appeal, but if you lose the appeal beware that the penalty can and will rise.
To be honest, you don't have a leg to stand on. The law's the law and I'd just accept the fixed penalty notice.
As you did 'fail to display a valid tax disc' the offence stands.
I am not pointing out the wrongs and rights of this. just stating the law as it stands.
You had tax (the charge was not failing to tax your vehicle) but it was a failure to display.
It's harsh, but no appeal would work, sorry.
There has never been 5 days grace, it's a total myth! My OH used to work for the Post Office and issued the tax disks so he know all the ins and out of it all.
As long as the previous disc was displayed ( i.e rather than no disc at all) there are certainly grounds to appeal and any penalty would have been unfairly issued.
It depands on the policing area, but here we always give at least 14 days grace
I do not know if a photograph of the car is taken in situations like this, if not there is an obvious remedy for the fine...
I believe that the official line by DVLA is that if taxed on line you have 5 days from the expiry of the old tax disc.
It's things like this that make 'ordinary' law abiding people annoyed with the police and starts to foster a 'them and us' attitude which is far more detrimental to society in the long run than someone not displaying a tax disc 8 hours late.
Wrong, If the disc is purchased on-line, by phone or by post there is a 5 day grace from displaying the Tax disc.
Source.
It is not about catching real criminals these days...it is more of a case of scoring points from whatever they can. There could be a burglary 2 minutes away, but they would rather spend time sniffing around a car with a tax disc less than 24 hours out of date.
I had a similar problem a few years ago where I was simply driving along and my gear box died there and then and it was a saturday night. The car was about 4 miles from home and I had to go back the following day to put a note inside the windscreen explaining the situation and that the vehicle is awaiting removal. When I went back I had a fixed penalty notice for causing an obstruction. The thing is that there was NO double yellow lines and NO signs stating that you could not park near the kerb so I went straight to my local police to explain the situation and they were very un-co-operative regardless of OTHER vehicles being parked along the same stretch of road. I made it perfectly clear what had happened and I vowed NOT to pay the charge because I wasn't parked in a restricted zone and the gear box failure was not intentional and it was beyond my control. The earliest I could get the car removed was on the tuesday and all I got from the Police was 'We will have to remove it at a cost of £120' and a charge of £10 a day storage....I said 'fair enough...YOU have it towed, but I wont pay the removal fees or storage fees as it is now deemed as scrap anyway!'
I had made plans to have it removed at the earliest time I could and the Police were still being difficult. At that point I walked out and a few days later I recieved a letter from them stating that no further action would be taken. (nice of them)
The Police knew I had the situation in hand, they knew full well the car wasn't causing an obstruction and they knew it would be removed so why the fixed penalty notice and the hard time over something beyond my control?
I understand the Police are there to do a job...but fining and penalising somone just because their car had packed up was taking it too far! I could understand more if the car was un-taxed, had no MOT and was uninsured...but that was all checked and everything was ok.
No wonder the Police have such a bad name!
When you do an online renewal does it not say to display the renewal receipt notice in the car to prove you have done it.
If it was a traffic warden he would have no way of checking if you had renewed your tax.
I think you should appeal. Print out the link and send it with the letter.
You can also display the new tax disc as soon as you receive it not wait until the first of the month.
Quote from the link:
A change in legislation from 1 September 2008 will provide for a five-day period of grace from the requirement to display a tax disc only where that disc is purchased online, by phone or by post. This will apply to the first 5 working days of the month in which the disc commences and will only apply where the vehicle is continuously licensed.
On a number of occaions (mainly my ineptitude) I have been late buying my tax and have not been nabbed as you were. I enquired at the post office why this had been the case and was given the answer that they tend to give people a 2 week period, to allow for mistakes etc. Whether this is the absolute gospel truth, I don't know.
On another occasion, I bought my tax online. My car was registered to my fathers house so that's where the tax disc went. Except it didn't get there for one reason or another. And in the intervening period it totally slipped my mind that I hadn't actually got the physical tax disc so carried on blissfully ignorant of what I was doing. I came back to my car one time and there wa sa small laminated piece of card explaining that it is an offence to not have a valid tax disc on show.
I don't know who put it there. My guess would be a traffic warden of some description. And if that was the case then either he was feeling in a good mood that day or he had access to a database of tax evaders and had realised I wasn't one.
I sorted it out that day and all was well.
It seems you found yourself a warden on a bad day. I know of no-one who has been nabbed the very next morning.
Mention that you're aware that you were not displaying the tax disc, but fully intended to change it that morning. Ask them, in light of the facts you've outlined, to waive the fixed penalty notice.
Be polite and set out your letter in a structured way, referring to the evidence you provide where appropriate. Be clear about what you want to happen but don't be too forceful. Remember that they were technically within their rights to issue the notice, so just try to put across your points as reasonably as possible.
You don't have anything to lose by appealing, so you may as well do so.
That's not true. My sister won an appeal last week for this very offence.
Actually, you can't. A tax disc runs from a certain point in time to another. If on 31st August you display a tax disc that starts 1st September and remove your old one, you're committing the same offence - not displaying a current tax disc.
Theorectically, you are supposed to go ut at midnight and change over, or display the new one alongside the old one.
But I think you have had a jobsworth, so should appeal - and show every evidence you jave - even a photocopy of your new tax disc - to show that you had actually paid beforehand.
Personally, I would also phone the local newspaper - the local council will not like the embarrassment and will be cajouled into letting you off! (Been there, got the T-shirt!)
Good luck!
I don't think this is correct at all.
The expiry date of the tax disc is what's important, but there is also a date of issue printed in a smaller font on the disc. My current tax disc expires on 30/09/09, and was issued on 26/08/08. Given that these are the two dates displayed, I would take that to mean that it's valid for that period.
Since you cannot have your new tax disc in your possession before it's issued, I think it's safe to display the new disc as soon as you have it.
agreed
http://www.direct.gov.uk/prod_consum_dg/groups/dg_digitalassets/@dg/@en/@motor/documents/digitalasset/dg_065263.pdf
There's a copper above who say his force give 14 days grace, think most forces will apply a bit of common sense...obviously not in this case, or it could of been a traffic warden. I agree though must of been a right jobsworth handing out fines a few hours after the tax disc had expired in the morning! I'd appeal, newspapers sound a good idea too, right up the Daily Mails street.
This is nonsense. There is every chance your appeal will succeed, given the circumstances.
But, you are quite free to put your new tax disc in as soon as you get it. Worth remembering for next time...