DVLA have removed car category from licence. HELP Options

[mboyo10]

First off apologies if this is the wrong place to post this BUT I am at a point where I don't know what to do!!!

I am 41 years old and held my full motorcycle license for approx. 23 years and full car license for approx. 20 years. I sent my license to the DVLA for an address update and received my licence back minus my car licence???

I contacted them and they said it was because I did not send in my pass certificate within 3 years of passing my test.....they could however tell me the exact date that I passed. Obviously I did send it in as I did with my motorcycle. They have said I need to resit my test etc etc.

During the 20 years of driving I have had my own cars, hire cars, company vehicles, and many points on my license including a court appearance and 15 points for a short time lol.

Surely if I had not had a valid license then I would have been punished for that at some point within the 20 year period by the police/courts etc???

The DVLA are absolutely NOT willing to listen to any plee and I genuinely don't know where to go from here. Anyone I speak to says its probably a civil matter and that the DVLA are a law unto themselves.

Has anyone else had a similar problem or have any good advice??

Thanks for reading my essay.

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[The Rookie]

Sadly this is a far from unknown situation.

Photographing your licence before submitting it is essential. Get your MP involved and see if they can help.

[mboyo10]

Sadly this is a far from unknown situation.

Photographing your licence before submitting it is essential. Get your MP involved and see if they can help.

Hi Rookie,

Thanks for the reply. I do have copies of my license with my car category on it, however the DVLA said it's irrelevant as they have now removed this category! I wish it was that simple.

Thanks

[PASTMYBEST]

I had the same problem 10 years or so ago when I changed from paper to photo card. They sent me a provisional, and used the same reasoning. I was lucky I asked that they check my driving record which showed that I had held a HGV license until it was revoked on medical grounds. I Took about a month to sort out

[cp8759]

I would start by making a formal complaint https://www.gov.uk/government/organisations...aints-procedure

[Dwain]

This is old, but still relevant.

https://www.motorcyclenews.com/news/2009/de...-licence-chaos/

[DancingDad]

Have DVLA explained how they issued you with a full driving licence if you didn't submit the relevant pass documentation all those years ago ?
They obviously did issue one.
Which I have to assume was against a pass certificate being submitted and accepted.
To me what they are actually saying is "We have no record so you have to suffer" while they should be saying "Our records seem to be in error, no problem, we will sort it..."
One has to assume you provided the required to get the full licence, I don't know of any other way?

[Glacier2]

I assume they pulp paper records at some stage and there would be no record of submitting a pass certificate from years ago?

How else can you get a full licence?

[TonyS]

I was thinking about this the other day, how has it come about that DVLA gets away with this level of incompetence combined total arrogance and denial that they can ever be at fault. Complaint to MP sounds like a good idea, I also wonder whether civil proceedings could be raised - after all you'd be able show on balance of probabilities that you should have this entitlement.

When I did an address change a few years ago all that stuff about motorcycle entitlements being deleted was fresh in my mind, so I made sure not to send my old licence off until I'd received the new one, which in fact was OK in my case.

[cp8759]

I was thinking about this the other day, how has it come about that DVLA gets away with this level of incompetence combined total arrogance and denial that they can ever be at fault. Complaint to MP sounds like a good idea, I also wonder whether civil proceedings could be raised - after all you'd be able show on balance of probabilities that you should have this entitlement.

I think that's jumping the gun. DVLA appears to have an established complaints procedure, so before we start going down the "I'll see you in court" route, I think the OP should try the established procedure.

[roythebus]

My bus company's transport manager renewed his licence a couple of years ago and DVLA returned the new one without the D1 (PCV) entitlement. They told him to sit the test again which he did, despite having had the entitlement for over 30 years. He lost 3 months work over it. they eventually relented and paid him a sensible 4-figure sum for their incompetence.

It seems they are remarkably efficient at selling the correct driver details to PPC and local councils for chasing parking tickets but not for getting people's licences right.

[bama]

DVLA loves just loves the statutory presumption that their records are correct.
When license changes (address change, points etc etc) it pays to head off at the pass the usual 'we have no record of..' b/s (of course they have no record of it they changed/deleted it) it pays to pay the small fee to get a properly notarised copy of the licence before you send it in.
Its the only thing I know of that you can use to fight the statutory presumption that they love so much.

[southpaw82]

Why notarised? Why not just certified as a true copy?

[southpaw82]

never send in your old one, just say you can't find the old licence, then if the new licence comes back with missing entitlements you have proof with your old licence that you have 'found'.

Don’t incite people to commit criminal offences. That’s your one and only warning.

[iwt]

The MCN article said DVLA policy was to return the old licence (with a hole punched through the photo) if one includes a stamped addressed envelope and a note asking for it back.
Occurs to me that if the new licence is just produced from what the DVLA computer has on record, then doing a view-my-licence check at https://www.gov.uk/view-driving-licence and comparing categories before posting the old licence back should highlight the issue.
None of which helps now.
But complaining loudly is probably the better option from an insurance point of view; as insurers almost always ask for how long you've held a full licence; and "well, 20 years, but DVLA says last week as they lost my entitlement and made me retake my test" isn't an option I've seen. And it's just the sort of thing that will crop up in the event of a claim.

[TonyS]

never send in your old one, just say you can't find the old licence, then if the new licence comes back with missing entitlements you have proof with your old licence that you have 'found'.

When I did my change of address a couple of years ago, the online process made it clear that it would be an offence not to return the old licence. However it did not say that it had to be returned before the new one was issued. So in my case I just held off returning it until the new one was in my hands. If that was an offence then it wasn't made clear during the process.

[rd250dx]

[attachment=65233:dvla.JPG]

never send in your old one, just say you can't find the old licence, then if the new licence comes back with missing entitlements you have proof with your old licence that you have 'found'.

Don’t incite people to commit criminal offences. That’s your one and only warning.

so it would appear that you don't have to send in your old licence to renew it until the new one arrives, which is what i said.

[Fredd]

which is what i said.

That isn't what you said at all.

[rd250dx]

[attachment=65233:dvla.JPG]

never send in your old one, just say you can't find the old licence, then if the new licence comes back with missing entitlements you have proof with your old licence that you have 'found'.

Don’t incite people to commit criminal offences. That’s your one and only warning.

so it would appear that you don't have to send in your old licence to renew it until the new one arrives, which is what i said.

DVLAs highlighted words not me.

[southpaw82]

so it would appear that you don't have to send in your old licence to renew it until the new one arrives, which is what i said.

No, you encouraged people to tell a deliberate lie. That involves the commission of several criminal offences. Don’t do it.