I just received the log book for an Alfa 164 I bought three weeks ago , so naturally I went to the DVLA website to do the SORN thingy .
I was a little worried about the delay between buying it , and sorning it , but since you cant sorn a car without either the log book or reminder what could I do ?
Up pops a warning about the gap between the date it was last taxed , and my sorn declaration - of nearly 8 years
Are they likely to chase after me for the `fine` , or have they got enough common sense to understand that I didnt own the car when the tax ran out back in 2001

i had a similar situation, had to wait for the log book to arrive in my name then sorned it the same day ( its my donor ), i,m not 100% sure but if you got a receipt to show the date you bought the vehicle then i think you,ll be ok.

andy

Just state that you only just came into ownership of the car and that you have not used it on the road. If it was taken off the road before sorn it will not have been in their system.

I'd say give them a ring and speak to them before they potentially chase you. They'll be able to see the change of ownership has just happened on their system and will generally be very understanding - especially if you can mention you have a receipt for the car.

8 years

My donor hadnt been sorn for 16 months and they didnt come after me

Ive bought cars and as you say it takes a few weeks to sort the paper work. All was fine.

I wouldnt worry about it mate. Iv had similar situations. It wasnt yours before you bought it so its not down to you.

despite the bashing the DVLA get on here, they're not bad.

i had a cortina years ago, destroyed in a fire in my grandmas garage, and her neighbours son said he'd scrap it. noooo idea where it went, so i was stuck with the log book. i sent it back to dvla, along with some photos of the car (which to be fair, could have been any burnt out ford from that era) and the wrote back saying thats fine, they'll ammend their records and to keep their letter in case there is any problems with it after

anyway, they'll see from the log book you just bought the car, so it will be ok

a tenner says you won t get fined!

I had the same a few months ago, bought a Zook Sj and sorned it when I got the book. Got the warning for the 3 weeks gap but got the sorn notice through the post a few eeks later and haven't head anything else....

Alittle trick I use is to make a note of the document reference number, bought a little corsa 6 months ago, tax has just run out still no log book from DVLA but by having the document reference number I've been able to do a sorn

tony