Just visited Birmingham DVLA office, which is now across the road from the old Garretts Green HGV test centre (which appars to be derelict!). Notice at entrance advising "This offices closes permanently 13 December 2013". Guess that'll mean having to deal with Swansea......!

Discussed Build-up form with helpful young lady, who confirmed that vehicle inspection will still be necessary. She commented that Swansea staff, who will have responsibility for dealing with registration applications such as ours, haven't been trained yet, and therefore seem to have trouble processing these applications. So they take longer.

Does our governing bureaucracy really believe that this constitutes progress?

P.S. Have also been on the website www.dvla.gov.uk. This will change next week, according to their announcement, to www.gov.uk/dvla.

[Edited on 30/7/13 by Dick Axtell]

As of 22nd July 2013 all 'new registrations' (whether you're a car dealer or kit car builder) will be dealt with at Swansea. The inspections will still be done at local DVLA offices until a decision is taken what to do with them.

The chap that inspected my kit yesterday at Leeds said I'd have my docs within 2 weeks if the DVLA did them or 1 week if Leeds could 'sneak them through'.

Well that's me doing it all through Swansea then, no way I Will have IVA passed in time for a build up inspection before December 13th

Apparently (I wasn't aware of this) you can have a build-up inspection prior to your IVA.

I spoke to my local office (ipswich) a couple of weeks ago as I requested a VIN from them about 6 months ago - but estimate my car may not be finished for several years - they wanted to know if i'd finished my car before they shifted all their files down to Wales... :-D

I said not - and asked what the process would be around their 'inspection' once the local offiecs all closed. They said that the 'inspection' that DVLA used to do would be covered at the IVA inspection once the local offices all closed - although obviously all the paperwork would go via Swansea.

I guess it'll be frustrating if it takes weeks for the paperwork to go via Swansea if local offices were able to turn things round quickly - but given i'm thinking it may taken 5 years for me to build my car - another few weeks post IVA won't be the end of the world...

DVLA guidelines (now in place) state a maximum of 14 working days to process "New Registrations" (regardless of whether kit car, dealership etc).

- not that guidelines mean anything lol

Seems like a major step in the right direction.

Having the build up inspection as part of the IVA test and central DVLA registration sounds like a very good idea with much less chance of it being done wrong (the VOSA guys seem much more clued up than the local DVLA offices and there should be more than "just one guy that does kits" as it is at present). Also only one trip required so one lot of trailer hire.

Random historical fact: Previous to SVA the DVLA sometimes used the police to check, sending a traffic officer round to ensure the numbers matched up.

[Edited on 30/7/13 by iank]

DVLA Office Exeter

I am also currently in this situation, I missed the Exeter closure date by just few days as the IVA Inspector was not opening the test station for just me...

I currently have my application with DVLA Swansea. I spoke with the case officer today who advised he was seeking confirmation on how to process the application, as the certificate has a build date of 2013, but wanted to enter an age related plate. He said he was hoping to process by this Friday, so within the 14 working days.

I will update when it arrives as I seem to be a Swansea Guinea Pig.

Coincidentally, it also took me 5 years to build the car!

[Edited on 5/8/13 by spikehaus]

Great new, after 14 working days, the age related plated has been issued by Swansea! Just need to wait for the paperwork to arrive in the post. This is exactly within the DVLA guidelines.