The Series I: Scrapped
Alisdair wonders why he hasn’t had a tax reminder. The reason? His car has been ‘destroyed’
I’M sorry, the vehicle is scrapped, dismantled, or otherwise destroyed.” Not the words you ever want to hear about a car you own. Let alone one you’ve known for over two decades, spent two years restoring, and generally think the world of. Yes, that’s right, apparently, my 27,000-mile 1957 Series I no longer exists. It has been scrapped, broken and recycled, by someone with an official licence to do so. Except, as I type this, I’m looking right at the car. Confused? So was I.
It started when I noticed I hadn’t had the tax reminder. Being historic it is free, so I usually did it online since it has been restored. Online I went, to check the renewal date, only to find there’s no record of the car, and an automated page instructing to call the DVLA. Confused, I then tried to force a renewal, using my V5C reference numbers, only to find the same result. Hanging on the telephone to the DVLA, developing tinnitus from music apparently sourced from an ice cream van, a friendly chap looked on the system, pressed lots of buttons, asked lots of questions, and then said it. “There’s a destruction notice registered against this car,” he said. “That means it is on here as being scrapped, dismantled, or otherwise destroyed,” he went on, with a trademark Welsh lilt.
“Impossible,” I reply. “I’m looking at the car right now, it is in one piece, and it hasn’t moved from the garage since October.” There then followed some to-ing and fro-ing, yes, you guessed it, more questions – only this time it was all from me.
In these modern times, fraud is sadly the first thing to come to mind, especially with used Land Rovers. The car was still registered on the system in my name, at my address, so I was at least put at ease that someone hadn’t done something, somehow, with the records.
A quick bit of research turned up the likely reason what has happened. The destruction notice – actually a Certificate of Destruction (COD) – was done online on January 10 this year, explaining perhaps why I hadn’t had a tax reminder. The COD process is done only by an Authorised Treatment Facility (ATF). We might strip out cars, but only an ATF can then officially break and recycle them at the end of their life. This is where the problem lies.
The COD is a user-generated automatic certificate. The ATF employee fills in the form – online – generates the certificate against a vehicle, and prints the certificate themselves. Spot the problem? That’s right, get a reference number or letter wrong and the COD identifies a different car and records that as scrap. Which is precisely what I think has happened. Possibly.
You see, to sort it, isn’t straightforward. I’ve had to take various photographs of the car and the V5C, including identifying chassis number, VIN plate, and the VIN sticker on the door jam. Oh, and I can’t drive the car in the meantime, until the matter is resolved. Which could be ten weeks, according to a quick Google.
What I’m wondering, having emailed the photos in, is who at the DVLA will understand a 1957 Land Rover? Having been asked for a photo of the VIN sticker on the door jam, will someone with that level of misunderstanding, then appreciate where and how the factory stamped chassis and VIN numbers, and how that looks after 65 years in the Lake District?
Truthfully, I’m slightly nervous about it all. I’ve heard tales of cars needing inspecting, of police needing to get involved with Defender ID disputes and all sorts of travails. I, in the meantime, am left unable to use the car thanks to a cack-fisted ATF employee.
I’m hoping rather than become a drawn-out drama, it stops at a two-act play. This is act one, let’s see what happens next. As I speak, I’m hanging on the phone to the DVLA…