ROO's Heritage certificate!

[RJF_70]

Have just this morning received my heritage certificate for my car Stating my car was dispatched as a 1500HL when it is a flat plank, square headlight 1500 bog standard non HL. I only wanted to find out the build date to see if it was yet tax exempt and with a build date of 11th June 1980 I presume that it is now or do I have to wait until the following year ie 2021?
Were records that sketchy that my car could of actually been built on 11th June 1980 as a HL but ended up being a non HL square headlight by the time it was first registered on 10th April 1981, 10 months after it was built! Where would it of been for these 10 months?
Certificate also has no body number or date of despatch, is this a normal blank column from these heritage certificates?
Thanks Rich..

[RobSun]

These certificates do not always make sense and its possible that not all the information was recorded correctly. Recently someone was asking about their cars manufacturing date using the chassis number as a guide. The car was registered as built after mine by a few weeks but the chassis number was before mine. They were supposed to be sequential so that doesn't add up.

Standing around in a field or garage at this time was normal and the standard cars were not very popular with poor sales. 10 months and longer, sometimes much longer, is common. Mine was built May 1980 and not registered until Oct 1982.

[marshman]

Have just this morning received my heritage certificate for my car Stating my car was dispatched as a 1500HL when it is a flat plank, square headlight 1500 bog standard non HL. I only wanted to find out the build date to see if it was yet tax exempt and with a build date of 11th June 1980 I presume that it is now or do I have to wait until the following year ie 2021?
Were records that sketchy that my car could of actually been built on 11th June 1980 as a HL but ended up being a non HL square headlight by the time it was first registered on 10th April 1981, 10 months after it was built! Where would it of been for these 10 months?
Certificate also has no body number or date of despatch, is this a normal blank column from these heritage certificates?
Thanks Rich..

Tax exemption currently applies to vehicles first built or registered BEFORE 1st January 1980. So yours is not yet tax exempt. It becomes tax exempt on January 1st 2021. BUT as far as I am aware the NIL rating only applies from the following April. So from 1st April 2021 you will have "free" tax. This is quite clear in the Government guidelines. You will need to send your V5C off to the DVLA or take it to a Post Office to get the taxation class changed - the DVLA will then refund any overpaid Tax. You can only do this from 1st April 2020 as far as I know, unless anyone knows different. I think you will have to send it to the DVLA with the Heritage certificate to get the build date recorded as I don't think the Post Office can go on anything other then the first reg date on the V5C.

The guidance is less clear for MoT exemption. On one part of the guidance it states MoT exempt 40 years from build or registration. Elsewhere it states 40 years from first registration. To me it is not an issue as I get all my cars MoT'd anyway but if MoT exemption is important to you then further investigation may be required to find out when your car becomes exempt - build date or registration date.

Roger

[FarleyFlavors]

Tax exemption currently applies to vehicles first built or registered BEFORE 1st January 1980. So yours is not yet tax exempt. It becomes tax exempt on January 1st 2021. BUT as far as I am aware the NIL rating only applies from the following April. So from 1st April 2021 you will have "free" tax. This is quite clear in the Government guidelines. You will need to send your V5C off to the DVLA or take it to a Post Office to get the taxation class changed - the DVLA will then refund any overpaid Tax. You can only do this from 1st April 2020 as far as I know, unless anyone knows different. I think you will have to send it to the DVLA with the Heritage certificate to get the build date recorded as I don't think the Post Office can go on anything other then the first reg date on the V5C.

I just went through this process recently. I initially tried the Post Office but was told point blank they couldn't change the tax class to historic for me (they scanned the V5 barcode to check).

So I had to send the documents to the DVLA. You can do this in advance - I applied at the beginning of March.

You need to send:

• The V5

• The Heritage Certificate (a photocopy is acceptable)

• A completed V10 form with tax class Historic https://assets.publishing.service.gov.u ... 98/V10.pdf

• MOT certificate

It took about ten weeks to get the V5 back. Since the car was tax exempt by the time DVLA processed it, they had also put a year's free tax on it for me.

[marshman]

Tax exemption currently applies to vehicles first built or registered BEFORE 1st January 1980. So yours is not yet tax exempt. It becomes tax exempt on January 1st 2021. BUT as far as I am aware the NIL rating only applies from the following April. So from 1st April 2021 you will have "free" tax. This is quite clear in the Government guidelines. You will need to send your V5C off to the DVLA or take it to a Post Office to get the taxation class changed - the DVLA will then refund any overpaid Tax. You can only do this from 1st April 2020 as far as I know, unless anyone knows different. I think you will have to send it to the DVLA with the Heritage certificate to get the build date recorded as I don't think the Post Office can go on anything other then the first reg date on the V5C.

I just went through this process recently. I initially tried the Post Office but was told point blank they couldn't change the tax class to historic for me (they scanned the V5 barcode to check).

So I had to send the documents to the DVLA. You can do this in advance - I applied at the beginning of March.

You need to send:

• The V5

• The Heritage Certificate (a photocopy is acceptable)

• A completed V10 form with tax class Historic https://assets.publishing.service.gov.u ... 98/V10.pdf

• MOT certificate

It took about ten weeks to get the V5 back. Since the car was tax exempt by the time DVLA processed it, they had also put a year's free tax on it for me.

The post Office cannot change the taxation class but they can "tax" the vehicle at the NIL rate if the date on the V5C is OK, i.e. currently pre 1st Jan 1979. They then send the V5C off to the DVLA to be changed - saves you the cost of a stamp . The problem is you need a "clued up" person serving you. Most do not know the process so fob you off. I have done the process several times with out problem. DVLA has been a bit slower recently with CoVid. Routine stuff, buying and selling cars is OK, but anything seems to be taking longer.

Roger

[FarleyFlavors]

The post Office cannot change the taxation class

As I found out!

But the notes on the V10 tax application form state "Why you should use this form [...] Any vehicle details (for example, tax class) have changed [...] You can apply in person to a Post Office that deals with vehicle tax". So I figured they should have been able to do it for me.

but they can "tax" the vehicle at the NIL rate if the date on the V5C is OK, i.e. currently pre 1st Jan 1979.

Yes, but RJF_70's situation next April will be that his V5 only has the registration date of April 1981, not the build date of June 1980, so he'll have to send off the documents I mentioned.

(It's currently pre 1st January 1980 by the way).

[marshman]

Whoops yes 1st Jan 1980 !! Note to self 1980 + 40 = 2020!! My excuse? 2020 has been a sh!t year so forgot about it!

You are right about having to send it off, I did say he would have to send it off as the V5C has the reg date not the build date, but normally the Post Office will send it off for you.

[RJF_70]

Thanks for the replies, I'm not worried about the MOT exemption just the Tax and the reason why it states HL on my heritage certificate.
Also the reason it may have stood for 10 months, also on the certificate it doesn't state a despatch date or a dealer it was despatched to but I have this information already, just wondering why they haven't?
I think it's a bit dear at almost £50 to get very little information.
Cheers Rich..

[Carledo]

The info on Heritage certificates is often a bit spotty. My Toledo one has a Date of Dispatch (and dealer noted) but no build date. Confusingly, Rob Marshall has it's twin (his is 9022, mine is 9063) but HIS DofD is AFTER mine, even though his comm number is earlier. It rather depends on what the dealers ordered, both cars are Carmine red, but mine has the rarer (and I think nicer) Grey trim whereas Rob's is New Tan.

It's almost certain that your 1500 spent the intevening 10 months on a dealer forecourt, the pov spec body and unpopular automatic being additional sufficient reasons besides the obvious one of the model being obsolete and out of production for 6 months at point of sale.

The confusion over HL/non HL identity could be partially resolved by checking the VIN letter code as i'm pretty sure there were different letter identifiers for each. If the VIN says it's an HL there was a mistake in the VIN, if the VIN says it's a plank dash car the mistake is in the records. It won't tell you WHY, of course, but at least you HAVE a record! One or two Dolomite owners I know have enquired for a heritage cert for their cars to be told only " the record is missing"

I can't, at this precise moment, lay my hands on the letter code data, but i'll have a look around when I get a few more minutes.

Steve

EDIT, just found the data, the model ID for a plank dash 1500 auto is TWALW3AT and for a 1500HL auto is TWFLW3AT. These are the first 8 digits of the VIN, you will note, only the 3rd digit is different, t'would be easy to make a mistake, either in stamping the VIN plate or writing it down on a form to be copied into records later!