How far out of date was the tax disc?

fwh

did you try to contact the hirer before you purchased the train ticket? what did they say to you?
it could have been a simple oversight that the tax disc had been paid for but just not put in the vehicle.
more information is needed before we can offer any real advice.

If it was already out of date whilst you were in mainland Europe why come rushing back home? The offence of failing to display a valid disc would only occur between Folkestone and the hirers base and you did that anyway. Seems pointless to cut the holiday short and pay more to come home. Logically you should have phoned the company and had them meet you with the new disc at Folkestone on your planned date, or at least given them that option. If they had done it you would have suffered no loss at all, if they had refused you would have then been on stronger ground for other options like leaving it at Folkestone and claiming for other transport home! I'm not convinced you have a valid claim if you didn't give them chance.

I'm with steve8482 on this. I think your actions were a bit excessive. Why didn't you call them first before curtailing your holiday?

The tax disc is irrelevant whilst out of the UK, so pretty pointless in coming home early....

thanks for your replies x

hindsight is a ...... brilliant thing

they were still incompetent and that is not my responsibility and i paid an awful lot of money for the hire i still feel pissed off

Dotty

But you still have not told us how much out of date.

We can only give our views when we have the correct information. If for example you hired a vehicle on the 25th and the tax expired several days later then no problem. Most companies have a system for renewing tax discs and it could simply be that you did not have the new disc. As they are recorded and available for checking online then if stopped by the police in the UK they could confirm that the vehicle was taxed.

If it was three months out of date then it is a different story - there is of course a salutary warning here for everyone when hiring a vehicle. It is not just checking the tyres are OK when you collect a vehicle.

fwh

yes i apologise

we hired the vehicle on the 10th Sept to return on the 20th. on returning the vehicle the hirer told us he has not had a renewal notice regarding the tax disc, therefore there was no disc in his office to give us. we informed him that we had been through a speed check which could have done a vehicle recognition (?) which he replied that it would go to him ....

i also need to know, was i insured in Europe even though they do not tax vehicles, this is a UK registered vehicle with no current tax disc, does that mean i had no insurance in the UK? if so then i was not insured throughout the whole of our holiday

i apologise again but i am so upset more so with the hirers attitude

Dotty

hirer told us he has not had a renewal notice regarding the tax disc

That would not excuse him in law. I used to operate a large vehicle hire company and our diary listed the renewal dates. The letter simply made the paperwork easier. My biggest problem was getting the new tax disc to people who had vehicles out.

Legally your liability is something I cannot answer but apart from the hassle I don't think you would be prosecuted. At least one of our members is a retired police officer (Peter of York) and possibly he could answer that question if he sees this topic.

Hire vehicle insurance is a specialist area where the hirer is validated when the hire documents are completed. You are the insured not the supplier of the vehicle. If a claim should arise then you are covered however the supplier could possibly have some problems with the insurer.

fwh

dottyxxx wrote:

yes i apologise

....

i also need to know, was i insured in Europe even though they do not tax vehicles, this is a UK registered vehicle with no current tax disc, does that mean i had no insurance in the UK? if so then i was not insured throughout the whole of our holiday

Dotty

Though the information will not help your individual complaint your statement about European countries not taxing their vehicles is incorrect. Most if not all European countries levy road tax on their vehicles.

we had been through a speed check which could have done a vehicle recognition (?) which he replied that it would go to him ....

If there is a prosecution by the police, they will send a Notice of Intended Prosecution to the registered keeper of the vehicle who will then have to advise the police who was driving the vehicle at the time.

So unless the person who told you this is happy to pick up the fine and points, they will nominate you. The police has 28 days from the offence to send out the Notice of Intended Prosecution.

Mark

I don't think it's the speeding points they were worried about. Any check using ANPR, and that could just be a passing traffic car (the A stands for automatic), would show up if the tax was out of date. If the tax had been renewed and just not displayed the check would have come back OK and the police probably wouldn't have noticed but since it hadn't been renewed at all it would have alerted them.

It seems to me like you panicked and didn't think it through properly before paying all that extra money to come home because of a tax disc being slightly out of date. Any way it wouldn't have counted because you weren't in the UK at the time. Such a shame you had to cut your holiday short.

I would have thought that the company who owned the motor home have a duty of care to make sure that it is of a road worthy condition.

I think i would have phoned them first. But that is besides the point they did not provide what you paid them for.

Can you not compromise and maybe ask for a discount off your next rental

Been giving this matter a little thought. It is I think one of those things that after the event the OP may possibly be thinking their actions were a bit precipitous having completed 7 of the 10 days and it might have just been easier to ignore it. Either way it is now to late. So what can they do now?

Well first we still do not know how far out of date it was. A week, month year? If it was a matter of days. Perhaps the new tax disc had not caught up with the vehicle. In that case I doubt you can do anything. If it was a month then have a look at your documentation - Are they a member of a trade body? The BVRLA is one. If so - and the hire company is just saying tough luck then perhaps a complaint to them.

http://www.bvrla.co.uk/

You could also speak with your local Trading Standards.

I doubt taking legal action would be financially viable.

Having said all that may I welcome you here to HT - Something we should have done when you first posted. You have had a bad experience but that also makes you a bit of an expert in some ways. Many who post here on HT started out the same way. Please browse our forums - might give you some ideas for your next holiday, or you might even be able to help someone else, just like those who first came here when something went wrong.

fwh

thank you for your replies

the tax ran out 31st august 2010, we hired 10th sept - 20th sept 2010, the hirer had no tax disc in his office to forward to us

i should have told him to collect his own vehicle from Folkstone and transport us and a large quantity of belongings home legally ....... from his reaction to date i do not think he would have done this, before you say it no, i did not give him chance, yet he could not produce a tax disc out of thin air

i shall be contacting bvrla (thanks fwh)to which he belongs and his insurance company, i just need my £500. deposit back first

Dotty x

Have they actually taken a £500 deposit dotty or taken your credit card details as a guarantee. ??

The worrying bit is that it would most probably have invalidated any insurance you had on the vehicle.

Mark

I'm not sure an out of date tax disc would but an out of date MOT might - and the dates were probably the same! How old was this vehicle?