Scooter dating
Nope, this isn’t some kind of weird rust based Italian fetish, it’s something many classic scooter buyers will get involved with if they’re looking for an age related plate for a machine they hope to bring back to life. Pete (BLA) Davies is the man at the British Lambretta Archive who many of you will have been in touch with if you need a Lambretta dating certificate. He sent us this latest info about changes to the system…
Registration Issues
Anyone who has ever tried to register a Lambretta, Vespa or any other scooter for that matter will know the number of hoops that have been set in place over the years by the DVLA. As with most Government based organisations they have introduced changes to the registration process and some have been passed on to authenticating bodies and some haven’t. Recently, there has been an upsurge in the number of authentication letters (also known as dating certificates) that have been rejected because they are over 12 months old. A new rule we weren’t aware of and for which we have seen no mention of from the DVLA.
12 month limit
To be honest, the date on a letter never used to be an issue. However, on contacting DVLA to query this matter I have been informed that yes, the rule now is that if you have an authentication letter it has to be used within 12 months otherwise you’ll be out of date and need to get a new one. I asked why this was now the case and was told that the rule had come in as things may have changed with the machine over the 12 months since the letter was issued.
The new rules will of course cause an issue for all those of us with projects on the go and which, even in my case, have been on the go for sometime (currently 18 months plus for me!). My advice is that if you have an old authentication letter (12 months or older) then check with whoever provided it (whether that be VCB, BLA, VVC, LCGB, VMSC etc) and see about replacing it. The British Lambretta Archive will replace theirs for £5, but other authenticating bodies may choose to do them for more, or for free.
It may be that people need to think about when it’s best to apply for an authentication letter. Yes we know that HMRC will want you to apply for a NOVA number and you need that before DVLA will look at your paperwork but if you’re not careful you could end up falling foul of the system purely because you take your time with a project.
Pete (BLA) Davies
Looking for a date?
Get in touch with the following specialists…
Lambretta Club of Great Britain
I’ve also found that hmrc when filing a nova form require proof of the date of manufacture, something else which has been overlooked in my opinion.
If for instance the BLA turn around time is 21 days as stated on the website, hmrc requirement to notify a vehicle arrival is within 14 days of the date that the vehicle was made available to the applicant. So proof of a date of manufacture seems to be required first of all before contacting hmrc. Herein is the issue.
In my experience in the last weeks one recent authentication certificate dated only several months ago was accepted by hmrc as proof and also one that was dated 18 months ago was also accepted. Now with that in mind dvla should accept the recent one but not the other.
It would be unfair for authentication issuers to have to speed up their process in order to meet hmrc deadlines but that being said how can one provide proof of date of manufacture to them when hmrc is supposed to be the first port of call in the registration process.
In my case, I’ve had certificates in my possession prior to completing paper versions of the nova form, I supplied a covering letter stating that I had no receipts or other paperwork with the scooters and that I purchased them from a parts fair in the uk and that I would like to register them I also gave them a date that the vehicles were made available to me which was within the 14 days, this didn’t seem to be an issue with them in this instance.
By completing the nova form via post you have the option to give them this extra information, my previous experience with filing online is that you can only give them limited information and not supply anything else in accompaniment. With a discrepancy with the date that the vehicle was made available to me I was fined £125 for late notification as the online form would not accept the date I had entered. They also requested proof of receipt. This fine was reimbursed at a later date and the rest of the registration process was then completed without issue with dvla.
I have only done one Nova and used the online facility. I just gave the year of manufacture which is what a Dating certificate will give. The 14 day rule cannot possibly apply to a scooter which has been in the country for a very long time and this was explained in one of the boxes.I submitted it on the last bank holiday Monday and received my Nova number the following day.The turnaround time for a dating certificate is irrelevant as anyone can look online and find out a date of manufacture. L.C.G.B. turnaround time is incidentally around 3 days on average.