driving licence

[mummyoath]

hi,

wanted to see if anyone knew anything about driving licences,

i passed my test when i was 18- am now 31.
since passing my test i have gotten married and moved house-
i completely forgot to tell the DVLA of these changes (before anyone says it i am stupid i know). My friend told me the other day that she had renewed her driving licence because it was 10 years- and i thought s**t!!!! and it dawned on me that i haven't done mine! I am now scared about sending it off to the DVLA as i have read online that there is a £1000 fine and the chance that i might have to re-take my test!
any advice, would be massively appreciated!!!!
Thank you!

Potentially you could be fined £1000. I think they will just be glad if you updating it though. I never understand how people do this though? Surely you must have notified everyone when you moved house?

Stop driving now!! It is illegal to drive without a valid licence.

I don't think you need to worry about come-back from renewing it now.

If more than two years has passed since your driving licence expired, you may be made to retake your driving test in order to get a new licence. This is especially the case if your licence has expired due to age (driving licences need to be renewed when you reach seventy years of age) or for medical reasons. For these, you may also have to pass a medical. In other cases, you can simply apply for a new licence without problem, although the DVLA will often want to know why your licence has been expired for so long.

Try not to admit to them that you have been driving though. You are likely to be fined if they find that out.

Mine ran out and I was terrified!! Just sent form and new pic off. No issues.

The OP doesn’t have an expired licence! Just the photo needs renewing not the whole driving licence.

So your licence has been expired three years? (Expiry date is on the front, marked 4b)

You may have to re-take your test if it's been that long, but you might not. This site is fairly reassuring: www.yourdrivinglicence.co.uk/what-happens-if-driving-licence-has-expired.html

I am now scared about sending it off to the DVLA

You have two options:

1. send it off, poss retake the test, get it sorted, pretty unlikely to be fined from what I can see
2. knowingly continue to drive on expired licence

One of these is more sensible than the other.

It’s a simple admin error, no big deal.

I would just send it off and renew it. The person processing the form is unlikely to be paid enough to give a rats ass,

Done your hard had OP some on MN consider this a absolutely terrible offense

Get your address updated with them ASAP, once that's done sort out renewing the photocard.

Once that's done get your name change done.

it costs to renew the photo, but not to do a name change.

[[https://www.gov.uk/change-address-driving-licence?step-by-step-nav=c1f13d41-ed7f-44a3-be11-fd95525ddf40]

You can also update your photo on that link.

They'd probably only fine someone and/or make them retake their test if they were decades late and were involved in an accident or had other motoring offences.

There's probably hundreds of thousands if not millions of people who haven't renewed their photocards, so they simply don't have the capacity to retest all these people.

Just update your card and stop worrying .

I recently updated my name and address and I've been married 2 years- never said a word just got it sorted for me. X

Thank you all, i have ordered the forms- and will not drive until i have resolved my issues. thanks everyone!

If you go to a Post Office that can take the photo's then it's all done electronically immediately and you can drive the moment you leave the branch.

The worst one is not changing your address as that means they can't contact you. I'm sure that offence has a different sanction from the £1000 fine threat of the others which, in reality, is rarely carried out.

You are not obliged to change the name on your licence once married, even if you do change it for other documents.

I wold love to see a FOI on how many people they actually fine - my bet it is it's close to zero.