DVLA Unfair Penalty - Cannot pay

[RainingBows]

Im really troubled and stressed by a DVLA penalty ive received, which I think is unfair and I am currently trying to appeal.
My husband and I have owned this vehicle for 11 years, he was the Registered keeper he did all the paperwork etc...then he had an affair and suddenly left for the other woman, I instentaniously took upon ownership of the car (and the house and our newborn baby, our toddler, our dogs etc!...) it was obviously a stressful time, Id never been this indepentant and Ive literally had to learn to take on ALL responsibilities by myself AND deal with immense trauma, and raise two children with no help, bla bla - divorce, court...Im explaining this because it adds to why I wasnt thinking so straight.

My now ex husband and I are now back in contact and after court he signed the car over to me. Id been solely paying for it etc so it didnt really feel like anything was changing except this paperwork making it now legally mine. (or so I thought)
I sent the registered keeper docs off and a couple of weeks later paid the tax renewal.

It took DVLA 4 months to send the paperwork back, and then I was surprised to also receive a warning letter saying I haddnt paid this vehicles tax - I checked online and saw I had paid it? The letter stated: If you have already paid this vehicles tax - please ignore this letter.
And so I did - because I saw I had paid it...

I then received a fine for £300 from DVLA stating my vehicle was untaxed? I was in a complete state and very upset as a lone parent, this is an amount of money I dont have.
It was only at this point that I contacted the DVLA and they told me that what I SHOULD have done was - after sending in the change of registered keeper document, I should have RE-TAXED the car again.

I didnt know that. Its not that I forgot, I just literally didnt realise that - and the position im in, it just didnt occur to me to even research, as to me I wasnt buying a new car or changing the car...I felt like I way still paying MY car tax.

DVLA then told me that as I now needed to tax the car that day, that a refund for the £150 Id already paid just a couple of months prior would have gone to my (ex)husband.
The refund haddnt gone to my ex husband - if it would have, it would have prompted him to think 'Hang on why have I got this refund' and contact DVLA.

So the basic fact is I have this penalty because I IGNORED that initial warning letter...if I had contacted the DLVA at that point and queried it, id have been told of my oversight and paid it immediately.
I could argue the letter was unclear in this sort of circumstance?

I paid my cars tax ontime always, I have valid insurance always - but now my insurance company after recieving this notice off DVLA, Ive also been fined £155 by them. So £455 in total and this is a completely genuine mistake.

And one I cannot afford at all.
Im terrified they are not even going to listen to me and just tell me I should have been more aware of the requirements after changing a registered keeper - even if the vehicle remained the same.

Does anyone know if this stands a chance? - I cannot even get in contact with DVLA enforcement only via postal letter which is adding to my frustration. What I can do if DVLA wont allow my appeal - can I take it further?

Thanks

Oh bless you. I don’t want to dishearten you, but my boss had something fairly similar.

he switched the plates on his vehicle and sent the right info off to DVLA. He scrapped the car the plates came off of.

They made a clerical error (scrapping the wrong vehicle) and told him he was untaxed. He had proof he was paying the tax for the correct vehicle but they clamped his car. He had to pay to have the clamp removed and tax the car again.

He then got arrested a few weeks later after the DVLA promised they had fixed the error, for the same thing - driving in an uninsured/untaxed/unregistered car. He never did get any money back from the DVLA as promised even though he sent all the receipts, paperwork and proof off that it was their mistake.

Deleted due to posting error

I'm afraid ignorance of the law is no defence. You may be able to pay in installments? What has happened to the car tax refund though? I appreciate this is a harsh lesson to have to learn.

Whenever I've sold a car that had remaining months of car tax on it I've needed to apply for it specifically, I've never been automatically refunded.

I don’t think that you’re going to have any success here. There’s no harm in writing a polite letter explaining the situation, and they could agree to waive the fine but they aren’t under any obligation to do so.

Did you get a refund of unspent tax?

It was her husband’s car, so he’d have received that.

I find the new system a pain, and preferred when tax transferred with ownership but there’s not much to be done about it.

He's saying he hasnt got the refund, he phoned DVLA and asked for it to be re-sent after I told him about this penalty and that a refund should have been posted so this is also still missing...

Write to them. Keep it factual and unemotional. Ask them to confirm the date the tax was refunded to the previous owner and can you pay by DD instead.

Yep, it is a genuine mistake - I wasnt trying to avoid tax or I wouldnt have been paying the tax.
The delay in DLVA sorting the documents didnt help, and the initial warning letter made it seem like I 'should' ignore the letter and thats what I really am frustrated about - as that could have been my first opportunity to contact DVLA and find out that I should have re-taxed it straight after taxing it! Instead the letter assured me as Id paid the tax on this vehicle all was well.
If you were evading any other form of payment, you would get warning letter after warning letter - it would be provable you were evading something to ignore the. It seems very very harsh 1 unclear warning, when there are people whom are evading paying tax :/