DVLA

Confirmation of the manufacturing date of a Volkswagen vehicle

For many years now the Historic Volkswagen Club have been providing a service to owners confirming the manufacturing date or period of their vehicles to the satisfaction of the DVLA.

There are a number of reasons why this confirmation could be required.

  • You have a UK vehicle with no registration mark or no documents
  • You have an imported vehicle with no acceptable dating documents
  • You have a vehicle whose V5C does not show the correct manufacturing date
  • You have a vehicle with a UK registration mark but it is not recognised by the DVLA - V765 Form

 

*** In all instances please read on ***

 

The DVLA require an owner to provide evidence of the manufacturing date from the manufacturer where available.  Until recently this has been problematic with Volkswagen vehicles as there has been a considerable lead time in obtaining such a document from the Volkswagen museum in Wolfsburg.  However, this has changed, documents are now supplied from Volkswagen Classic Parts who are now able to supply a Data Sheet correlating production date and chassis number (VIN) with a slightly quicker turnaround.  I have supplied a sample of this document to the DVLA and received confirmation that it is admissible evidence for all applications. An example of a Data Sheet or a Zertifikat (often called a Birth Certificate) can be seen here.

 

Useful links

 

 

Should Volkswagen inform an owner in writing that they cannot provide the details then in most cases the Historic Volkswagen Club can help.

 

We are able to issue an Age Certificate in the form of a letter confirming the period of manufacture of a Volkswagen vehicle for use by an owner to obtain an 'Age Related' registration mark in the UK . This letter should then be passed, by the owner, to the DVLA for processing. We may be able to provide proof of production date for 'Historic Vehicle' classification depending on available data but the VW museum should be approached first.

 

To obtain an age verification letter the owner MUST supply the club with the following items...

 

  1. A written request confirming the chassis number (VIN) of the vehicle concerned. (may be emailed)
  2. A recent photograph of the complete vehicle.
  3. A photograph of the VIN (Chassis Number) stamped into the vehicle frame / bodywork.
  4. A photograph of the vehicle ID plate and the vehicle 'M' plate see note below.
  5. Applicants name and address a contact telephone number and email address if possible.
  6. Note that there are occasions when a vehicle inspection is necessary, see note below.
  7. Proof of membership, either a copy of current membership card or subscription receipt.
    There is a non-members option, see lower down this page.

 

Enquiries with photographs embedded in emails will be rejected!

Please send all photographs etc.
as attachments to vwdata@historicvws.co.uk
all file names
MUST include the vehicle VIN.
Good quality photos please.

We are also approved by the DVLA as part of the their V765 Scheme for reclaiming the registration mark of a vehicle that is not recorded on their systems see DVLA information  see links above.

For the club to process V765 forms please note the following...

 

  1. All of the documents as required on the V765 form should be forwarded to the address below. If all items are correct they will be signed and forwarded by the club to the relevant department at the DVLA. If incorrect they will be returned to the applicant. Original documents supplied to support the application will be copied and signed as authentic by a club official for onward transmission to the DVLA. Originals will be returned to the applicant in a 'Signed For' envelope. Whilst we do our best to ensure that such documents are returned safely we cannot be held responsible for losses in the postal system. Proof of posting will always be obtained by us.
  2. Proof of membership, either a copy of current membership card or subscription receipt is required.
    There is a non-members option, see lower down this page.

 


Inspections - There are some occasions which necessitate an inspection of the vehicle, if this is the case a Historic Volkswagen Club representative will contact the owner to arrange the inspection. In these cases the owner will be expected to pay any expenses incurred by the person inspecting his or her vehicle.

Please also be aware that
vehicles of non German production  are often difficult or even impossible for us to check.


If you are trying to register a vehicle imported from South Africa with the DVLA in the UK you should NOT submit to the DVLA any South African document that contains the words ‘built up’ or equivalent Afrikaans wording.  Doing so is most likely to result in your vehicle being given a UK ‘Q’ registration


'M' Plate - Transporters from 1959 to 1979 have a plate attached which defines the original build details, up to 1976 this plate is normally behind one of the front seats, post 1976 the plate is on the transverse air duct under the dash (difficult to photograph I know).

Both of the above are Free 'members only' services. Non members may use the
membership services on this web site to join the Historic Volkswagen Club and send vehicle details as above.

 

Alternatively non-members can make a 'one off' application for a fee of £25, in this case please contact me via the email address below so that I can invoice you individually via PayPal for this service.

 

Please note that this free service to members extends to a maximum of two applications (VIN numbers) per member per membership year . The club will process further applications from a member in any membership year or non-members at a charge of £25 per application.

All enquiries should be addressed to:-
Rod Sleigh, 28 Longnor Road, Telford, TF1 3NY

Initial telephone enquiries between 9.00am and 8.00pm weekdays UK time may be made to 01952 242167
or email enquiries to
vwdata@historicvws.co.uk

 

Excerpt taken from a section on the DVLA by Ian Edmunds within FBHVC News Issue 2 2022


Kits and Rebuilds

Overview

Team of 12 staff members

4,403 applications received for 2021

Handling the registration of:-

  • New Kit Vehicles and Kit Conversions
  • Bike to Trike conversions
  • Allocation of DVLA VIN
  • Radically Altered vehicles
  • Reconstructed classics
  • V765 Applications


Service

  • 10-14 day turnaround for applications (as per previous Local Office Service Level Agreement)
  • Cases actioned within 2 days of receipt on team
  • Customer advisory service for rejected applications
  • Vehicle Inspections requested
  • Maintenance of V765 register

 

First Registration

  • First Registration is made up of three processing teams (38 staff on average each day) whose role is to assess applications and supporting evidence, determining whether to approve and create a vehicle record, or return the application back to the customer.
  • When applications are approved, these are passed to staff within two keying teams (19 staff on average each day), whose role is to create the vehicle record
  • During 2021 we received in excess of 150,000 applications

            51,680 to register Brand new vehicles

            85,571 to register Used vehicles

            12,919 to register Mobility vehicles

  • If applications present a level of complexity to staff, we have a pool of Subject Matter Experts (SME’s) to support decision making with the aim of reducing the need to reject an application back to the customer
  • Up to a third of applications received are rejected due to being incomplete. The main three reasons are;

 

  1. Fees – not enclosed, incorrect (such as incorrect payee or words and figures not matching) cheques damaged or have been altered/amended.
  2. NOVA* –all vehicles except those manufactured in the UK (evidence needs to be provided to confirm this) are subject to making a NOVA declaration via HMRC
  3. ID – not enclosed, not correct details on the ID do not match the application form or the ID is out of date, (all utility bills must have been issued within the last 3 months)

 

* NOVA. As stated this is a verbatim copy from the material provided by DVLA, however since 2020 the circumstances when a NOVA application is required, as stated on the NOVA 1 form, have been extended from ‘….if you are bringing a land vehicle into the UK for permanent use’ to also include ‘….if you have purchased a vehicle in the UK which is unregistered or if your vehicle has had a break in registration’. At the time of writing final clarification is awaited.

The provision of Subject Matter Experts is encouraging and in keeping with the DVLA senior management undertaking to take into account all the available evidence so as to build a picture of a vehicle’s history. The Federation has stated that it and its member clubs are always willing to assist with information etc if needed.

We have recently concluded a discussion with DVLA Vehicle Policy on the subject of replacement chassis plates, i.e. a plate bearing the chassis number (or frame number for motorcycles) which is then attached to the vehicle. In many cases for vehicles from our period this was the only marking of the chassis number. Although DVLA agreed to re-examine one particular and untypical case their firm position is that if the chassis plate has been replaced the original identity of the vehicle has been lost and it must be registered as such. This is the case even if the vehicle can be individually identified by some other means, for example a via body number which by reference to surviving factory records can be linked to the chassis number.

By ‘registered as such’ DVLA mean issued with a Q registration which in turn, of course, requires an IVA/MSVA. The majority of historic vehicles cannot obtain these approvals so the outcome is that the vehicle becomes incapable of registration in the UK. Thus the moral is abundantly clear, during any restoration or repair work retain the old chassis plate at all cost, no matter how degraded it might be.

Another recent, and from our perspective rather more constructive, explanation from DVLA concerns the return to the UK of vehicles previously registered here but subsequently exported. Although they will normally regain their original registration any V5 or V5C is considered superseded and cancelled by the foreign registration. In many cases it will have been surrendered to the foreign registration authority. Thus the correct procedure is to complete, as far as possible, a V55/5 and submit it along with any other required documents to DVLA for registration.

Share by: