DVLA bereavement contact

The registrar explains Tell Us Once when you register the death. GOV.UK’s Tell Us Once page says the registrar will either complete Tell Us Once with you or give you a unique reference number so you can use the service yourself online or by phone. GOV.UK’s Tell Us Once page says you must use the service within 28 days of getting your unique reference number.

Tell Us Once does not deal with selling a vehicle or changing details. GOV.UK’s easy-read Tell Us Once guide says you need to contact DVLA for that, or if you want to keep the vehicle.

Even after Tell Us Once, DVLA’s guide lists three things you still tell DVLA yourself: selling the vehicle; keeping the vehicle, even if that is temporary and you are not using it; and keeping a personalised registration number, which you must do before you sell the vehicle.

If Tell Us Once is not available in your area, DVLA’s guide says to write to DVLA at the address above and include the driving licence if you have it. GOV.UK’s page on reporting a death without a Tell Us Once reference number also says to contact DVLA yourself if the person held a driving licence or owned a vehicle.

Keeping the vehicle: tell DVLA you are the new keeper and tax it in your own name straight away. Vehicle tax cannot be transferred from another person, even if you are a family member or only looking after the vehicle for a short time. You can be prosecuted if you use it on a public road before you have taxed it in your own name and insured it.

Keeping the vehicle, if you have the V5C log book: fill in section 2 (new-style log book, with multi-coloured numbered blocks on the front cover) or section 6 (older style). Tear off and keep the green 'new keeper' slip. Write a letter giving your relationship to the person who died, the date they died and who should be paid any vehicle tax refund. Send the V5C and the letter to the DVLA Sensitive Casework Team, Swansea, SA99 1ZZ. Add form V890 if you want to register the vehicle as off the road (SORN) instead of taxing it. DVLA cancels existing vehicle tax and direct debits straight away and sends a cheque for any refund and a new V5C. Use the green slip to tax the vehicle in your name before you use it on a public road; do not wait for the new V5C.

Keeping the vehicle, if you do not have the V5C: fill in form V62 (£25 fee) and write the same letter. Send the V62, the fee and the letter to the Sensitive Casework Team, Swansea, SA99 1ZZ, with form V890 if you want a SORN. DVLA cancels existing vehicle tax and direct debits and sends a new V5C, which you use to tax the vehicle. GOV.UK’s page for form V62 says it is a print-only form that must be posted.

Selling the vehicle, if you have the V5C: write a letter giving your relationship to the person who died, the date they died and who should be paid any vehicle tax refund, and send it to the Sensitive Casework Team, Swansea, SA99 1ZZ, with the right part of the V5C. Selling to a private individual: fill in section 2 (or section 6 on the older style), give the buyer the green 'new keeper' slip and send the V5C with your letter. Selling to a motor trader: get the trader to fill in the yellow 'sell, transfer or part-exchange your vehicle to the motor trade' section, send the perforated section with your letter and give the trader the rest of the V5C.

Selling the vehicle, if you do not have the V5C: tell the buyer they will need to fill in form V62 to apply for a V5C (£25 fee). Write to the Sensitive Casework Team, Swansea, SA99 1ZZ, with the date you sold the vehicle, your relationship to the person who died, the date they died, who should be paid any vehicle tax refund and the buyer’s name and address.

How long it takes: DVLA’s bereavement pages give no time for dealing with a letter about a death. Its other pages give waiting times for other things, and none of those pages mentions a death. For a log book applied for by phone or post, DVLA’s contact page says to contact DVLA if it has not arrived and it has been 4 weeks since you applied. For a vehicle tax refund cheque, GOV.UK’s refund page says to contact DVLA after 8 weeks, while the vehicle tax and SORN contact page lists 6 weeks for a refund by telephone or online and 6 to 8 weeks for all DVLA applications by post. DVLA’s services update says, under its heading for paper applications, to allow 4 weeks for new documents if you apply by post and not to call within those 4 weeks.

Vehicle tax cannot be transferred to a new owner. GOV.UK’s refund page says DVLA sends a refund cheque for any full months of tax left, counted from the date DVLA gets your information, to the name and address on the log book; DVLA’s bereavement pages ask you to say who should be paid. There is no refund for credit card fees, the 5% surcharge on some direct debit payments or the 10% surcharge on a single 6 month payment. If no cheque has arrived after 8 weeks, contact DVLA. A cheque in the wrong name goes back to Refund Section, DVLA, Swansea, SA99 1AL.

Personalised registration number: if the person left you the number in their will, or you are an executor, you can keep it, transfer it to another vehicle, put it in someone else’s name or give up the right to use it. You send the right form with the death certificate and proof that you have the right to the number. Pay the correct postage.

Personalised number already on a vehicle: fill in form V317 (section 2 if you have the old blue form) and section 2 of a new-style V5C, or section 6 of the older style. Include a covering letter signed by all the executors saying they agree, and the details of the person the number is going to, for example an executor or next of kin. It costs £80. Send it all to DVLA Personalised Registrations, Swansea, SA99 1DS.

Personalised number not on a vehicle: send the proof of your right to the number with the V778 retention document or the V750 certificate of entitlement. The executors must sign it, or fill in section 6 if it has no signature section. Add a covering letter signed by all the executors saying whether you want to keep the number or give it to someone else. GOV.UK’s page on a personalised number when the person with the right to use it dies prints the address Cherished Transfers team, Swansea, SA99 1BW under this section. If you have neither form, send the proof and a covering letter signed by all the executors saying you do not have the forms and what you want to do with the number.

Giving up a personalised number: you might get the £80 assignment fee back if the number was not put on a vehicle after the fee was paid and you have the latest V778 or V750 (if you have lost a valid one, DVLA can replace it). If the document was issued before 9 March 2015, you can only get a refund once it expires. Tick the 'Refund of the assignment fee' section, have all the executors sign it, and send it with the proof of your right to the number and the name and address for the refund to DVLA Personalised Registrations, Swansea, SA99 1DS.

A personalised number that is not on a vehicle has to be renewed every 10 years. GOV.UK’s page on renewing a personalised number says you permanently lose the right to use it if you do not renew it on or before the expiry date.

Speaking to a person: DVLA’s bereavement contact page offers a webchat and a phone line for advice regarding a bereavement, both open Monday to Friday 8am–7pm and Saturday 8am–2pm, and closed on public holidays. It lists no Sunday opening. DVLA does not have a public counter at its Swansea site: its services page asks people not to travel there.

DVLA’s bereavement contact page does not say 0300 083 0090 is free. GOV.UK’s call-charges page says its costs are approximate: 030 numbers (used by not-for-profit organisations, charities and public bodies) cost up to 10p a minute from landlines and 3p to 40p from mobiles, and you may get free calls to some numbers as part of your call package.

Email and WhatsApp: DVLA’s Contact DVLA pages for vehicle tax, log books and driving licences each offer an 'email service' link (it opens a web page where you choose an enquiry type; it is not an email address) and WhatsApp, for those subjects. DVLA’s bereavement contact page offers only the webchat and the phone line.

Northern Ireland: DVLA’s guide says there is a different process there and links to nidirect. GOV.UK sends people with a Northern Ireland driving licence to the Driver and Vehicle Agency (DVA). nidirect says to tell both DVA and DVLA, and to return the driving licence to DVA with a covering letter giving your relationship. If you cannot find it, write with the person’s name, address and date of birth and whether you are a relative or executor. Address: DVA, Driver Licensing Division, Castlerock Road, Waterside, Coleraine, BT51 3TB.

Northern Ireland vehicles: nidirect’s page on telling DVA about a bereavement says to send a vehicle’s V5C (or, without it, just a letter) to DVLA, Swansea, SA99 1ZZ, giving your relationship, the date of death and the person’s name, address and date of birth. nidirect’s separate page on who to tell about a death lists the Driver Vehicle Agency (DVA) “to return any driving licence, cancel car tax or return car registration documents/change ownership”, so its two pages name different agencies for the vehicle documents. GOV.UK describes DVLA as keeping vehicle records across the United Kingdom. DVLA’s own guide does not set out separate vehicle steps for Northern Ireland. Tell Us Once cannot be used if the person was living in Northern Ireland when they died.