SALLY SORTS IT: DVLA drove me mad with licence delays that’s stopping me from picking up my motorhome!

I am having a nightmare with the Driver & Vehicle Licensing Agency (DVLA) renewing my driving licence so that I can pick up a motorhome I am purchasing.

It is now well beyond the three weeks the DVLA claims it takes to issue the licence. The packet was signed for on June 6. 

I sent it to the over 70 renewal office (I am 73) but apparently, because I also enclosed a clean medical, as requested, it should have gone to a different office.

But surely this could have been sorted out internally? The long and the short of it is I risk losing my deposit of £5,000, and even the van itself because of these delays.

The DVLA says it is trying to retrieve the paperwork but it looks as if I might need to start the whole process all over again including paying for another medical. 

I have photographs of all the original forms, but it won’t accept these unless the photo is certified by the same doctor, which is not possible to arrange in the time given.

The grandkids are now on their school holidays, and we have two trips in the new van booked and paid for at a cost of £1,300, including to Loch Ness to do a bit of monster hunting. I dread disappointing them.

J.A., Musselburgh.

Sally Hamilton replies: You were being driven round the bend trying to reinstate an authorisation allowing you to drive vehicles that weigh more than 3.5 tonnes. You previously had this authority — called a C1 accreditation — on your driver’s licence. 

However, because you had turned 70 three years ago, the authorisation was automatically expunged. You didn’t reapply at that time as you didn’t expect to be driving such a large vehicle again.

But recently you decided it would be fun to take your grandchildren away on a holiday in a motorhome and started hunting around for a suitable six-berth vehicle.

You found the perfect one, paid your £5,000 deposit and proceeded to complete the forms (in what you thought was plenty of time) to reinstate your right to drive a motorhome.

The process should have been straightforward but you soon hit a roadblock. As you described, the DVLA claimed not to have seen your forms — or your current licence and the necessary private medical to prove you are still fit to drive. You disputed this as you had a Royal Mail confirmation that it had been received and signed for on June 6.

You phoned the DVLA every day once the three-week deadline was up to check on progress but got nowhere. At the end of your tether, you asked for my help. This was on the Friday before the Monday you were set to collect your new motor so you were desperate.

I got on to the DVLA and asked it to pull out all the stops and get your paperwork sorted by the close of play. 

It revved into action and put a manager in charge of dealing with you directly. But the day rolled by with no resolution. I contacted the organisation several times to chivvy it along.

In the end it said you would have to resubmit the forms along with a new medical.

Although you felt your blood pressure reach boiling point you managed to set up a private medical (and passed it) with a doctor some miles from where you live, at a cost of £50. You scanned the report and emailed it over, along with new forms, to the DVLA contact.

You and I thought that surely, all would finally be well. Not so. On the Monday morning, as you were preparing to travel to pick up the new van, it transpired the doctor hadn’t completed the medical forms correctly. At this point the DVLA used its discretion to accept a photo of the original medical report (as a temporary measure).

Despite the continuing uncertainty you set off to Crewe to pick up the vehicle.

Eventually, before arriving at your destination, an email arrived in your inbox confirming your application had been processed and the deal went ahead.

I can report that you are now at the wheel of your new purchase and on the hunt for Nessie with happy grandchildren in tow.

Motorists who want to drive bigger vehicles should check dvla.gov.uk for the rules. Essentially, they can be in charge of a van up to 3.5 tonnes using a standard driving licence but for anything over that weight drivers need an additional authorisation. Driving without this can lead to a fine of up to £1,000, or three to six penalty points on a licence.

Drivers aged 70 should be aware that they must renew their licences every three years. This can be done online for standard licences, but where extra categories like C1 are required, as in your case, the application must be completed by post.

In many cases motorists can continue driving while a licence is being renewed but only if they drive under the conditions of their previous licence (and if they are not disqualified). This exemption didn’t apply in your case as your category C1 had been withdrawn.

Who spent my 5000 Nectar points?

I am absolutely desperate. I have had a problem with my Nectar account since June 2022 when I discovered on returning from a river cruise abroad that two amounts of more than 5,000 Nectar points had been spent from my account somewhere in the South of England.

I live in the North-East. I rang Nectar, which said it would investigate and a couple of days later it said the points would be reinstated but that I would be sent a new card.

I went to register the card online and was told a code would be sent to the phone number ending in three certain digits — but these did not belong to my phone.

I rang to complain but was told this was the number they had linked to my Sainsbury’s account. I don’t have a Sainsbury’s account.

I went back and forth over the issue and even got Gateshead Trading Standards involved, as I was getting nowhere.

Someone there alerted the boss of Sainsbury’s who did respond and added 3,000 points to my account for the inconvenience. I tried the new card at an Esso petrol station and got an email from Nectar congratulating me on swiping my card there.

I thought that at last the card had been registered. But no, I still could not access my account as I encountered the same issue with the phone number.

This has still not been sorted nearly one year on. Please help as I calculate I have £70 worth of points that I cannot access.

P.G., Ryton-on-Tyne.

Sally Hamilton replies: I felt your frustration and asked Nectar, owned by Sainsbury’s, to sort out the phone number conundrum. 

Your original account had either been taken over fraudulently by someone else or some lucky Nectar customer had inadvertently received and spent your points.

I couldn’t get to the bottom of what had happened originally, but the good news is that within a few days of my intervention the situation was resolved, you had your new card properly activated and could finally access your account, where, as an apology Nectar had deposited an extra £100 worth of points to the £70 that had been sitting out of reach for so long.

A Nectar spokesman says: ‘We have been in touch with your reader to apologise for her experience and offered her a gesture of goodwill.

‘Our technical team have reached out to finalise the registration of her new Nectar card.’

• Write to Sally Hamilton at Sally Sorts It, Money Mail, Northcliffe House, 2 Derry Street, London W8 5TT or email sally@dailymail.co.uk — include phone number, address and a note addressed to the offending organisation giving them permission to talk to Sally Hamilton. Please do not send original documents as we cannot take responsibility for them. No legal responsibility can be accepted by the Daily Mail for answers given.