When you move house, there’s so much to remember to do. Apart from the actual moving process, there are things like council tax, bank information and credit cards to update. One thing we often forget to do is update the address on our driving licence. However, drivers are being warned they could face a £1,000 fine if they don’t have the right information on it.
The cost of forgetting
According to the figures, well over a million people have an out of date address on their driving licence – as many as 1.5 million could face a fine, based on stats from Compare the Market. This would net the DVLA a juicy income of £1.5 billion if it issued all possible fines.
The information shown on your driving licence is a legal requirement, in case you have an accident. Likewise, information on the vehicle log book and the road tax direct debit should also show your correct address.
However, most people aren’t aware of the seriousness of neglecting this simple task. The research showed that over a third didn’t know this was the law. That figure rose to 50% for drivers aged 18-24, 11% of whom use an incorrect address on their licence. This is despite the DVLA website detailing the penalties for not updating your licence when you change address.
Free service
Changing your address with the DVLA is a free service and there’s no restriction on your ability to drive while you wait for your new licence to be issued. As Compare the Market’s John Miles points out, £1,000 is a high price to pay for something that’s free of charge!
This legal requirement is just one that many drivers are unaware of and could face a fine for. Examples of things that can land you a fine include driving with licence plates that are too muddy to be read and splashing pedestrians with puddles – that one can cost you as much as £5,000 if you’re found to have done it on purpose.
(Credit – Ed Seymour CC BY 2.0)
The nomadic lifestyle
Part of the rise in potential fines for out of date licence addresses is down to the number of people who regularly move home or live in temporary addresses. A 2013 study by This Is Money found that 6.8 million people lived ‘unofficially.’ Nearly three million of these admitted that they knew their driving licence was wrong.
What many people don’t realise is that, in addition to a fine for because of your driving licence, you can invalidate your home insurance by not informing insurers of the people living at your address. Constantly changing address can also damage your credit rating.
Motor insurance
Generally, if your driving licence doesn’t have the correct details on it, this won’t invalidate your motor insurance policy. However, there can be consequences if you forget to update the details on your policy as well as your licence. For example, you could be rated on the wrong address or fail to receive notifications about a renewal or a problem with your policy.
Updating your information with the DVLA is one of those irritating tasks that comes with changing address. However, as the free service can save you from a fine of £1,000, it is a task that is well worth adding to your list. If you’ve moved recently, we suggest double checking now to ensure your details are accurate!
Have you been fined for failing to update the address on your driving licence? Are the penalties for this too steep, or should the DVLA issue even larger fines in order to curb the number of transgressions? Leave a comment below to share your views.
Changing address for your driving license is only available online so not so easy if you move have to wait to get internet working which can be weeks or going to public place like library to do it
Especially as public places like libraries are getting more and more rarer
Not so. You can change it by post using the form that came with the photocard, or if you’ve lost that then you can use DVLA form D1(driving licence application) from any main Post Office.
I’m surprised that it’s free, the last time I had to update my licence was because I had to renew it and I had to pay to renew it. The new card ones have to be renewed every 10 years so they can check they’ve got the right photo – they can use your passport photo for this although quite ironically my passport is nearly out if date anyway so the photo on my new driving licence is nearly as old as the old licence.
Worst thing is even when you pay to renew it they send you a letter saying please send the old one back as it’s property of the DVLA – I was actually wondering then considering it’s property of the DVLA can I get a refund on the “deposit” I paid? Surely if I pay for the new licence then the old one is my property not the DVLAs as I’ve already paid for it.
I know your thinking what is the point it’s out of date – but you still bought it in the first place so it’s actually yours until the DVLA give you your money you paid for it.
I am disappointed that your article does not provide a link to where one is supposed to renew one’s license.All talk and no trousers again?
Paul, get a grip. You have repeated yourself!
True, but only due to website problems making it look like my first comment had not been posted.
Sounds like Paul is suffering from first world problems. I hope you still don’t really on your Mum whilst using the toilet.
Mark, making such puerile personal attacks is completely unwarranted, you should be ashamed of yourself. Please consider the beam in your eye, rather than the mote in mine. What you say says more about your personal issues than it does about my admittedly laughable first world problems. Take care of yourself.
I am disappointed that your article does not contain a simple link to where one is supposed to renew one’s license. All talk and no trousers again?
What’s Google for?????
Google is there for when lazy website writers forget to put in essential links to what they are talking about.
When are we motorists going to tell the government where to go ? Just don’t accept this crap anymore. Let’s start by Havwoods g aroad tax strike forthwith. Keep using our cars just don’t pay the road tax. They don’t have the resources to deal with many of us ! Why should we be victimised by these beaurocrats , especially this Tory lot who want everybody to be taken off the road……except themselves of course. That old cow squatting in number 10 should be the first to dispense with her chauffeur driven XJ,but oh no, everybody else must sacrifice their cars……except her. This is the reincarnation of the Thatcher witch.
I’ve got the old style pink license which is valid till I’m 75 or something like that, if I changed my address would I get the newer type that requires a photo card that you have to replace every ten years, at a Cost to you. Or would they issue me with the old style pink type? Any advice/answers would be much appreciated.
You have to pay for the plastic card licence
Micky,
You are correct in thinking that if you have to return your old paper licence, you would be expected to fork out on the Photocard licence. happened to me some years back.
Thanks, I think I’ll stick with my old paper one as I’ve still got connections with the old address.
Easier said than done. When I moved house earlier this year, I tried nearly a dozen times to fill in the online form alerting the DVLA to my change of address. It kept refusing to pass me on to the latter stages of the form, alleging I hadn’t given enough info to proceed. Eventually I had to wait until I was at one of the few Post Offices that still issue driving licence forms, and send it off manually. I can’t help but wonder if they make it difficult on purpose…..
I remember sending my licence off years ago when I moved house, only to be stopped by a copper as my front wing had corroded and left a jagged edge around the headlamp. When he asked me to produce my licence etc at a police station and I said that I couldn’t as I’d sent it off, he was very surprised and commented that it was very unusual for anyone to send their licence in.
So, if you now live at a different address to the one on your licence (and presumably in DVLA records). Where do they post the letter to demanding £1,000 because you haven’t told them you’ve moved?
I assume the criminal elements rigorously update the DVLA with their every move !!!
There must be 100’s if not more wrongly displayed letters/numbers on number plates, so a dirty number plate should be the least of the problem!
I have the old style green paper driving licence with my current address on it but the post code is now incorrect due to the post office changing it a few years ago. Do I have to pay to get my licence up to date when it wasn’t me that changed the details?
Changing address for your driving license is only available online so not so easy if you move have to wait to get internet working which can be weeks or going to public place like library to do it
Especially as public places like libraries are getting more and more rarer
Not so. You can change it by post using the form that came with the photocard, or if you’ve lost that then you can use DVLA form D1(driving licence application) from any main Post Office.
I’m surprised that it’s free, the last time I had to update my licence was because I had to renew it and I had to pay to renew it. The new card ones have to be renewed every 10 years so they can check they’ve got the right photo – they can use your passport photo for this although quite ironically my passport is nearly out if date anyway so the photo on my new driving licence is nearly as old as the old licence.
Worst thing is even when you pay to renew it they send you a letter saying please send the old one back as it’s property of the DVLA – I was actually wondering then considering it’s property of the DVLA can I get a refund on the “deposit” I paid? Surely if I pay for the new licence then the old one is my property not the DVLAs as I’ve already paid for it.
I know your thinking what is the point it’s out of date – but you still bought it in the first place so it’s actually yours until the DVLA give you your money you paid for it.
I am disappointed that your article does not provide a link to where one is supposed to renew one’s license.All talk and no trousers again?
Paul, get a grip. You have repeated yourself!
True, but only due to website problems making it look like my first comment had not been posted.
Sounds like Paul is suffering from first world problems. I hope you still don’t really on your Mum whilst using the toilet.
Mark, making such puerile personal attacks is completely unwarranted, you should be ashamed of yourself. Please consider the beam in your eye, rather than the mote in mine. What you say says more about your personal issues than it does about my admittedly laughable first world problems. Take care of yourself.
I am disappointed that your article does not contain a simple link to where one is supposed to renew one’s license. All talk and no trousers again?
What’s Google for?????
Google is there for when lazy website writers forget to put in essential links to what they are talking about.
When are we motorists going to tell the government where to go ? Just don’t accept this crap anymore. Let’s start by Havwoods g aroad tax strike forthwith. Keep using our cars just don’t pay the road tax. They don’t have the resources to deal with many of us ! Why should we be victimised by these beaurocrats , especially this Tory lot who want everybody to be taken off the road……except themselves of course. That old cow squatting in number 10 should be the first to dispense with her chauffeur driven XJ,but oh no, everybody else must sacrifice their cars……except her. This is the reincarnation of the Thatcher witch.
I’ve got the old style pink license which is valid till I’m 75 or something like that, if I changed my address would I get the newer type that requires a photo card that you have to replace every ten years, at a Cost to you. Or would they issue me with the old style pink type? Any advice/answers would be much appreciated.
You have to pay for the plastic card licence
Micky,
You are correct in thinking that if you have to return your old paper licence, you would be expected to fork out on the Photocard licence. happened to me some years back.
Thanks, I think I’ll stick with my old paper one as I’ve still got connections with the old address.
Easier said than done. When I moved house earlier this year, I tried nearly a dozen times to fill in the online form alerting the DVLA to my change of address. It kept refusing to pass me on to the latter stages of the form, alleging I hadn’t given enough info to proceed. Eventually I had to wait until I was at one of the few Post Offices that still issue driving licence forms, and send it off manually. I can’t help but wonder if they make it difficult on purpose…..
I remember sending my licence off years ago when I moved house, only to be stopped by a copper as my front wing had corroded and left a jagged edge around the headlamp. When he asked me to produce my licence etc at a police station and I said that I couldn’t as I’d sent it off, he was very surprised and commented that it was very unusual for anyone to send their licence in.
So, if you now live at a different address to the one on your licence (and presumably in DVLA records). Where do they post the letter to demanding £1,000 because you haven’t told them you’ve moved?
I assume the criminal elements rigorously update the DVLA with their every move !!!
There must be 100’s if not more wrongly displayed letters/numbers on number plates, so a dirty number plate should be the least of the problem!
I have the old style green paper driving licence with my current address on it but the post code is now incorrect due to the post office changing it a few years ago. Do I have to pay to get my licence up to date when it wasn’t me that changed the details?