Thetownend.com

I wondered how many of you have been hit with appalling service when you've had to deal with the DVLA lately.

My compaints are minor compared with many others I've read about, who have lost work and their jobs due to long delays, many months in some cases. HGV drivers particularly it seems.

I had to renew my over-70 driving licence over two months ago, did it online, it seemed OK and went off, but I received no confirmation, and two months later I had no idea what had happened to it. The help chatlines were down, and I tried ringing them. After 45 minutes on hold, I spoke to a real human being who said they had received my application, and explained that it was held up because there's a medical problem with me. "What's that then?" said I. 'You have a pacemaker, and we have to check it out."  "I've had it many years and there's no problems. Why didn't you let me know?" " It's the effect of Covid, and some industrial action."  " So I shouldn't be driving now until you find time to deal with it?"  "Well no, but under Section 88 of the Road Traffic Act if you can answer all the questions  you can drive while the processing takes place." "Right then, I've read that and I'm OK, so I'll wait to hear from you."

Another case, I bought my other half a second- hand car two months ago, but we have not received it's log book or any confirmation that she is now registered as the keeper.  They say it should happen in four weeks, or to contact them, but its catch-22, we can't contact them easily and its very time-consuming. For all we know, our seller might not have followed the procedure. We've only waited two months so far, but many others have waited far longer.

Small rant over. I feel sorry for others who's livelihood has been affected- or so I've read online.

You should have the green slip from the seller so that should be proof enough you own the vehicle.
You can always get the V5 with that so I wouldn't worry, however, if you don't have the green slip .............

I bought a second hand car in October last year and as swindonmaniac says above, I had the green slip as my proof of ownership but the actual documentation from DVLA only arrived earlier this year so took about 6 months or so I think. I had anticipated the change of address on my Driving licence to take forever but it was pretty much next day.

Being pedantic, the V5C is not proof of ownership, it only shows the registered keeper.

Bought a van over two year's ago and still waiting for the V5  !!!!!!.    Have the green slip and made sure I had a signed Bill of purchase so no problems proving it's mine.  It's all taxed / MOT'd and insured so no problem with ANPR.  
 It's either been lost in the post or the seller obviously couldn't be bothered to send it off,  often wondered how many parking/speeding tickets he's had in the last two years ??!!!.

Eldest had his provisional refunded, no reason given - easier 3 months. Made about 40 calls to DVLA "all our lines are busy," before I clicked that it was costing a minimum 40p per connection (Plusnet).

reapplied online and they'd improved the service so he could use his passport photo, etc. Got license within 2 weeks ...

I found the online service to be seamless recently as per Batch’s experience.

Yeah, I bought a new (to me) car in August and the V5C came through the post within a week.

I noticed that on the V5C, too.  I did then wonder what is proof of ownership,

A receipt. Even a hand scrawled one for a second-hand car is fine.

Makes sense, cheers.

Applied online for over 70 driving licence on 4th November, new licence arrived this morning. Very happy with that.

As per my post on another thread, applied online for a new 5 year medical licence, which came really quick but only lasts 6 months and I cannot speak to anyone to sort it!

My 17yo daughter applied for a provisional licence on the 4th May. She's still waiting.

She had a seizure 3 years ago and so after 12 weeks they sent her a medical form to complete. In late October, another letter arrived saying she needed to arrange a medical with the doctor. She's hoping to get the licence before she retires.

The comments on here showed that the service was either very quick and efficient, or extremely slow where medical conditions were involved for driving licences, or for supply of log books.

My pacemaker is only for irregular heart beat, and is monitored continuously electronically by the hospital.  After two months, I got through to DVLA by phone, but they wouldn't/couldn't tell me how they would progress my application, and how long, though they checked it was on their system.

My son (no medical conditions) applied for his provisional and got told to send a paper form/picture in. Waited 3 months. Got his cheque back with no explanation as to why the application failed.

Applied again, second time it linked straight to passport photo, only had to provide a signature and he got license within 2 weeks!

As normy says - Seems they've sorted their shit for standard applications, but anything over and above its taking ages and you can't speak to anyone.