Help Please - CAA have lost my CofA

[Winco]

Could someone in the 'legal' fraternity please offer some advice please?

A friend of mine has recently had the CofA renewed on his aircraft, and the CAA have duly sent out the certificate to him (alledgedly mind you)

The thing is, the certificate has not arrived and the CAA are now demanding another £44.00 to re-issue it.

It costs £44.00 if you lose your certificate, and that is fair I suppose. But if you have never received it in the first place, can they legally charge you £44.00 to replace something that you've never received??

Perhaps if the CAA spent £1.50 and sent everything recorded delivery we mi9ght not be in this situation.

Thanks for any replies
Winco

[Heliplane]

I could offer my opinion as a lawyer but my hourly charge-out rate exceeds £44.00. :}

Presumably your friend has written/spoken to the CAA, calmly explained that his certificate never arrived in the post and asked for a replacement. One might hope (and I accept that this might be too much to hope) that someone at the CAA with some common sense would simply re-issue the certificate.

Scraping the bowels of my memory from many years ago.... the actual law is quite complex and will depend on whether your friend used the postal service first to write to the CAA (thus establishing Royal Mail as his agent). Also relevant is whether your friend was aware (or ought to have been aware) of any applicable terms and conditions relating to the CAA's service, which may include who takes responsibility for items lost in the post.

If your friend is alleging some omission on the part of the CAA, the onus would be on him to prove that they did not post the certificate or that they were somehow negligent in addressing it. Good luck getting the evidence to prove that.

In other words, write to the CAA, speak to them, if they dig their heels in, pay the £44 for a new certificate......

[Saab Dastard]

You may be able to claim compensation from RM (up to £39 at present) for lost mail.

You would have to provide evidence of the "value" of the loss, so make sure you get a receipt from the CAA for the cost of the replacement CofA.

Worth a try.

SD

[Katamarino]

Only 44? Sounds like a bargain from the extortionists at the CAA.

[hatzflyer]

I had a slightly similar spat with the CAA many years ago. They lost my registration/change of ownership papers and cancelled the reg because I refused to pay a second time.
I carried on flying the aircraft although they told me it was illegal. Eventually the certificate turned up. I never heard anymore about it,and never stopped flying it.

The thing is,in your case, you are not supposed to fly until the document is in your hand, which in some cases can be weeks and when it arrives you find it was dated weeks ago!

I can't see how the CAA could ever prosecute for not having the doc in your hand,when by the time it reaches court you have a bit of paper saying that it was legal to fly before the date in question.