IO,
I tried this procedure on 30th July this year, and so far have had the usual response....nothing. No reply, nada.....
In my experience these government departments who SHOULD help clarify matters like this, when they receive a request which is too much hassle for them or it is too out of the box for them, just don't reply.
It p*sses me off as for the past 6 months I have been writing to various HMRC departments, and so far have had zero response with anything useful. The VAT department completely got the wrong end of the stick and assumed I was "dealing" aircraft and so clearly didn't read the letter.
No one seems interested, and now I have run out of ideas. I'm going to forward the email to them again and see if I get a response but if not then I assume that I have done everything reasonably possible to confirm the VAT status and Free Circulation of our aircraft and IF it ever came to court I'd produce these documents as evidence that we had tried, and failed, to get advice from HMRC.....
We are pre-1985 and meet the requirements that you kindly posted.