I separated out the renewal and the historic status into two transactions with the DVLA. One was a letter I sent with the birth certificate. Then once the historic status was Ok, the next renewal came up and was £0. If you try to rush the two things together the system chucks you out because you need to get the status before they send out the bill otherwise theres a bill you havent paid. Even if today it would be £0, the day before that , the DVLA doesnt know you have a proof of construction date so they bill you... As my bus was registered first 18 months after construction I had to do this back in 2014.
I was told to take it to the post office and it should take about 2 minuets, unfortunately the fells was from Barnsley and it took him 2 hours
