When we moved house a few years ago I sent some V5 docs to DVLA for the addresses to be updated, together with a letter asking for return of the old docs since these were part of the histories of historic vehicles. New V5s arrived without the old, so I wrote pointing vout that I had requested return of these. The answer was that they had been destroyed, but they did send reduced size copies presumably from scans they had taken. In retrospect I think my error had been sending in all the documents together with one covering letter. They admitted that they should have returned the originals and that they usually do so if asked, as they had done for me previously. My advice is NEVER send documents for more than one vehicle in the same envelope with the same covering letter.

Location: Near Cambridge