Changing sections when renewing

[BBCT]

There have been a couple of threads on this topic already but here goes with my latest experience.

I did a few renewals in December and amongst them were 2 firearms that I would have liked to have changed from Section 16 (Dedicated Hunting) to Section 17 (Private Collection). In one case this was because although I had applied for a Section 17 licence back in 2010 CFR had erroneously issued the licence as Section 16 (and didn't even acknowledge it when I notified them) and in the other case it was because of a change in my circumstances. I had asked NAACSA, the national collecting body to enquire at national level how to go about this and the answer came back that CFR said it was not possible because it is effectively a new application and the licencing system is unable to cope with a situation where the previous owner and the new owner is the same person. They said the only way around this would be to book the firearm into a dealer (with associated inconvenience & storage costs) and then re-apply via SAPS271 process as if it were a brand new firearm and licence. Discussions on this forum showed that other people had similar experiences and had received similar answers.

Anyway, I decided not to try and change sections for those firearms and just let sleeping dogs lie.

I duly submitted all my paperwork and yesterday when I collected my renewed cards, lo and behold, one of my Section 17 (Private Collection) firearms has suddenly become a Section 13 (Self Defence)! I went back and checked all my paperwork and there is no way on earth that anyone could have interpreted my application as being a Section 13 and the DFO has admitted "Yes a mistake was made on our side, they normally block it at provincial and send it back"

So bottom line is that I now have proof that the system CAN handle a change of section (but apparently only "by mistake"). Obviously the previous claim that it couldn't be done because of the system limitations was false and I'm guessing that as I originally suspected they just had some sort of undisclosed internal administrative instruction to not allow changes of section in order to make the process more burdensome for us.

Yet again they have been lying to us.

[Steven001]

I have changed a section 13 to section 15 with a renewal, but then again, I have the best DFO in the country.....

[Speed_Freak]

I have changed a section 13 to section 15 with a renewal, but then again, I have the best DFO in the country.....

My DFO is convinced that if I renew a Section 13 with a Section 17 request the system will reject the application as they are not the same
Which DFO do you deal with?

[BBCT]

My DFO is convinced that if I renew a Section 13 with a Section 17 request the system will reject the application as they are not the same

That's what they keep telling us, but when they erroneously capture the information incorrectly it goes through just fine!