Used car tax question

phey708

Hi,

I recently bought a used car from a private seller which was taxed and had an MOT. The tax was for half a year and was bought at the begining of February.

I have recently recieved a letter last Friday from the Post Office (Acting on behalf of the DVLA as agents) stating that the previous owners payment for the tax disc has been returned to the bank and thus it mentioned that the tax disc is void and must be sent back in the prepaid envolope.

I have now sent the disc back and delcaired the car sorn as I cant afford the tax at the moment. I am now out of pocket by £120 (cost for me to tax the vehicle for 6 months). Is there anyway I can recoup this cost by using county court for example?

Cheers,
Peter

nickstarmer

phey708 wrote: »

Hi,

I recently bought a used car from a private seller which was taxed and had an MOT. The tax was for half a year and was bought at the begining of February.

I have recently recieved a letter last Friday from the Post Office (Acting on behalf of the DVLA as agents) stating that the previous owners payment for the tax disc has been returned to the bank and thus it mentioned that the tax disc is void and must be sent back in the prepaid envolope.

I have now sent the disc back and delcaired the car sorn as I cant afford the tax at the moment. I am now out of pocket by £120 (cost for me to tax the vehicle for 6 months). Is there anyway I can recoup this cost by using county court for example?

Cheers,
Peter

if the last owners money bounced then ask DVLA how you owe any money , they should be chasing the last owners not you

Trebor16

Did the seller buy the tax before you picked the car up? And did you agree to pay the seller for the road tax?

Wig

IMHO you should have put up a fight with the DVLA.
The tax disc was bought by the previous owner and was transferred with the vehicle as part of the sale.

The DVLA should not have refunded the tax disc without return of the tax disc......if that is what the previous owner has done.

If the previous owner has cancelled the credit card transaction, then the tax disc remains valid but the DVLA would need to chase the previous owner for the cost of the disc....not you, as it was not you who bought the disc.

Not sure what you can do now that you have returned it. But you should ask DVLA why the money was returned to the bank for what was your property.

Was it at his request? or was it a bounce of some sort?


IF you have a reciept for the car saying vehicle including tax disc to August '13 it will make your case stronger against either DVLA or the seller.

Trebor16

If the previous owner bought the tax disc and the payment then failed then it is considered void by the DVLA and it won't make any difference to them who purchased it. They will place a marker on the their records which will also show up if police do a PNC check on the vehicle and indicate that the tax disc is void.

If the previous owner had claimed a refund on the tax disc then it would have had to be sent back to DVLA before they issued any refund, so it is unlikely that this has happened to the OP.

phey708

On the letter it basically said that the tax disc is void and i didn't want to risk driving around without any tax as any ANPR vehicle could pull me over and I could be in a worse situation.

it also mentioned that If i fail to retax then this would mean that I could be fine and that I could also face Magistrates court which sounded very scary. This is why I wanted to declair the car sorn so that I can't get in to trouble. The tax disc did come with the car and was not sent back.

The vehicle was also advertised with having 6 months road tax so would this count as part of the sale? I also have a screenshot of the car advert and a picture of the letter that I recieved.

Ectophile

If it was advertised as being taxed, then it sounds like you'd have a claim. But there may be no point in trying to claim the money if the seller hasn't got any.

paddedjohn

OP, have you actually spoke to the seller yet?

phey708

I've sent a text to explain the situation however I have not received a reply back so I feel that he is going to put his head in the sand over it.

The problem is that I cant afford to lose £120 and I would rather try to do something to claim it back?

thenudeone

nickstarmer wrote: »

if the last owners money bounced then ask DVLA how you owe any money , they should be chasing the last owners not you

Normal contract law doesn't apply to the government, who are able to write Acts of Parliament to suit themselves.

The law says that if the cheque bounces the car is then untaxed. Period.

Op - If the car was sold with a tax disc on it and there was no mention of it being untaxed (especially if it was advertised as "taxed"), then yes, you have a very good legal case for recovering the money from the seller, but you'll have to find him / her, pay a court fee, take a day off work, and then possibly eventually have to pay bailiffs to seize goods if he/she doesn't pay up, so expect a long fight.

And the sort of person who sells a car with an illegitimate tax disc might not be the sort of person you want to pick a fight with, if you know what I mean.

jobdone1

the other owner has in my view committed the fraud so get dvla to do their job it is not your problem in my view. They should seek the money back from the previous owner in what ever way they see fit end of.