Car tax refund & then selling the car

JustAnotherSaver

Brother applied for a refund on his car tax. Not sure exactly when he applied - it was either the first or second week of October.

Question #1 - when should he expect this refund to come through?

He's now selling the car.

Question #2 - let's say buyer comes tomorrow, paperwork done up & sent off. He's concerned the tax refund would then end up with the new owner. Is this likely to happen?

Ultrasonic

The potential bigger concern is that if the car is not taxed it is illegal for a potential purchaser to test drive the car.

JustAnotherSaver

Ultrasonic wrote: »

The bigger concern is that if the car is not taxed it is illegal for a potential purchaser to test drive the car.

Is it?

Car is on quite large private land. Is it still illegal?

Also, buyer may just come with a flatbed, load the car up & away he goes. Is that illegal?

It's already in the eBay listing that it's SORNd. If this is again pointed out to the buyer on pickup & they decide to take it on the road, is this their concern or my brothers, or both? I would guess if they decide to do this knowing it's illegal then it's on their head, not his?

But still ... as for the question...?

scheming_gypsy

Car tax refund will take up to 6 weeks i think it is.
Although as you can only claim for full months it would have been better if he'd left it till the end of the month and given the buyer the option to buy the tax as well.

The refund would still go back to him as he was the owner at the time of requesting the tax rebate

Although i'm guessing it's the duff Golf so they won't be wanting to test drive it... but as you can only refund full months it'll be taxed till the end of October (i presume) just with no tax disk displayed.

Ultrasonic

JustAnotherSaver wrote: »

Is it?

Car is on quite large private land. Is it still illegal?

Also, buyer may just come with a flatbed, load the car up & away he goes. Is that illegal?

It's already in the eBay listing that it's SORNd. If this is again pointed out to the buyer on pickup & they decide to take it on the road, is this their concern or my brothers, or both? I would guess if they decide to do this knowing it's illegal then it's on their head, not his?

But still ... as for the question...?

OK, I should strictly have said it would be illegal to test drive the car on public roads. But unless your brother has a race track on his land no one will be able to do a decent test drive without doing this.

I posted what I did because to be honest it looked like this hadn't been thought of. If the car has any value then not having it taxed will exclude the majority of the potential market of buyers.

peter_the_piper

Never sure of the logic to reclaiming the tax. I would always be happier to buy a car with some on it, there's enough expense and problems with DVLA as it is.

scheming_gypsy

Ultrasonic wrote: »

OK, I should strictly have said it would be illegal to test drive the car on public roads. But unless your brother has a race track on his land no one will be able to do a decent test drive without doing this.

I posted what I did because to be honest it looked like this hadn't been thought of. If the car has any value then not having it taxed will exclude the majority of the potential market of buyers.

This will fill in some blanks https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/4801833
but as the tax has been cancelled mid month it should still be taxed till the end of the month as they'll only get a refund from November.

peter_the_piper wrote: »

Never sure of the logic to reclaiming the tax. I would always be happier to buy a car with some on it, there's enough expense and problems with DVLA as it is.

Me too. Especially mid month, nothing worse than buying a car mid month, that's got no tax and been SORN'ed for a while.
If you buy it you have to tax from the beginning of the month and lose out. Even worse when a car has no tax or MOT... common sense would tell you to sell before they run out, even a days worth means it can be driven home and open you up to more buyers.

JustAnotherSaver

Car is sold as faulty. Tax isn't going to be their major problem. The repair is. As others have said - you don't know why they're buying it. They may own a flatbed & pick it up to strip it down.

The fact it's had bids on it which have exceeded his asking price means, so long as the winning bidder follows through, there isn't a problem.