Vehicle tax refund

treecol

Just wonder if anyone has had any issues with the DVLA over refunds on vehicle tax?
DH bought a car from a guy who sold cars from his home in October last year. The car needed a little work so we applied online to SORN the vehicle off the road. DVLA wrote and told us we were not the registered keeper so could not make the SORN. Wrote and told them we are, giving details of the person we purchased it from and telling them we'd filled in the V5C slip for new owner and it was sent off.
Before they replied, DH had fixed the car and it was back on the road so we filled in the online form to tax the vehicle. We gave all our details online as the new owners which is the only way to tax it. After a time, the fault DH had fixed returned (auto box) and he decided to sell it as a spares or repair car. Man buys the car, I fill in the details online to say he is the new owner. Also, send off the signed front of the logbook which is the one the dealer we bought it from gave us as he filled in our details on the little slip on the RH page of the logbook and sent that off.
Fast forward 6 months to receiving a bank statement for my account ( which I only get twice a year as I rarely use it ) and the DVLA have been taking the tax for 6 months after we sold the vehicle!!!
Now yes I know I should have checked and yes I know that it seems that the dealer should have sent off the front of the log book, but that is all done now.
However, I wrote to the DVLA after stopping the direct debit. They did not reply 8 weeks later. So I emailed them. In the meantime, they wrote saying we have canceled the DD and should make sure the vehicle is taxed before using it on the road!!
They email asking for all the info we have for the vehicle. I send them the original receipt when we bought it, printouts from online forms to tell them we owned it and taxed it, online printouts with new owner details telling them we no longer own it.
Finally, they write back to say "By law we can only issue a refund of vehicle tax to the registered owner"???? I now have to fill in a form to send them the V5 - I cannot as they had that months ago but say they have not, and who the original dealer who sold it to us is. I can do that part, but any advice as I advised them online all the way through which is how they say we should do things now.

AdrianC

treecol wrote: »

DVLA wrote and told us we were not the registered keeper so could not make the SORN. Wrote and told them we are, giving details of the person we purchased it from and telling them we'd filled in the V5C slip for new owner and it was sent off.

You mean you sent off the V5C/2 slip?

As it says on it, that does not generate a V5C in your name. That's the bit you keep as temporary proof.

The seller sends the main body of the V5C back to Swansea, and that's what generates the new V5C.

Also, send off the signed front of the logbook which is the one the dealer we bought it from gave us as he filled in our details on the little slip on the RH page of the logbook and sent that off.

Can nobody actually read the simple instructions that are on the V5C itself?

Finally, they write back to say "By law we can only issue a refund of vehicle tax to the registered owner"????

Did you ever actually have a V5C in your name? Was that the doc ref number that you used to tax the car?

treecol

Yes, actually I can read what is written on the V5. The large part of the logbook was completed by us at the dealers and sent off.
No, we did not have a log book in our name, if we had we wouldn't be in this position. DVLA keeps telling us they have never received it from the dealer.
How did we tax it? Online so no need to send off the slip you showed. When filling in the details online to tax the vehicle, the form I printed off as proof of taxing has my details on it as the new owner. So the DVLA have both the log book filled in by me, the online form filled in by me ( of which I have sent them a copy and they are still ignoring that) which taxes the vehicle and they deny they have had either. We sold the car long before we knew a V5 in our name was not going to arrive as the DVLA seem to have mislaid everything sent to them and tell you to wait 8 weeks before inquiring about V5's. If we had a document reference we wouldn't be in this position. I'm asking if anyone else has had this type of issue with the DVLA denying they have had any notification about a new owner in spite of me sending them proof twice.
Thank you so much for pointing out my apparent illiteracy.

AdrianC

treecol wrote: »

No, we did not have a log book in our name
...
How did we tax it? Online so no need to send off the slip you showed.

So did you use the doc ref from the New Keeper slip? Or from the main body of the old V5C?

The large part of the logbook was completed by us at the dealers and sent off.

So you kept the V5C/2, which has the doc ref on it?

If we had a document reference we wouldn't be in this position.

You must have had a doc ref to tax it online. You cannot do it without.

treecol

Yes I did enter the doc ref online to tax the vehicle. I have the printout from the website to confirm that firstly I had entered my details as the new owner on the online form and then when I informed the DVLA that we sold the vehicle, the printout of the form showing the new owner's details I'd just entered. I've sent the DVLA copies of both these forms, copies of receipts for both transactions. They just ignore the evidence I'm sending them and say they cannot issue a refund as the vehicle was never in our name.
Oddly, they wouldn't let me fill in the online SORN as the vehicle wasn't registered to me (I filled in the online form there and then with doc ref presuming they just hadn't received the V5 yet) but 9 days later they allowed me to tax it online, again filling in the online form again telling them I was new owner.
I don't understand their logic - I taxed the vehicle, then informed them I'd sold it and to whom, they tell me tax is non transferable, confirm knowledge of new owner yet continue to take DD tax payments from me, then tell me I cannot have a refund as I was not the registered owner! I have given them a papertrail of evidence of everything but they are ignoring it and refusing to refund the 6 months of tax.
I've relied to their last letter of refusal of refund with copies of everything again. If they refuse again, where do I do then?

AdrianC

Which doc ref did you use to tax it?