Why has a car tax renewal been sent to our address?

Brie

So we've lived in our current home for over 6 years.  And we've had an ongoing problem with receiving the previous owners' post.  Christmas cards, junk mail.  Never any bills or anything official.  Until this week.

Yesterday we received a car tax renewal (according to the envelope) from the DVLA address to Ms PreviousOwner.  Being nice I took this to the estate agents who handled the sale for them and asked them to either forward it if they still had their address or pop it back to the DVLA "return to sender".  

What baffles me though is how can we be getting a car tax renewal for the first time in 6 years.  If Ms PO had bought a new car surely she would have given DVLA her present address, not one from years earlier.  And if it was the same old car she'd had for decades why is this the first renewal we've received?  

RandomTourist

Who knows? It's someone else's problem, not yours! Send back to DVLA "Gone Away - address unknown" and keep a note of when you did that.

GrumpyDil

As above, who cares or knows. I would absolutely just return it as not known at this address and job done. 

prowla

Return to sender

Address unknown

...

Car_54

prowla said:

Return to sender

Address unknown

...

No such number. No such zone.

badmemory

Another government dodgy system reverting to old details.

Mildly_Miffed

The car may have been being taxed by DD until now, but that's fallen off for some reason - no MOT, bank details changed, etc.

born_again

Owner never changed details..

Brie

Mildly_Miffed said:

The car may have been being taxed by DD until now, but that's fallen off for some reason - no MOT, bank details changed, etc.

Ah!!  Now that's a sensible reply!!  I suppose she's changed banks and the DD has failed somehow.  Or she died and so there is no bank account.  

I knew this wasn't my problem but was intrigued as to how it might have occurred.