Car tax refund issues

Mandy81_UK

Sorry if this isn't quite in the right place to post but basically I bought a car in Nov 2023 from a dealer and taxed it on the spot for a year (£180). We filled in all the sale paperwork etc but 2 days later I returned the car due to faults. I asked the dealer guy what would happen to the tax I paid and he told me I would get a refund. I stupidly thought this was automatic with the V5 paperwork. I waited and waited, no letter of refund came through. I found out that he had never sent the V5 sale paperwork off so effectively DVLA would never have linked me to the ownership of the car for 2 days. 
I wrote a letter late April with proof of the 2 day ownership and asked for a tax refund. They sent me a cheque today for £75. I called up asking why it isn't full amount minus 2 days. They told me they go by notification date and there's nothing that can be done. They told me there's a new keeper since May but I have a feeling that new keeper notification was actually me writing in, since the car tax expiry on the system is in line with when I taxed it. I am just writing a complaint letter saying that to my understanding the dealer should have declared SORN when I returned the car as I gave back all paperwork with the car including new keeper supplement and when I asked about the tax he at no point said I needed to go online with the new keeper supplement and declare it SORN. Having that stupid car for 2 days sunk £230 altogether from the insurance, tax and refund and I just wonder if anyone has had this situation and has successfully challenged DVLA. I stupidly trusted the professional person to give me the right info.

HillStreetBlues

Mandy81_UK said:

Sorry if this isn't quite in the right place to post but basically I bought a car in Nov 2023 from a dealer and taxed it on the spot for a year (£180). We filled in all the sale paperwork etc but 2 days later I returned the car due to faults. I asked the dealer guy what would happen to the tax I paid and he told me I would get a refund. I stupidly thought this was automatic with the V5 paperwork. I waited and waited, no letter of refund came through. I found out that he had never sent the V5 sale paperwork off so effectively DVLA would never have linked me to the ownership of the car for 2 days. 
I wrote a letter late April with proof of the 2 day ownership and asked for a tax refund. They sent me a cheque today for £75. I called up asking why it isn't full amount minus 2 days. They told me they go by notification date and there's nothing that can be done. They told me there's a new keeper since May but I have a feeling that new keeper notification was actually me writing in, since the car tax expiry on the system is in line with when I taxed it. I am just writing a complaint letter saying that to my understanding the dealer should have declared SORN when I returned the car as I gave back all paperwork with the car including new keeper supplement and when I asked about the tax he at no point said I needed to go online with the new keeper supplement and declare it SORN. Having that stupid car for 2 days sunk £230 altogether from the insurance, tax and refund and I just wonder if anyone has had this situation and has successfully challenged DVLA. I stupidly trusted the professional person to give me the right info.

Your issue is the the dealer not DVLA, also you don't lose 2 days, its always a full month.

Aylesbury_Duck

I think you've picked the wrong target.  It's the dealer you should be chasing for your losses, not the DVLA.  The DVLA can only go on the ownership changes they're told about on the dates they apply.  I can't recall the precise sequence of events as they should happen, but I think you may be partly culpable here by not notifying DVLA that you "sold" the car back to the dealer when you rejected it.

Is there something wrong with your narrative here?

Mandy81_UK said:

I found out that he had never sent the V5 sale paperwork off so effectively DVLA would never have linked me to the ownership of the car for 2 days. 

If the original sale paperwork wasn't sent off, why have DVLA refunded you?  They must have you linked to the car.

You would never have received a full refund from DVLA.  As I understand it, you have to pay for the full month, even though you only owned the car for two days.  The VED is divided into 12, not 365/6.

bluelad1927

Why are you challenging the DVLA  this is all on the dealer surely. The DVLA can only act on the information given at a point in time. It is not their job to rectify other peoples poor communication 

born_again

Did you ever receive the V5 for the car?

Mandy81_UK

Aylesbury_Duck said:

I think you've picked the wrong target.  It's the dealer you should be chasing for your losses, not the DVLA.  The DVLA can only go on the ownership changes they're told about on the dates they apply.  I can't recall the precise sequence of events as they should happen, but I think you may be partly culpable here by not notifying DVLA that you "sold" the car back to the dealer when you rejected it.

Is there something wrong with your narrative here?

Mandy81_UK said:

I found out that he had never sent the V5 sale paperwork off so effectively DVLA would never have linked me to the ownership of the car for 2 days. 

If the original sale paperwork wasn't sent off, why have DVLA refunded you?  They must have you linked to the car.

You would never have received a full refund from DVLA.  As I understand it, you have to pay for the full month, even though you only owned the car for two days.  The VED is divided into 12, not 365/6.

I sent them a letter recently saying I had been told I would be refunded via DVLA but found out paperwork had never been sent so on their system I never owned the car and they updated the records and refunded me the amount remaining from May to November.  Tbh if he had sent the paperwork off promptly, no doubt he would have asked me to fill in something online to sell it back to him as you suggested.  I would like to think he just wasn't that sure of the process. I will contact him again but just not sure what his obligations are. Normally, if a seller neglects to post the paperwork, the buyer can notify DVLA of the car purchase which is via new keeper supplement but I didn't have that. Thanks for the input.

Mandy81_UK

born_again said:

Did you ever receive the V5 for the car?

No, because I gave all the paperwork back and he never sent it off as only 2 days had lapsed.

born_again

Mandy81_UK said:

born_again said:

Did you ever receive the V5 for the car?

No, because I gave all the paperwork back and he never sent it off as only 2 days had lapsed.

Wonder why they never did it online?

Mandy81_UK

Mandy81_UK said:

born_again said:

Did you ever receive the V5 for the car?

No, because I gave all the paperwork back and he never sent it off as only 2 days had lapsed.

In hindsight I should have kept the new keeper supplement and imagine I would have been able to go online and get the money back.

Mandy81_UK

born_again said:

Mandy81_UK said:

born_again said:

Did you ever receive the V5 for the car?

No, because I gave all the paperwork back and he never sent it off as only 2 days had lapsed.

Wonder why they never did it online?

Good point. This was quite a professional outfit too, selling pretty high end cars. He didn't seem new but at the time he didn't seem very knowledgable about returning a faulty car! 

Mandy81_UK

Mandy81_UK said:

Aylesbury_Duck said:

I think you've picked the wrong target.  It's the dealer you should be chasing for your losses, not the DVLA.  The DVLA can only go on the ownership changes they're told about on the dates they apply.  I can't recall the precise sequence of events as they should happen, but I think you may be partly culpable here by not notifying DVLA that you "sold" the car back to the dealer when you rejected it.

Is there something wrong with your narrative here?

Mandy81_UK said:

I found out that he had never sent the V5 sale paperwork off so effectively DVLA would never have linked me to the ownership of the car for 2 days. 

If the original sale paperwork wasn't sent off, why have DVLA refunded you?  They must have you linked to the car.

You would never have received a full refund from DVLA.  As I understand it, you have to pay for the full month, even though you only owned the car for two days.  The VED is divided into 12, not 365/6.

I sent them a letter recently saying I had been told I would be refunded via DVLA but found out paperwork had never been sent so on their system I never owned the car and they updated the records and refunded me the amount remaining from May to November.  Tbh if he had sent the paperwork off promptly, no doubt he would have asked me to fill in something online to sell it back to him as you suggested.  I would like to think he just wasn't that sure of the process. I will contact him again but just not sure what his obligations are. Normally, if a seller neglects to post the paperwork, the buyer can notify DVLA of the car purchase which is via new keeper supplement but I didn't have that. Thanks for the input.

oh yes and you're right, 1 month of tax should have been paid for the 2 days owned.