VED refunded = unbelievable why

Ganga

I received a cheque from DVLA this morning for just over £140, it was for road tax refund.
Did not understand why as i only paid it in June for 12 months cover,phoned the help line only to be told that it was a full refund as the car was now owned by someone else!!!
As the car is still sitting on my drive i asked how come ,someone has applied for a new log book ( i know old term before the pendandic police reply ) the person i spoke to asked loads of questions and did say they will open a case to sort it out.
The person has put on the computer that it is taxed now till the end of the month and then i have to go to the PO to re-tax it, you cannot do it on line .
As we are going abroad on Friday foe two weeks holiday i am moving the car to my sons house for safety as if some one is after it i do not want to make it easy for them.
I asked the person for the name and location of the " new owner " but would not tell me ,
Has anybody else had this happen and if so how was it sorted.

Bigphil1474

It will almost certainly be either a typo/admin error, or a cloned vehicle issue, rather than someone trying to steal your car. It's an unusual tactic for a car thief to apply for the log book before stealing your car. As you are going to be away, it's worth parking it elsewhere anyway, but if you can park it off road then you may need to declare it SORN otherwise it will be untaxed before you get back from your holiday?

droopsnoot

It used to be the case that if someone applied for a change of keeper without a V5 and the previous owner had not returned their "sold my car" portion of the V5, the DVLA would write to the registered keeper and ask them whether it was correct rather than just allow a random stranger to "take over" a vehicle. Is this not done any more?

eskbanker

Ganga said:

someone has applied for a new log book ( i know old term before the pendandic police reply )

*pedantic

Sorry, couldn't resist

p00hsticks

droopsnoot said:

It used to be the case that if someone applied for a change of keeper without a V5 and the previous owner had not returned their "sold my car" portion of the V5, the DVLA would write to the registered keeper and ask them whether it was correct rather than just allow a random stranger to "take over" a vehicle. Is this not done any more?

You can do it all online these days, so it may simply be a case of someone mis-typing the V5 number online... 

Ganga

Will keep this post up to date when i hear further from DVLA.

Ganga

Bigphil1474 said:

It will almost certainly be either a typo/admin error, or a cloned vehicle issue, rather than someone trying to steal your car. It's an unusual tactic for a car thief to apply for the log book before stealing your car. As you are going to be away, it's worth parking it elsewhere anyway, but if you can park it off road then you may need to declare it SORN otherwise it will be untaxed before you get back from your holiday?

How long do they allow you to tax it ? we return on the night of the 4th oct. so can go to the P.O. on sat 5th oct, will they issue a summons for being 5 days late? could do without the worry of that. 

Ganga

Ganga said:

Bigphil1474 said:

It will almost certainly be either a typo/admin error, or a cloned vehicle issue, rather than someone trying to steal your car. It's an unusual tactic for a car thief to apply for the log book before stealing your car. As you are going to be away, it's worth parking it elsewhere anyway, but if you can park it off road then you may need to declare it SORN otherwise it will be untaxed before you get back from your holiday?

How long do they allow you to tax it ? we return on the night of the 4th oct. so can go to the P.O. on sat 5th oct, will they issue a summons for being 5 days late? could do without the worry of that. 

Any comments?

droopsnoot

There is all sorts of talk about grace periods, but I can't see any official confirmation that there is one. Can't you tax it before you go away, or get your son to tax it while you are away if he's looking after the car for you? Unless he's going with you, of course. You could always phone the DVLA and ask them to confirm what you need to do.

I read all sorts of stuff that says if the car isn't used you've got almost no chance of getting into trouble, and if it's on a driveway (maybe even with the registration covered up) that should protect it from patrolling DVLA clamp vans. No idea how true it is, though - you'd think with any decent computer system, if you've not renewed it by the deadline, that would be automatic action.

molerat

There will be no problems with that few days, they don't work that quick.  The bigger problem I see is that if a new V5 has been issued how are you going to tax it - does a PO check the V5 validity ?

Ganga

molerat said:

There will be no problems with that few days, they don't work that quick.  The bigger problem I see is that if a new V5 has been issued how are you going to tax it - does a PO check the V5 validity ?

That is also my worry ,we have decided to ask my son to tax it for us ,will leave the money and the owners reg ( V5 ) but if they do not accept due to a new one being issued i will have to ring the DVLA again and sort it out .