I recently exhanged my car with a major national dealer. The dealer insisted that I didn't need to do anything regards administration and they would take care of everything. I was aware that the seller is responsible for notifying the DVLA of the sale but as everything else had gone without a hitch I very much took their word that this would be taken care of as well having offered to do it several times.

As there was 10 months refund due on the car at the point of sale I kept an eye on the tax status on the DVLA website. After the suggested six weeks waiting period I contacted the dealer by email, heard nothing back so after a further two weeks wrote to the DVLA(as I didn't have the V5) and the car was untaxed the day after. I kept an eye on this and to my surprise the car was re taxed within a few days (before the month end)
Unsurprisingly the tax refund was for 8 months and received a few days after being untaxed following my letter.

What's going on here ? I spoke about this with the DVLA and discussed my concerns that for 2 months I was the registered keeper although not the owner. They shared the concerns but didn't think it would be a problem with the paper trail that existed. The DVLA did agree that the trade wasn't always as clean as it could be.

The complaint I raised with the dealer is still ongoing, They maintain the car went to "the trade" and they were waiting on the DVLA getting back to them. I find it inconceivable that there is a situation here which could/should have been dealt with online at the point of sale but which with hindsight now looks suspicious or am I being a bit paranoid over two months tax refund?