Buying a car: AIBU to be confused by these DVLA instructions?

[craniumache]

I'm buying a new car from a private seller and we're planning to complete the deal on Sunday morning. This page of the DVLA website says "The new owner must tax the vehicle before they drive it on the road ...The tax isn’t transferred when the vehicle is sold."

So, presumably I need to pay for the tax at the point of sale (I can't do it in advance because I don't have the V5C/2, and so I don't own it yet, and can't do it after I've driven it away either).

However, the page also says: "This service is available Monday to Saturday, 8am to 6pm".

Does that mean it's not possible to tax a car on a Sunday, and therefore not possible to purchase a car on a Sunday?

Or is it just a badly written webpage? (I'm hoping the "service" it refers to is just the refund to the seller, and not the ability to tax the car - surely they don't disable their payment website out of office hours!!!!????).

I don't think you can do it online without being the registered owner.

My dd picked up her car on a Sunday and did arrange the tax at the garage before driving away so yes it can be done on a Sunday.

Get hold of the V5 , with the reference number , take your smart phone , and taxis whilst in their driveway . Job done .

Tax it even

The link is to a Vehicle Management service where you can advise DVLA that legal ownership of the car has changed. Tax uses a different service which is available 24/7.

Or explain this problem and get them to drop the car off with you?

www.gov.uk/vehicle-tax

You can tax it online. I did it at the car dealership.

Thanks GroundHogLife - that's what I was hoping, so good to have confirmation. It's a bit ambiguous.

I'll flag the thread to some user journey types who own the service. Might need updating to make it clearer.