Practically Classics Forum

OK, so I bought the bB mentioned in Rich's "Breakdown Truck" thread, which I now have on my drive and am using as daily transport.
I'm leaving the Corolla's VED running as it's free and the "new" car is below 1549cc so only costs £145 for a year of VED, meaning that my free VED is in use on the car that would cost more if I were to change its taxation class back to PLG. Tight, moi?
But here's the question; is the VED on the new car valid? Reason I ask is that I tried to pay the VED online when I picked the bB up but the DVLA's system played up because the seller had gone online at the same time to SORN the car. When I repeated the attempt, the car was shewn as taxed but I hadn't reached the paying stage, meaning that I'd succeeded in confusing the DVLA. Oh bugger!
I have a receipt from an actual Post Office (for anyone who hasn't enjoyed the mixed pleasures of finding one in Luton, it's not a real PO at all, but is simply a counter in the back of a Nisa or Spar or whichever)! But find it I did and there I bought VED and left, confident that I was by this point legal to drive home. I've checked again and sure enough, the car is still showing that it's taxed when I check online but the Post Office was late getting to the village yesterday - the excuse the driver gave me was that they'd had a puncture and broken their jack trying to remedy the situation, so had to wait for recovery - and this lateness meant that the V5C would have been delayed by a day on its journey to Swansea for the keeper information to be changed to my name & address. So will the details at the time of my paying the VED be wrong, or is there a period of grace during which it's actually OK to buy VED before the ownership change has been completed?
I've bought & sold many cars before, but only the one since the new VED rules came along to challenge us and that was taxed using the V5C2 (new keeper section) so the change of keeper would be logged at the time I bought the VED.
Have I screwed this up by being unable to leave the V5C with the Post Office? The very patient wifey at the counter seemed to think that all would be well, but my concern is that the change coming after the VED purchase will invalidate the VED and that they're going to be after another new payment.

DVLA have been screwed up by a lot less than that. I suppose the worst case scenario is that the previous keeper would receive a refund of your VED less one month.

Thanks, Pete. That's a possible outcome that I hadn't considered. It wouldn't actually be a bad outcome either, since the fella I purchased the car/dayvan/four-wheeled moped from is a straight up sort.

Actually. thinking about it further, the system must be capable of allowing for this scenario, since you can never guarantee that the previous owner will send the change of ownership form in before the new owner taxes it, which must nearly always happen as soon as he take possession of the car, as in your case.

I'm crossing some fingers but the logic in what you say, Pete, is undeniable. I just hope that DVLA is capable of doing logic!