In August the DVLA suddenly refunded me £105 car tax, with no explanation. Checking online, it appeared my car was listed as untaxed, although I drive it every day.

When I finally got through to the DVLA I was told my car had been “exported”, whatever that means. The operator promised to rectify this and I asked for confirmation. She advised me there was no facility to write a letter or email. A simple check would have shown that my number plate is still in use.
PM, Maidstone, Kent

The DVLA, as usual, absolves itself of all responsibility. It tells me it received notification that a vehicle bearing your number plate had been “exported” and was due a tax refund. After you got in touch, it discovered that a single digit on the notification had been mis-typed so it should have been a different number plate.
“We hold over 38m records, and this information was received in good faith,” says a spokesperson. “A tax refund was issued automatically to the vehicle keeper on our records, resulting in the vehicle becoming untaxed.”

As you say, it’s extraordinary that no further checks were undertaken – at the very least a letter telling owners that an export notification has been received and giving them a chance to dispute this if there’s an error. The DVLA says it has written to apologise, but ducks your demand for compensation because, it insists, “we have done nothing wrong”.

If you need help email Anna Tims at your.problems@observer.co.uk or write to Your Problems, The Observer, Kings Place, 90 York Way, London N1 9GU. Include an address and phone number.