Private Reg Plates

[ivegotcclass]

I've had a private/cherised number plate on my other car for a number of years and I am about to sell the car privately. I'm wondering how I go about getting the plate moved onto a newer car which I haven't bought yet.

I've spoke to DVLA and they sent me a form but they reckon it takes six weeks!! If someone wanted to take my car tomorrow then what do I do about getting them a legal plate and me getting my cherised number?

Anyone done this sort of transfer before that can give me some tips?

Thanks

 

[SLinKyjoe]

yopu need to put you reg on retention, when you do that the dvla will automatically issue a new reg for your existing car. takes a week or less for the tax disk to be sent.

cant remember the new form numbers you need. takes a bit longer for the v5 to come thru in the new reg but that wont matter as you can pass it on. minue the bit you have to sgin and send away.

bets bet, if you have one near by, is to call in to a DVLA regional centre. take your v5, tax disk, insurnace and money and they will do most of it while you wait.

 

[ivegotcclass]

There is a guy coming tomorrow to look at the car, what would I do if he want to take it away and the DVLA office isn't open? There is one near-by but Friday afternoon would be a nightmare to sit and try to irganise that with them.

 

[diandave]

From a newby

I did this 2 weeks ago.

You will need to complete form V778/1 which you can get from your local DVLA office. You will need the fee of £105 which includes the retention and re-allocation of the cherished number, and a copy of your present tax disc or the serial number off the disc. The procedure has now changed. and it can no longer be done while you wait.

Once the office has your completed form it will take at least 7 working days for them to allocate a new registration number (usually back to the original number), and let you have a new tax disc and registration document. In reality you will probably find the whole procedure will take 2 weeks.

 

[ivegotcclass]

How does all of this work if the punter wants to take the car away tomorrow. Would he need to trust me to send on the tax disc and new V5 or can the deal simply not be done?

 

[diandave]

The deal can still be done, you only need the serial number off the tax disc (not the tax disc itself). You would have to let the buyer have the car with the cherished number plates on and fill in the V5 for the sale.

When the new V5 is sent to you you will also receive the certificate for the retention of your cherished number which you keep until you want to allocate it to your new vehicle.

The new V5 with the original registration number on would have to be sent on to the buyer. He would then have to get number plates made up with the revised number.

Hope this makes some sort of sense.

 

[SLinKyjoe]

he should be okay with it if you explain what you are doing.

if you sell the car tomorrow and he takes the car away, you need to get the DVLA to send on the new V5 and the new tax disk to his address, or you will have to do so. he will then have to get new number plates. the dvla will send a form with it to say that this is the authorised number for that car so he can have new plates made up.

I did mine last year in december, on a friday at around 1215. it took 25mins in the dvla office. they sent off the forms, and within a week the new tax disk and number form had arrived. 3weeks later i got the V5.


The new owner will only go away with your car and part of the V5 2moro anyway, so he shouldnt have any worries unless he wants the number of your car too. watch he doesnt try to get another £500 off the car price because of this.

and you can keep your old number on retention forever in theory. it cost £25 a year, but the DVLA do not remind you its due, and if you dont pay, they keep the number and can reissue it. so if its worth a lot make a note to keep it on retention, if you dont get it on a car before the year is up.

 

[124coupe]

In amongst this remember that you remain responsible for the car until DVLA receive the V5 showing change of ownership.

If the car is spotted untaxed (new keeper cashes it in, someone nicks the disc) then the V5 keeper receives the fine.

You would also be sent any NIPs from speed, bus lane or Congestion cameras and any parking fines and have the hassle of having to handle the resulting paperwork to hand them off.

Not a big risk for 2/3 weeks but take it into account!

We always swap the plates before putting the car on sale (so far 100% of the times the car has had the original number allocated back so the old plates go back on).

 

[jberks]

Beware - whilst there have been some recent court cases to the contrary, the number belongs to the car, not the owner, so technically, if you agree the sale, you've sold the number. Therefore make it VERY clear on the paperwork/reciept that this sale does not include the number and the number is in the process of being transferred to retention. Then get them to sign it. Even then you're not entirely safe. What would happen if he sold it on?
I know someone who almost lost their plate a few years ago doing this so just be careful.
The 14 days is right. It took them that long to put my number across. Car ready, funds ready but I had to wait 2 weeks for some prat to rubber stamp a piece of paper. What is even worse is that they won't tell you when, so you have to ring them every day. Very frustrating.

 

[OmniCognateNeutronRangler]

Just to cover one point mentioned earlier, you can no longer do this proces in person at a local DVLA office. This option was stopped towards the end of last year.

I went through all this a couple of month ago when I bought the Merc. For me the whole process took over a month (nearly 6 weeks in fact) and a lot of phoning up the DVLA. If you want to transfer the plate you must own both cars, the new and the old. This means if you sell the car technically you can no longer transfer the plate becuse you need the V5 for both the new and old car IN YOUR NAME. This means you need to wait for the v5 for the new car to come back in your name before you send of the transfer doc. All this time the new owner needs to be very patient. Fortunately mine was.

You can get round this by sending off the green bit of your v5 (I think from memory it is called a v5/2 or V52 or some-such) with the transfer docs but you still need to wait for the tax disk and the MOT (if there is one) to come back (for both cars). You also need to send off proof of insurance.

If you do this and want to transfer the plate from one car to another you really should allow 4 weeks. You used to be able to do this in person at your local DVLA office but now it must be done by post so it takes forever. The DVLA office at Reading even sent me back a new tax disk with the wrong date on it so I had to send it back and get another one. A real pain.

However, it makes MUCH more sense to retain your plate (as mentioned in earlier responses to this thread). I don't know how long that takes but it sounds like you will be looking at around 2 weeks.

My advice would be that if you sell the car, ask the buyer for a deposit, explain the situation with the number plate and ask him to wait until the transfer docs come through. If he wants the car I'm sure he'd wait a couple of weeks. If you do transfer it to him you run the risk of losing the plate. If you let him run the car without registering it in his name (and once you do you can no longer transfer the plate, he would have to agree to sell it to you and the costs go up) then any speeding or parking tickets he gets will come winging to your door mat and you'll have to explain to the police why you were letting this man drive a car registered in your name.

Until it had to be done by post this process about 30 minutes and was a piece of cake. Now, thanks to another of "good old Tony's" initiatives it takes forever and is a right royal pain.

 

[124coupe]

Its all online here http://www.dvla.gov.uk/vehicles/cherish.htm plus a good telephone helpline.

 

[Micman]

Hi,

I have a couple of cherished plates that I've moved around from car to car over the years.

If you sell your car before you have changed the plates, make sure you state very cleary on the written receipt that you have sold the car but it does not include the registration number in the sale.

I normally put my plates on retention just before I plan to sell the car, that way all the paperwork is sorted and the original number plate is already back on the vehicle. If you put it on retention, then the assignment fee is already paid upfront and erady for you to put it on your new car.

Trying to process all the paperwork and do the transfer at the same time as buying and selling a car can be a bit of a headache, as the waiting times from the DVLA to process it can be annoying - it can still be done that way though.

 

[mlc]

Lots of good advise already given, but having just gone through the process I would offer the following clarification.

You MUST NOT sell the car until the process of securing the plate is complete. The plate belongs to the owner of the car and the DVLA are very clear that the process is not complete until the new V5 arrives. They reserve the right to inspect the car at any stage up until then and can refuse the transfer. Their website is very clear about this. In practise they seem to turn a blind eye to you selling the car once you have the new tax disk, new plates and a stamped V5 owner transer slip.

The workaround that we recently used was that we took delivery and paid for our new car with the cherished plate and only took ownership once the plate was swapped. This works well in theory but would have caused problems for the original owner and us if the car had been stolen or written off. He was also trusting us on the speed cameras etc.

The only true solution is to put your reg onto retention well in advance. In Manchester that process is currently taking at least 2 working weeks.

Mark.

 

[OmniCognateNeutronRangler]

This was exactly the same experience I had. Fortunately in my case I part-ex'd my previous car and, although the garage sold it (technically) before I transferred the plate, they would not let the new owner take deliver until the transfer had completed. In my case, as I said earlier, the whole process took close to 6 weeks but this was during the time the national MOT system crahsed and they need to issue a new MOT as part of the transfer.

Basically it is a real pain. Make sure you retain the plate before selling the car. It's the only way to do this without all your hair falling out.