Is there an easier way to do this? (number plate question)

Homer-Simpson · 4 Aug 2015 at 12:16

I recently bought a new car and it had a personalised plate on, the owner asked me to transfer it back to him after the v5 had come back in my name.

I now have the v5, all details etc are correct. The issue is I have a private plate I want to put on my vehicle, is there any easy way to transfer the current plate off into someone elses name and put my plate on? At the moment I am looking at taking the plate off the car using the V317 form, waiting for the v5 to come back again and then putting my new registration plate on. If there is a way to do it all at once it would just save time.

When I spoke to the DVLA the woman suggested that I can do all this from the V317 but after reading it the form suggests I can only remove a plate OR put a plate on.

skaif · 4 Aug 2015 at 12:28

As far as I can remember you can send off 2 forms at the same time. That's how I did it on my old car which had a plate on the owner wanted to keep. Filled out the details for my old car transferring it to the new, and filled out a retention form for the plate on the car. Sent them both off and a couple weeks later jobs a gud un.

[TW]Fox · 4 Aug 2015 at 12:29

He should have done it himself online easily before he sold the car. Why do people do this? Transfer your plate THEN sell your car, it is unreasonable to expect the new owner to do, well, anything at all once he has bought the car...

skaif · 4 Aug 2015 at 12:31

Agree with Fox as well though, it's a real ball ache with 2 sets of fees and documentations Yo u have to worry about getting right.

Didn't know you could do it online though?

Uther · 4 Aug 2015 at 13:18

Wait, you're not paying his fees are you to transfer it back to him?

Homer-Simpson · 4 Aug 2015 at 15:14

skaif said:
As far as I can remember you can send off 2 forms at the same time. That's how I did it on my old car which had a plate on the owner wanted to keep. Filled out the details for my old car transferring it to the new, and filled out a retention form for the plate on the car. Sent them both off and a couple weeks later jobs a gud un.

Thanks, will give it a go and see what happens

[TW]Fox;28399097 said:
He should have done it himself online easily before he sold the car. Why do people do this? Transfer your plate THEN sell your car, it is unreasonable to expect the new owner to do, well, anything at all once he has bought the car...

I did suggest it at the time but he was worried it would slow down the process of selling the car although at the time I would have waited. He did acknowledge that if I wanted to be evil I could keep the plate as technically it would be mine after the sale. It's a good job I am honest

Uther said:
Wait, you're not paying his fees are you to transfer it back to him?

He's already transferred the money to cover the cost of it all and my old number plate was on retention already.

skaif said:
Agree with Fox as well though, it's a real ball ache with 2 sets of fees and documentations Yo u have to worry about getting right. Didn't know you could do it online though?

Yup, did it online to take my old plate off, only took 3 days to come through. It's just a shame that you can't put the plate in someone elses name when doing it online.

pugheaven · 6 Aug 2015 at 20:42

Where can you do this online? I can't find it.

I've got the same problem. The Mazda I'm buying he has a private plate on it that is not for sale with the car. He comes back from holiday on Saturday but I wanted to go down, pay and pick up the car but can't as it's still got his private plate on it and

1). I want to insure myself on the original plate
2). I can't exchange V5 otherwise the plate is mine as well.

So, I'm looking for a quick way as well for him to be able to take that plate off on Saturday and for me to legally drive away with the old original plate.

If he can do it online then just physically switch over means I can get the car this weekend?

Homer-Simpson · 7 Aug 2015 at 11:55

https://www.gov.uk/keep-registration-number

Andre · 7 Aug 2015 at 12:01

pugheaven said:
Where can you do this online? I can't find it.

I've got the same problem. The Mazda I'm buying he has a private plate on it that is not for sale with the car. He comes back from holiday on Saturday but I wanted to go down, pay and pick up the car but can't as it's still got his private plate on it and

1). I want to insure myself on the original plate
2). I can't exchange V5 otherwise the plate is mine as well.

So, I'm looking for a quick way as well for him to be able to take that plate off on Saturday and for me to legally drive away with the old original plate.

If he can do it online then just physically switch over means I can get the car this weekend?

If it's done online, and he has plates with the original number on (or can find somewhere that will make them up for him without the official documents) - then it can be done immediately - otherwise you have to wait for the V5 to come through to get the plates made up.

Just transferred private plate from our old car to our new one. Still had the original plates from when we bought the old car, so slapped them on - informed insurance, and away... New car, we had to wait for the V5 as the personal plates were knackered when taking off old car