Number plate retention

[rossw46]

Morning!

I'm buying a motorcycle from a private seller that currently has a private plate on it. The seller wants to keep his plate.

I'm in a position where I could collect the bike tomorrow, but I'm not clear on the best way forward.

Can the seller apply for retention of his plate online on the day, put the age related plate back on the bike, fill out the V5, and then in a few weeks a new V5 turns up at my address with the age related plate details?

Or do I purchase the bike with the private plate as is, wait for the new V5C with the private plate details, and then do the retention and send the private plate back to the seller?

Appreciate any help, thanks.

[Tyre Smoke]

They can put the plate on retention on line. Immediately an age related plate will be generated. The bike is now on the age related plate.

The new V5 will be sent to the vendor as it is his name on the V5 when the plate was put on retention.

You will need to trust the vendor to forward the V5 to you.

A slight fly in the ointment is if the bike has spent any time at a dealership between sales in the past, then the on line swap won't work and the V5 needs to be sent to Swansea for the retention to take place.

Or, you are trusted to take the bike with the private plate, and send the retention certificate to the vendor when it turns up. Technically you own the private plate in this instance, so if it's valuable/sentimental the vendor may not want to do this.

[QBee]

Your other problem if he does the swap on the day will be having to get a new plate made before you can ride it home.
Not a problem if you are collecting it on a trailer of course.

[Scrump]

It is simplest if the vendor does the retention online (assuming the system allows this). Then waits about 3 to 5 days for the new V5C.
You can then purchase the bike with the correct registration, take on recorded keeper using the correct V5C and the vendor gets their retention certificate.

[carl_w]

Scrump said:

It is simplest if the vendor does the retention online (assuming the system allows this). Then waits about 3 to 5 days for the new V5C.
You can then purchase the bike with the correct registration, take on recorded keeper using the correct V5C and the vendor gets their retention certificate.

Yes, it would have been much more sensible if the seller had done this before putting the bike up for sale.

[poo at Paul's]

I think he can only do the online swap between 7am and 7pm, not sure if that is weekends too, but think it is

[carl_w]

poo at Paul's said:

I think he can only do the online swap between 7am and 7pm, not sure if that is weekends too, but think it is

I'd like to think they were saving on AWS/Azure costs by shutting the system down for 12 hours, but I suspect the reality is far worse (e.g. cleaner needs to plug in the hoover at 7pm).

[rossw46]

Thank you for the replies.

The seller is happy to sell me the bike on the private plate, less £80, and when I receive the new V5, I will do the retention process, and drop off his private plate and cert when I collect the box full of standard bits original to the bike.

[QBee]

NIce to see some trust still exists in the world, and some trustworthy people too.

[Cold]

Free private plate. Win.

[Scrump]

rossw46 said:

Thank you for the replies.

The seller is happy to sell me the bike on the private plate, less £80, and when I receive the new V5, I will do the retention process, and drop off his private plate and cert when I collect the box full of standard bits original to the bike.

That does mean the certificate of retention will have your name on it. Not a problem for the vendor to use it to assign the plate in the future but some people are not happy having a retention certificate that does not have their name on it.