Removal of a personalised plate?

[lemsreturn]

Hi guys! This is my first time using the forums here so I hope I'm doing it right.

Anyway, I've seen a car I'm interested in buying but for whatever reason it's being sold with a personalised plate. A really, really stupid personalised plate. Seeing as the original owner clearly doesn't want to retain it, is there any way I could get rid of it and replace it with something less embarrassing? I've tried searching online but the only info I find is guides on how to transfer a plate you already own to a new car.

If it can't be done then it's a dealbreaker as the plate really is that bad, and I'm sure another example of the same car will pop up in a few weeks.

[andy-xr]

Put it on retention then sell it

[AceOfHearts]

Go on what is it?

[lemsreturn]

Right, but what I guess I'm not getting is how I get a more 'normal' plate afterwards. Am I able to 'restore' the plate the car was originally registered with, and if so do I need any documentation? Or is there another way?

This might be sounding dumb but I've never dealt with personalised plates in any way before.

AceOfHearts said:

Go on what is it?

Haha I'm not going to post the full plate but it includes the word "big". I'm guessing its owner has realised that he looks like a big... ahem... which is why he's not transferring it.

[dazzalse]

You put it on retention and dvla issue a new plate for you its very straight forward even for the dvla

[andy-xr]

DVLA will assign a date related plate to the car. If the one it was first registered with is still available, that'll be the one it gets. If not, it'll get another of the same year

[lemsreturn]

Ah right, thanks. I'll find out what the fee is and at the very least negotiate that off the price (along with the usual bartering of course!) if I decide to go for this particular car.

[andy-xr]

Should be £125 I think. Or £80, I cant remember

[cuprabob]

It's "105 to put a plate on retention for 1 year, slightly more if you want to do it for 2 or 3 years.

If you sell the plate there is a "25 charge to change the owner of the plate.

DVLA site has a lot of good information, so have a lokk over it.