Lost number plate from car sale

[alec.e]

Hi all,

I have had a bit of a nightmare thanks to the DVLA and the buyer, trying to remove the personalised plate off a car which I sold.

First I tried to remove the plate using the online service which did not accept the V5 number...
So I sold the car and told the buyer I would send the V5 off with cheque and wait a few weeks for new V5. I gave him the green slip.

About a month later! A letter came back from the DVLA saying the retention was unsuccessful as they would not accept an incomplete V5... The buyer would not send me the green slip back either.

The buyer and I agreed to transfer ownership of the car (with plate), then he would retain the plate at my cost and send me the retention document.
Unfortunately, the buyer has disregarded this and just put his plate straight over the top of my plate- does this mean my plate is lost?

Hindsight is a wonderful thing, but I never expected this to happen. Unsure when to go next, luckily it is a cheap £250 plate, but I am quite annoyed on principle of what has happened. The buyer didn't seem to care when I spoke to him

[carl_w]

Unfortunately unless you can speak to a person at the DVLA I think your numberplate may well be lost. Did you put something on the receipt saying that the numberplate was not included in the sale or was it a verbal agreement (which, as Sam Goldwyn says, isn't worth the paper it's written on)?

[Bungleaio]

A bit late now but If you want to retain a plate never ever sell the car before it's on retention.

[carl_w]

Bungleaio said:

A bit late now but If you want to retain a plate never ever sell the car before it's on retention.

Agreed, and retention costs peanuts these days and can be done in minutes -- best to do before even advertising the car. But for some reason OP's online application failed.

[Baldchap]

Plate stuff online only works during office hours or thereabouts.

OP. You sell a car with a plate on, you also give up the right to use the plate. If the buyer puts their own on the car, in doing so they will need to put yours on retention and should therefore receive the retention certificate for said plate that they own and may choose to sell.

[carl_w]

Baldchap said:

OP. You sell a car with a plate on, you also give up the right to use the plate. If the buyer puts their own on the car, in doing so they will need to put yours on retention and should therefore receive the retention certificate for said plate that they own and may choose to sell.

Is that the case? With a normal plate AB12 CDE etc. they would just return it to the pool. Doesn't matter if the plate was bought or automatically assigned?

[vonhosen]

Online is only between 0700-1900 & there are conditions in relation to the vehicle that need to be satisfied. It's not available in all circumstances.
Invariably (but not always) if you put a cherished transfer plate on the vehicle, when you later remove that cherished transfer the 'normal' regular plate that had been on the vehicle prior is reassigned to the vehicle.

[Hatson]

Worth a try to call the DVLA, tell your story and see if they will help.

[carinaman]

Sorry to learn of this.

[jonah35]

If you write to the DVLA explaining the situation you will most likely get it back. They are human and see this often.

[MustangGT]

Baldchap said:

Plate stuff online only works during office hours or thereabouts.

OP. You sell a car with a plate on, you also give up the right to use the plate. If the buyer puts their own on the car, in doing so they will need to put yours on retention and should therefore receive the retention certificate for said plate that they own and may choose to sell.

It appears to be 07:00 to 19:00 7 days a week.

There is no need to put a registration on retention unless you want to keep it, they will return to the pool.

[alec.e]

Thanks for the helpful replies chaps, just as I thought then.
The reason apparently the online retention was unsucessful was the gap in tax at some point in the cars history... If I had known, I would have sent the application off well in advance- ah hindsight!

I will write to the DVLA explaining what happened, but not expecting much

Cheers.

Edited by alec.e on Wednesday 30th June 22:07

[Graeme123]

I had this with a garage years ago, they sold the car with my reg on even though we agreed they wouldn’t! Tracked down the new owner of the car/reg and they wasn’t interested… even offered silly money for it but went nowhere…

Lesson learnt and I just bought a new reg in the end