Lost Number Plate

[JJbing]

Hi All,

Bought a car at the beginning of last year which had a private reg on, shortly after buying I put a personalised reg on. I'd like to sell the reg the car came on (not worth much, maybe £300). However I have no documentation about retention of this, is there a way to recover it? Assuming other people have been in a similar situation, I've clearly swapped the plates incorrectly.

Thanks
JJ

[the-norseman]

Sounds like you should of removed the first one and then put yours on. By not removing it, I think DVLA now own it again.

[JJbing]

the-norseman said:

Sounds like you should of removed the first one and then put yours on. By not removing it, I think DVLA now own it again.

Bugger, I thought maybe it could be held for a period of time to allow for mistakes. I can't see it for sale anywhere or on a vehicle.

[P100]

Just apply to retain your cherished number plate and DVLA will send you the registration number last allocated to the vehicle. It should be the plate you took off it before you added your own plate.
I think you can now do this online.

[rewild]

There's a small chance if you take your plate off and put it on retention, the previous plate (the one the car came with) will be reassigned to the car. You can wait for the V5 then put that plate on retention, then put your new plate back on. That's two lots of retention fees (£80 x2 = £160), so hardly worth it for a £300 plate, which may never sell unless you have a buyer lined up.

[bqf]

If you just replaced it and didn't put it on retention, you've lost it now.

They put a warning before you click 'finish' to say you will lose access to the plate on the car......

[sixor8]

If you remove the plate you put on, the car's previous one should be re-issued for that car, unless DVLA have sold it. Yes it'll be 2 lots of £80 so only worth it if it has some value I suppose. Then there's the admIn fees from the insurance company every time you change the plate, although some waive the charge for a plate change.

ETA: Seems at least 3 of us put the same within a couple of mins...

[the-norseman]

bqf said:

If you just replaced it and didn't put it on retention, you've lost it now.

They put a warning before you click 'finish' to say you will lose access to the plate on the car......

I thought so as well, been a while since I last did it.

[WhiskyDisco]

There is a small chance that when you "take a number off the car" then the number that is then assigned will be the last one.