Private Number Plate Removal - Unable to Remove On-Line

[66HFM]

Hi all, I had a bit of a strange one last week.

We have my wife's personal number plate on our XC60, which we are due to sell shortly and we wanted to remove it and put it on retention.

I applied on-line and DVLA have advised me that I am unable to remove it on-line as it didn't meet their requirements, following a live chat - limited ability to actually talk to someone - the issue was that during the past 5 years the car had at some stage been untaxed (with a dealer?) and due to that I had to complete a V317, send the V5 and a cheque for £80 - took me some time to find my cheque book, last cheque I wrote was in 2019... and send them all off to them... Now stuck in the 'up to 6 weeks' timescale where usually I've had a new V5 in a few days.

Has this happened to anyone before as I've switched number plates a number of times and never had this problem?

Its a pain as its delaying the advertising / sale of the XC60.

Thanks

[B'stard Child]

Yes

[x5tuu]

Yes. I’ve had this too. It’s a right ballache and I had to send a PO which they lost first time round so effectively it cost me £160 and took about 7mths.

Bloody nightmare frankly.

I miss when the DVLA had offices you could go to and they would just sort stuff there and then (albeit with a wait)

[benjipeg]

i did this on my street triple a few months ago - i had the retention slip back withing 2 weeks,

[66HFM]

I just struggle to see as to why it being untaxed at some stage in the last five years, not whilst I've owned it, means it can't be changed on-line... what on earth are they going to do...?

[THE 80Y]

I totally agree with what you're saying. When a vehicle changes hands and there is a new registered keeper the 5 year rule should be reset.

When anyone buys a used car they have no idea that it wasn't taxed a few years earlier, why would they! Even a HPI check doesn't give you this infomation.

[datelessregistrations]

It’s sadly quite common

It needs updating as it is a strange loophole

And like you say you have to send a cheque which is something most people can’t do nowadays as they often no longer have cheque books

[66HFM]

UPDATE
New V5 arrived in the post today, back on old reg, along with the Retention Certificate... could they not put them in the same envelope to save postage...?

It just seems like a long outdated (pre-internet) process...

[MrBen986]

66HFM said:

It just seems like a long outdated (pre-internet) process...

That's exactly what it is - if the newfangled internet process fails for some reason, the only alternative is the ancient paper-based route.

I had the same taking a plate off recently, presumably because I had SORNed the car a few times when the engine was in bits. I really can't see a good reason for it requiring manual intervention in that case.

[Chubbyross]

66HFM said:

UPDATE
New V5 arrived in the post today, back on old reg, along with the Retention Certificate... could they not put them in the same envelope to save postage...?

It just seems like a long outdated (pre-internet) process...

Glad it’s sorted out.

Why separate envelopes? I fear the arse is unaware of what the elbow is doing. It’s never been the strong point of the DVLA.

[Fore Left]

Chubbyross said:

Glad it’s sorted out.

Why separate envelopes? I fear the arse is unaware of what the elbow is doing. It’s never been the strong point of the DVLA.

Absolutely not in this case. It's far more efficient this way. They'll have a (large industrial) printer for each document type and once printed they are stuffed straight into envelopes by the same machine.