Bought a car with private plate, is the plate now mine??

[bops]

Apologises if this is in wrong section.

I bought a car last month with a private plate on it, does this make the private plate mine now?? I'm only asking as I'm sure I had read somewhere that that was the case but I can't find where I'd read it!! I don't want the plate, just curious really!

[marshalla]

If that's the plate on the V5C with your name on it, then yes.

(Unless you made a deal to return it to the seller or someone else in which case there's a whole moral debate about to occur).

[Accelerated]

Yes if the v5 is in your name now with the plate attached it is, you can go online and pay £105 to remove it and put it on retention certificate to sell, your car will then be assigned an age related one

[bops]

Thank you. The V5 is MIA (addressed wrong!) so don't have it but it is on its way!
The garage are waiting on me getting the V5 so that the plate can be put on retention so that the owner can use it, but there was no deal made about returning the plate!

[M1C]

It now sounds like you are asking if the physical plate would be yours.

I'm guessing it would be but you wont be able to use it as the actual plate number belongs to someone else!

[marshalla]

bops said:

Thank you. The V5 is MIA (addressed wrong!) so don't have it but it is on its way!
The garage are waiting on me getting the V5 so that the plate can be put on retention so that the owner can use it, but there was no deal made about returning the plate!

They're doing it the wrong way round (as usual). Plate should go on retention before the car is sold. It can be done online these days so there's no excuse for this, unless they started the retention process before you bought the car.

[Davel]

Has the previous owner applied online or otherwise to retain the plate?

[Steven_RW]

bops said:

Thank you. The V5 is MIA (addressed wrong!) so don't have it but it is on its way!
The garage are waiting on me getting the V5 so that the plate can be put on retention so that the owner can use it, but there was no deal made about returning the plate!

The physical numberplate (piece of plastic..) is yours.

You made some sort of agreement that means that the number plate itself (ie the right to the plate) is being retained by the previous seller.

[AndrewEH1]

bops said:

Thank you. The V5 is MIA (addressed wrong!) so don't have it but it is on its way!
The garage are waiting on me getting the V5 so that the plate can be put on retention so that the owner can use it, but there was no deal made about returning the plate!

Depends on how morally grey you are. As you have bought the car, the plate is now yours. If it was me I'd probably return it for any cost I incur be it DVLA fees or insurance charges for changing the car details.

Although if it was a tasty expensive plate...

[rockford22]

bops said:

Apologises if this is in wrong section.

I bought a car last month with a private plate on it, does this make the private plate mine now?? I'm only asking as I'm sure I had read somewhere that that was the case but I can't find where I'd read it!! I don't want the plate, just curious really!

As other have stated, once you receive the latest V5 and you are on the front page as the registered keeper the entitlement of the plate passes to you. The DVLA stresses "Do not sell your vehicle until you have retained the number plate or you risk loosing the entitlement to the plate" (paraphrased but you get the idea).

Your options are to do nothing and keep the private plate or put it on to retention (£80) and transfer the entitlement back to the original owner. It will all come down to what was agreed at sale and ultimately the value of the plate.

Is it a particularly expensive number plate that the old owner will pursue? If you aren't interested in plate then the "correct" thing to do is to retain the plate but ensure the seller covers the costs of retention - you'll get an age related plate re-assigned and more often than not it is the same as that given at first registration.

The dealership has put the number plate at risk by assigning you as the registered keeper before retaining the plate - I would not sleep very easily if my cherished plate was at risk due to a dealer.

Edited by rockford22 on Monday 13th June 16:27

[TooMany2cvs]

bops said:

Thank you. The V5 is MIA (addressed wrong!) so don't have it but it is on its way!

Ah.

Then they may have already done the plate change, and are waiting for a V5C with the previous plate on it, so they can transfer the keepership with that.

bops said:

The garage are waiting on me getting the V5 so that the plate can be put on retention so that the owner can use it, but there was no deal made about returning the plate!

That's, umm, nice of them. If the V5C comes through with your name on it, then the plate is yours. You can be nice and give the plate back if you wish. Or you can tell 'em that they've dropped a bk and given it away. Your call.

[WonkeyDonkey]

Just keep the plate, a lot less hassle for you and dealers should really know the basics by now.

[AJXX1]

marshalla said:

They're doing it the wrong way round (as usual). Plate should go on retention before the car is sold. It can be done online these days so there's no excuse for this, unless they started the retention process before you bought the car.

WonkeyDonkey said:

Just keep the plate, a lot less hassle for you and dealers should really know the basics by now.

Just playing devils advocate here, but we recently had a car swap within our household (involving the transfer of private plates) and this could not be done online due to DVLA refusing as 1 of the vehicles was untaxed for more than 3 months within the last 5 years. This resulted in the very long winded and archaic cheque in the post and several weeks wait method. Just saying can't always be done online.

OP needs to ask himself if the plate is really worth the hassle of pi***ng off the dealer and creating a potentially hostile situation. If the plate wasn't included in the deal originally and the OP is aware he isn't meant to get it then he should be cooperating in putting it on retention for the dealer.

Although the dealer should not have sent off the V5 documents in the first place with the plate still attached, perhaps they where acting in good faith and trusting in the OP to do the right thing and allowing him/her to take the car away now rather than waiting x weeks for the DVLA's archaic process to complete.

Seems to me like the dealer has been very trusting with the OP and turning around and saying "Sorry, it's mine now" just seems like a slap in the face for no other good reason than pure greed and being a knob for the sake of it.

Like I said, just playing devils advocate.

Edited by AJXX1 on Monday 13th June 17:28

[wack]

AJXX1 said:

Just playing devils advocate here, but we recently had a car swap within our household (involving the transfer of private plates) and this could not be done online due to DVLA refusing as 1 of the vehicles was untaxed for more than 3 months within the last 5 years. This resulted in the very long winded and archaic cheque in the post and several weeks wait method. Just saying can't always be done online.

A friend of mine had a plate on a car he was scrapping but wasn't bothered about losing it so he gave it to me, the car was untaxed for 4-5 years but had been sorned all that time, online transfer went through fine and a new V5c came in 3-4 days

I did however feel £80 for this service was a right con as it was just a few clicks of a mouse

[anonymous-user]

wack said:

A friend of mine had a plate on a car he was scrapping but wasn't bothered about losing it so he gave it to me, the car was untaxed for 4-5 years but had been sorned all that time, online transfer went through fine and a new V5c came in 3-4 days

I did however feel £80 for this service was a right con as it was just a few clicks of a mouse

And someone at the other end to send out new V5, plate retention cert and the infrastructure to allow it to happen. You have the plate for 10 years now I think, £8 a year isnt that bad tbh.

[CS Garth]

-You don't want it as you say yourself
-the garage has trusted you and is waiting to get it back

It takes about 0.1 secs to know what the right thing to do is IMHO

[Ozzie Osmond]

Some plates CANNOT be transferred, for instance when a dateless plate has been sold off an old car and DVLA has issued a new dateless plate to replace it.

The non-transferrable plate can, however, be returned to DVLA if you want to put a different plate on the car.

[Uppy89]

I really needed to change my old car and I managed to find a new one that I thought I wouldn't be able to afford so jumped at the chance without having time to take my personalised plate off. Unfortunately it looks like it is gone as 6 months later, it appears to still be on my old car and the DVLA aren't allowed to contact the new owner on my behalf enquiring whether I can buy it back.

[bigayal]

Hi there sorry to change the subject slightly , I want to buy a plate for a motorcycle that comes with a frame, can I transfer this to my bike or do I have to use the frame to be able to use the plate ?? Thanks in advance for any replies thanks alan

[Ian Geary]

bigayal said:

Hi there sorry to change the subject slightly , I want to buy a plate for a motorcycle that comes with a frame, can I transfer this to my bike or do I have to use the frame to be able to use the plate ?? Thanks in advance for any replies thanks alan

Welcome to pistonheads. You are allowed to create new topics you know.

Are you talking about an actual physical frame that surrounds the plastic plate?

I'm sure plate ownership is not remotely connected to how the plate fixes to your car, or bike. I would imagine car and bike plates are interchangeable, subject to rules about age.

I would imagine you'd need to get a new plastic plate made up if moving registration from a car to a bike, as it's not likely to fit on the plate holder (or look completely kak)

Hth

Ian