Reg number from a car that is no longer on the road

[uncinquesei]

I was talking about registration numbers the other day and I remembered an Escort that used to park outside my father's office with a reg number that suited me perfectly. It was the original issued reg - the area code for reg numbers happens to match my last two initials. I checked if the reg was still taxed this morning and it isn't - it expired in 1992 and Glass's guide doesn't recognise the reg. Soooo.... I was wondering if there was any way of getting hold of it. Does anyone have any experience of this situation? Any suggestions gratefully received.

[Eviltad]

Have you searched the DVLA site for it?

http://dvlaregistrations.direct.gov.uk/

[johnpeat]

I believe once a car is scrapped, it's registration is lost UNLESS the DVLA choose to reissue it specifically...

Many years ago (10+) a mate tried hunting down his Dad's old plate but was told the car had been scrapped and the plate was 'unavailable' and 'not likely to be made available again', basically.

If a plate isn't on the tax or MID databases it might still be SORN somewhere but there's no way to know that AFAIK??

[Gareth79]

I have read many posts over the years where people either want to get in contact with the owner of a car or buy a reg. Essentially the DVLA will not help at all, so you will need to find the owner somehow yourself. If the car has been scrapped with the registration in place then it is impossible to get it back. If the vehicle is in somebody's back garden then it will need to be MOTd in order to transfer off the registration.

If the DVLA site comes up as unknown then it has probably been scrapped long ago, if it has a reasonably recent tax expiration date then it might perhaps still exist, but good luck finding it!

[uncinquesei]

Thanks all, it shows as tax expired (1992) on DVLA but not SORN. This would suggest that the car was just scrapped years ago but without the DVLA being notified. Nothing on Sale of marks site, which makes sense if it is still assigned to original car.

[johnpeat]

uncinquesei said:

Thanks all, it shows as tax expired (1992) on DVLA but not SORN. This would suggest that the car was just scrapped years ago but without the DVLA being notified. Nothing on Sale of marks site, which makes sense if it is still assigned to original car.

If it was never scrapped (pre mandatory SORN/Tax/Insurance rules) I assume the DVLA will assume it's scrapped after a period of no-one replying to tax reminders???

So if it's not SORN (for 20 years, seems unlikely) it's dead