Personalized Registrations

[dadofbud]

Has anyone recently; either retained their registration number (retention certificate) or transferred it to a new vehicle, and if so how long did this all take, and are there any other complications to expect?

I ask as having briefly read the guidelines on DVLA I was surprized to read that all the relevant forms have to be sent by post.

[Trailhead]

Yes and a few weeks

[dadofbud]

Thanks, and does that mean you cannot drive the new vehicle until it all come through in the post?

It was so simple under the old regional licensing centres

[dreamcar]

If you know you are getting a new car and want to transfer your personalised plate across from the outgoing one, then place the plate on retention a few weeks before taking delivery. You then receive the retention certificate for the personalised plate, Sign and hand it to your dealer and there will then be no delays. It simply means driving around in the old car for a bit with a random plate on it.

Alternatively the dealer will arrange for a normal 15 plate so you can drive the car straight away until the retention certificate comes through when you can then transfer the plate across.

Edited by dreamcar on Wednesday 27th May 06:04

[JeffC]

Since Dvla in their wisdom changed all the laws and closed all the local offices everything has to be sent off to DVLA Swansea now, I sent mine off on the Monday and got the V5 back with new reg no by the following Saturday when i did it last month, I have had customers cars take up to 3 weeeks though, the car can be used while waiting on the original plate.
you need to send off the V5 this either needs to be in your name or filled in with your details in the new keeper part and the Retention certificate or if a transfer the paperwork from your old car, be aware though if its a used car that's not in your name you are transferring to even if its already shown as being taxed you must re tax it using the doc reference number from the new keeper green slip of the V5c or Dvla will send all the paperwork back to you, I have been caught with this one, Its DVLA s money making racket to sell one months road tax twice !!

[thegoose]

You can retain a number online now (since 27th March) but the link is either very hard to find or not even published on DVLA/GOV website.

Here it is:
www.gov.uk/keep-registration-number

Not all cars can be done this way and the website only works 9am-6pm (!) but if it lets you do it, it's instant and will display the replacement number (99% likely to be the old number) on screen.

Direct transfer to another vehicle can't be done online yet (but it's being looked at), so to put the registration onto another car you have to wait for the Retention Certificate to arrive by post then send it off with the V5C (logbook) of the recipient car, so depending on the circumstances it may be better to just apply the old way rather than retain it electronically first.

Here's some hit points of the other changes:
New certificates are valid for 10 years
No £25 retention fee anymore
No £25 fee to add or change Nominee
Replacement MOT certificates are no longer issued, the old ones deemed valid despite showing the old/wrong registration number.

[thegoose]

JeffC said:

...... be aware though if its a used car that's not in your name you are transferring to even if its already shown as being taxed you must re tax it using the doc reference number from the new keeper green slip of the V5c or Dvla will send all the paperwork back to you, I have been caught with this one, Its DVLA s money making racket to sell one months road tax twice !!

I found a way around this recently. I bought a Nissan Micra with (and because of) the registration P911OUA. I registered it to myself first (on April 7th), then sent it off to retain the plate only to get it all back in the post stating that as there was a gap between it being untaxed when passed in to the trade (yellow slip) and being registered to me I had to tax it. Thinking back, if I'd registered it to myself and declared SORN on the same day it became untaxed there would be no gap so they would have accepted it for retention/transfer. However, I taxed it from 1st May via Direct Debit, sent everything back off again and it came back before the direct debit was taken (due on 19th), which I then cancelled. I then declared it SORN by post from the day it was registered to me (you can't do it retrospectively online) and I got confirmation back that the SORN applied from 7th April. The car sold and was taxed from 1st May by the new owner so the DVLA have had their money for the month anyway. NB the direct debit thing worked because it was the beginning of the month, much later and it wouldn't have.

[dadofbud]

Can't thank you all enough, another fine example of Piston Heads knowledge base.

Many thanks

[X1BHO]

I've done a couple of DVLA related things over the past couple of weeks.

- Transferred a private reg between my two cars last week. Docs sent off and returned within 3 working days.

- New private plate purchased last Sunday. Docs arrived today.

The turnaround time has significantly improved since they abolished the requirement to submit your tax disc and MOT certificate for a reg change a few months ago.

[ianwayne]

I've transferred plates a few times and it's a lot easier (but not always practical of course) if you have both vehicles in your name. Straight transfer then.

Many dealers now ask for a cash deposit (£250 ish) if you are taking a number off a car you are trading in. This is because the V5c has to be posted away and so many sellers weren't taking the V5c to the dealer when it came back, meaning they can't sell the car for weeks, or even longer, if they have to get a duplicate V5c.

If you intend to keep a plate from a car you are trading in, consider removing and retaining it in good time because part-ex ing a car with no V5c is also unlikely to be accepted.

That online page suggest it's £80 to hold a number for 10 years (?). That's an improvement and a half! They must have realised holding a reg 'electronically' has almost no admin cost. (To be fair, the transfer & retention costs hadn't changed in over 25 years)

Edited by ianwayne on Monday 1st June 07:55

[thegoose]

I've just used the online retention system for the first time and not only does it give you the replacement number straightaway, it also gives you the retention certificate number, which can be used to register a new car on the AFRL system that main dealers use.

So, if you're buying a brand new car (must be unregistered), you don't need to do anything in advance at all. You can drive to the dealer in your current car, use a computer (during DVLA office hours), retain your plate and the dealer can then register your new car and you can drive it away on your cherished registration. That's quite an improvement, a fair bit of joined-up thinking has gone into that. The DVLA will send you a replacement V5C for your old car, be sure to send this to the dealer promptly so he can sell your car.