How to sell a car and transfer number plate at the same time

How to sell a car and transfer number plate at the same time

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speedychrissie

Original Poster:

2,994 posts

239 months

Friday 9th October 2009
quotequote all
I think I am being an idiot! silly

I am selling the mx5 on sunday (I know it is PH sacrilage), and I would like to transfer the number plate onto my new car at the same time (just a basic private plate that doesnt mean much but it was a present).

I have looked through all the FAQs on the DVLA website and cant work out:
a) whether this is possible.
b) what forms I need to fill in

I'm sure it must be possible as there are throusands of private plates so this must be a fairly regular occurence, but I just can't work it out. can anyone shed any light?

cheers in advance.

Phil Dicky

7,162 posts

263 months

Friday 9th October 2009
quotequote all
Cant be done at the samee time as the new car has to be registered in your name before the number can be added.. Plus you'll need the no off the MX5 on a retention doc...lots of messing about I'm afraid

SGirl

7,918 posts

261 months

Friday 9th October 2009
quotequote all
Phil Dicky said:
Cant be done at the samee time as the new car has to be registered in your name before the number can be added.. Plus you'll need the no off the MX5 on a retention doc...lots of messing about I'm afraid
Exactly. And if you sell the car now, you'll have to trust the new owner to let you have the plate back. There's a lead time of about 3 weeks IIRC for putting your registration on retention so that you can transfer it onto the new car.

Edited by SGirl on Friday 9th October 10:46

Nat_H

973 posts

218 months

Friday 9th October 2009
quotequote all
SGirl said:
Phil Dicky said:
Cant be done at the samee time as the new car has to be registered in your name before the number can be added.. Plus you'll need the no off the MX5 on a retention doc...lots of messing about I'm afraid
Exactly. If you sell the car now, you'll have to trust the new owner to let you have the plate back.
From what my local dvla office told me on Wednesday, its all changed now, so you can change the grantee at the time of swapping the plates, and not just the nominee (like you used to.)

HTH

Edited by Nat_H on Friday 9th October 10:48

speedychrissie

Original Poster:

2,994 posts

239 months

Friday 9th October 2009
quotequote all
I already have the new car so I currently have both cars registered in my name.

But I think that might be where the problem lies:
Although both cars are in my name, as of Sunday the mx5 will not.

When I take the private plate off the mx5, will the DVLA not just change it back to what it was before I put my plate on it?

GreigM

6,728 posts

249 months

Friday 9th October 2009
quotequote all
You need to do this BEFORE you sign the car away to the new owner - otherwise the plate goes with the car and you lose all rights to it.

You can do the transfer quite easily, just take all the docs down to your local DVLA and they will give you the correct paperwork....however it will take several weeks before you have a replacement V5 with the new number on it, so is the buyer going to be happy with not having any V5?

speedychrissie

Original Poster:

2,994 posts

239 months

Friday 9th October 2009
quotequote all
Nat_H said:
SGirl said:
If you sell the car now, you'll have to trust the new owner to let you have the plate back.
From what my local dvla office told me on Wednesday, its all changed now, so you can change the grantee at the time of swapping the plates, and not just the nominee (like you used to.)
I trust the buyer as he is a friend, but if possible I would like to minimize the amount of hassle.

Nat, does this mean that it should be possible? I have not heard the terms "grantee" and "nominee" before relating to plates.

Is it worth going to the local DVLA place (there is one a few miles from here) and asking them which forms I need?

adminH

148 posts

226 months

Friday 9th October 2009
quotequote all
Phil Dicky said:
Cant be done at the samee time as the new car has to be registered in your name before the number can be added
Since when? I've been in the trade for 21 years and have never come across this.

speedychrissie, you need to fill in a V317 (downloadable from DVLA/directgov website)and take it and V5C, MOT, tax disc details to your local DVLA office. You will probably have to allow 7 working days before you get the transfer authorisation back from them, so your MX5 purchaser will not be able to have the V5C until you get the replacement one. Fill in their name and address and send off to the DVLA Swansea. The original number will be re-assigned to the car, if still available.

HTH

H

mrmr96

13,736 posts

204 months

Friday 9th October 2009
quotequote all
I did this when trading in a car on a personal plate. Basically we did all the paperwork and the new car was bought and the old one sold. I filled in the V5 for the new car but RETAINED THE V5 FOR THE OLD CAR, the garage kept a £500 deposit for the V5.

I could then sort out the plate transfer, then when the V5 for the old car (now with boggo plate) came through I just filled it in and posted it to the garage to complete and send off. They then returned my £500 deposit.

Please remember that the V5 is a REGISTRATION document, showing who the REGISTERED KEEPER is. This is NOT THE SAME AS OWNERSHIP. Ownership is to do with who paid for the car and who has the right to sell it and get the proceeds. The RK is responsible for taxing it and insuring it etc. We did all the paperwork so the garage legally owned by old car whilst I was still the registered keeper.

If your private buyer is willing then maybe if you both sign a sales contract/receipt then they will let you remain as the RK and keep the V5 until the plate transfer is complete, then do the change of RK bit. They may want a deposit, you need to trust them to pay that back on receipt of the V5 and also trust them not to get any speeding tickets!! haha!!

Anyway, that's what I did.

(In an ideal world you'd put the plate on retention in advance of selling your old car. This costs £105 but includes the assignment fee. So it's only £25 more than the normal assigment fee, but it saves a lot of hassle as long as you think to do it before selling the old car!)

Stitch

933 posts

217 months

Friday 9th October 2009
quotequote all
don't think you are saying anything different

Step 1 - take number off the MX5 and put on retention (get issued with new number, updated tax disc and after about a week a new V5.

Step 2 - When you have received V5 for new car, take it along with retention doc, MOT certificate, tax disc to local DVLA office and get the number transfered.

Unless your ownership of both cars crosses over for a period of time, I don't think that you can avoid two trips to the local office

speedychrissie

Original Poster:

2,994 posts

239 months

Friday 9th October 2009
quotequote all
cheers for the help.

The only problem is that I am in bristol and the mx5 documents are in the mx5 which is at my father's house near exeter. I am going down by train tomorrow to pick the car up, but none of the DVLA offices open on saturdays.

I guess I will have to do it after the weekend then.

adminH

148 posts

226 months

Friday 9th October 2009
quotequote all
Stitch said:
Unless your ownership of both cars crosses over for a period of time, I don't think that you can avoid two trips to the local office
One trip needed, £80 required, complete sections 1, 2 and 4, hand it all over, they will let you know if they want to inspect the donor vehicle (probably not), get authorisation that transfer has been done in approx 7 working days, replacement V5C for MX5 comes back in post which then needs filling in with new owner details and send off to DVLA Swansea. Don't let the new owner do it, it's the current registered keeper's responsibility to do this.

Job done!

H

fasteddie71

36 posts

187 months

Thursday 16th April 2015
quotequote all
is there an update for this topic? there certainly aren't any local DVLA offices anymore. I have done this before but the car i changed it to was already in my own name. This time i have bought a car (so it is mine) and i need to send the V5 form off for the new car. can i send the new car's V5, the old cars V5 and the V317 all at the same time and DVLA change the old car's plate to the new car and put my details on the new car and the new guys details on the old car. I realise this must be possible because it's quite a logical exchange but who knows.

help appreciated.


aj84

29 posts

140 months

Monday 27th February 2017
quotequote all
Another thread revival to see if there was any update on this?

I too am in the same boat - I have a potential buyer for mine today but for the car only, not car + plate.

Has anything changed in the last few years in transfership rules? or is it still a case of
1. Transfer on trust, wait for them to rec. V5, get them to remove plate and hand over to me to register on my new car
2. Remove reg first, wait for v5, transfer car but trust is moved to the buyer who will still be handing money over.

Would have done it earlier but it's all moved very quickly in the last 24 hours

aj84

29 posts

140 months

Monday 27th February 2017
quotequote all
Just had a chat with DVLA - nothing has changed

1. Either trust the buyer to hand back registration or
2. Fill out retention form online, you get new logbook within 3-5 days for reg replacing your personalised one. Using that, transfer ownership of car to buyer and job done.

Bigpapi1990

1 posts

11 months

Monday 29th May 2023
quotequote all
This is possible, I’m just not entirely sure how. I bought a bmw 5 series off a guy and his private plate was on it. He did the change of keeper and took his plate off online at the same time.and the new original log book came to me.

pabloh17

2 posts

10 months

Friday 9th June 2023
quotequote all
Hi,

I’ve sold my car and chosen a new one with the dealership. I’ve tried to retain my private plate online but dvla required me to do it by post, which I have sent off and they received it 3 days ago so now it’s a waiting game. I’ve told the dealership I’m waiting for the new V5C and the retention form back, but they have said I can still take the new car tomorrow and they will keep my Audi at their garage but not sell it until I’ve given them the new V5C, and taken my private plate off it. I’m fine with this, but worried about getting in trouble with the DVLA. Has anyone done something like this either with a private seller or dealership? How did it go? Hoping I’ll get the retention form and logbook back shortly but can take anywhere from 2-4 weeks so no idea how long it will take.. cheers