Any way of getting a private plate back?

[Kaelic]

In a stupid rush a couple of years ago I sold a private plate which went with the car.

Now as time goes on I want to get the plate back

I do know the old car was reverted back to its original standard plates not long after I sold it so the private plate was "given back" ?

Anyone know of how I can go about getting it back? have tried the DVLA cherished plates and it's not listed, have checked that it definetly isnt on the old car and it's not. Have lost the buyers details so can't contact them to ask what they did.

Is it feasable that they just gave the plate up and it is back in the DVLA "pool" again?



Thanks in advance

[Dick_Phallus]

Someone else might have bought it?

Could always contact the DVLA with a 'legit' reason, give the plate details, and see where it is and who owns it now?

[Mr E Driver]

DVLA don't sell previously issued plates, well that is what they told me, but my guess there have been some very old plates they may have sold.

I am fairly confident that you have no chance of getting it back even if you could prove you did own it as when you sold the car by not putting the plate on a retention cert you sold the plate with the car.

what was the registration number?

[Harbuzi]

OP, I did the same thing as you and as luck would have it, my plate is for sale on regtransfers.co.uk.

However, I paid £250 for it and it is up for sale at £995?!?!?!? I did email an offer and although they got back to me the next day they claim they could not get in touch with the seller etc and never contacted me again. My point is it may be worth checking the individual private plate sites as somebody may be trying to sell your plate with one of them!

[flemke]

"Random" numbers straight out of the computer are available for fixed prices at any time on the website or over the phone.
Alternatively, somebody in the cherished reg dep't individually selects the numbers to be offered in the next auction.
You can call and request that a certain unreleased number be offered in the next auction; sometimes they will agree to do this.

[jshell]

It may be on 'retention' with someone, but you'd have to track them down to make an offer on it.

If it's been 'returned' to DVLA, it's gone. They don't re-issue numbers. I'm not sure exactly why.

[Kaelic]

Ah looks like the plate is gone then

Found the original buyer's number and they said they returned it to dvla when they put their own plates on.

/sad face

Looks like I will have to think about another

[flemke]

jshell said:

It may be on 'retention' with someone, but you'd have to track them down to make an offer on it.

If it's been 'returned' to DVLA, it's gone. They don't re-issue numbers. I'm not sure exactly why.

Are you sure that, if a car was first registered with a random DVLA number, then was put on a private plate, and then that private plate was taken off the car, the DVLA would not then assign that car back its orginal number?

[AndrewW-G]

flemke said:

jshell said:

It may be on 'retention' with someone, but you'd have to track them down to make an offer on it.

If it's been 'returned' to DVLA, it's gone. They don't re-issue numbers. I'm not sure exactly why.

Are you sure that, if a car was first registered with a random DVLA number, then was put on a private plate, and then that private plate was taken off the car, the DVLA would not then assign that car back its orginal number?

Flemke, in your scenario, the DVLA 99% of the time would simply reasign the original number back to the vehicle e.g. A123ABC -> FLE 1 -> A123ABC.

Edited by AndrewW-G on Tuesday 16th March 13:04

[jshell]

flemke said:

jshell said:

It may be on 'retention' with someone, but you'd have to track them down to make an offer on it.

If it's been 'returned' to DVLA, it's gone. They don't re-issue numbers. I'm not sure exactly why.

Are you sure that, if a car was first registered with a random DVLA number, then was put on a private plate, and then that private plate was taken off the car, the DVLA would not then assign that car back its orginal number?

In that scenario, pretty sure, though cannot be absolutely 100%. There was a script on the DVLA website sometime ago that they don't re-issue numbers though.

[Mr E Driver]

Kaelic said:

Found the original buyer's number and they said they returned it to dvla when they put their own plates on.

I cannot imagine why somebody would hand a plate back to the DVLA rather than sell it or at least give it to a family/friend.

What was the number plate?

[jshell]

Mr E Driver said:

Kaelic said:

Found the original buyer's number and they said they returned it to dvla when they put their own plates on.

I cannot imagine why somebody would hand a plate back to the DVLA rather than sell it or at least give it to a family/friend.

What was the number plate?

You have seen what some people call 'private plates'? Means something to them, but un-saleable on the market.

[Gareth79]

flemke said:

Alternatively, somebody in the cherished reg dep't individually selects the numbers to be offered in the next auction.
You can call and request that a certain unreleased number be offered in the next auction; sometimes they will agree to do this.

I know somebody who did this for a plate that they wanted, the combination was not really something which anybody else would want.

It went in with a reserve of £250 and they ended up paying just over £1,000. On questioning them it seems they didn't look up hwo a "sealed bid auction" works, and they actually thought that somebody had bid it up to the precise value of their sealed bid.

[flemke]

AndrewW-G said:

flemke said:

jshell said:

It may be on 'retention' with someone, but you'd have to track them down to make an offer on it.

If it's been 'returned' to DVLA, it's gone. They don't re-issue numbers. I'm not sure exactly why.

Are you sure that, if a car was first registered with a random DVLA number, then was put on a private plate, and then that private plate was taken off the car, the DVLA would not then assign that car back its orginal number?

Flemke, in your scenario, the DVLA 99% of the time would simply reasign the original number back to the vehicle e.g. A123ABC -> FLE 1 -> A123ABC.

Yes, that's what I thought.
I was probably being unclear in my reply to JShell. What I meant was that if a person wanted a car's original number back, after that number had been supplanted by a private plate, that number could still be "re-issued" for that original car.
Related question: does anyone know if one is able to "retain" (become the grantee for) an "original", random DVLA number if he/she owns the car when the application is made?

[Mr E Driver]

flemke said:

Related question: does anyone know if one is able to "retain" (become the grantee for) an "original", random DVLA number if he/she owns the car when the application is made?

Does this answer your Q?
I bought a 1960 mini in 1985 and when I sold it I put the original number 989GWY on to a retention cert and it was given a number with a 'B' reg on it.

[flemke]

Mr E Driver said:

flemke said:

Related question: does anyone know if one is able to "retain" (become the grantee for) an "original", random DVLA number if he/she owns the car when the application is made?

Does this answer your Q?
I bought a 1960 mini in 1985 and when I sold it I put the original number 989GWY on to a retention cert and it was given a number with a 'B' reg on it.

Makes sense, thanks.
So it must be that a bunch of what are now quite-valuable cherished numbers were originally randomly assigned by the DVLA FOC, and then retained when the car was sold/scrapped/exported.

[Mr E Driver]

There will have been thousands of what are now considered to be valuable plates that were not kept when the cars were scrapped prior to 1960ish.

I remember my father and uncles having cars in the 1960's with dateless number plates and if they were like my Dad who thought there was no point in paying to transfer an old plate when he could have a new style B or c reg car!

If you think they all started with A1 up to 9999 YY etc until the 30's and then they used the 3 number/3 letter combos up to 1962 there are a hell of a lot of plates they could now sell but they say they don't sell previously issued plates!

[andrewpagey]

If there was any reason why DVLA wouldn't issue old plates, wouldn't it be because it would saturate the market with decent plates and de-value any future regular plate sales?

[58warren]

Mr E Driver said:

Does this answer your Q?
I bought a 1960 mini in 1985 and when I sold it I put the original number 989GWY on to a retention cert and it was given a number with a 'B' reg on it.

How did the DVLA do that??? You cannot put a plate on a vehicle that makes it appear to look younger than it is. I assume you meant a 'B' prefix (1984-1985) rather than a 'B' suffix, but even a 'B' suffix doesn't equate to 1960.