Private plate transfer to car with private plate

[rfisher]

What happens when you buy a car with a private plate on it and put your own plate on it?

Does DVLA automatically send the previous owner a V778 retention document or does the previous owner lose his plate?

[*Al*]

I'd guess if the existing plate has not been put on retention then that plate will go back to the DVLA.

[Mookus]

This happened to me recently - I bought a car with a private plate that I didn't want - had my own to transfer onto the car. I didn't think the plate on the car was worth keeping or selling on, so just sent off the transfer docs to the local DVLA office.

They sent back my application with a form for retaining the plate that was already on the car and asked me to either complete that form and send them £105ish or write a letter confirming I didn't want the plate (I did the latter).

[rfisher]

So the private plate on the car has to be taken off, a random plate assigned by DVLA, then the random plate goes back to oblivion and the new owner's private plate gets assigned?

The whole system is patronising IMHO.

Why can't you just own a plate instead of paying for the right to have it put on a car that you don't even have to own?

[Ozzie Osmond]

What are you guys getting excited about?

If you want to keep the plate you just put it on retention. It couldn't be any simpler!