Transferring a plate when selling car
 

Looking for some help please on transferring plates. Spend ages trying to speak to dvla yesterday and couldn't get through to speak to anyone. Looks like I have sold my car to a trader but want to retain plate. Car is due to be sold/handed over tomorrow. I know there is a v317 I need to fill in. Can I transfer the plate on to retention for myself and sell the car at the same time.

You need to send the forms off asap as the car owns the plate, if you don't then you could lose it.

Once you've sold the car, the plate goes with it. If you have a good relationship with whoever you're selling to, they might agree to help out with getting the retention done post-sale... But you are definitely at risk of losing the plate if you sell it before sorting out the retention.

I think you have to allow the DVLA a couple of weeks at least to process these at the moment. A while ago it was taking 4-6 weeks...

Do NOT let your car go with the plate still on. Massive risk.

This

You could loose it if they don't play ball!

Anytime I’ve sold a car I got the new owner to sign “car sold as seen, number plate remains property of me” & hold the tax book.

Here in N.I we can’t put a plate on a retention certificate, may have changed now as DVA Coleraine has closed & all is done thro DVLA Swansea, but we run into this issue all the time.

Every car I’ve ever sold has been done like this, last 2 cars I sold went to England, one of which was to a dealer & they were happy for me to hold the tax book for a few weeks.

According to the Polizei we don’t own number plates, we lease them from the DVLA & after 3 fines they can remove the plate.... :whistle:

Just send off the for putting on to retention in your name with the reg document and Mot and the fee £105. Photocopy the reg document and the mot and give those to the dealer and send the originals to him when they come back to you.

This is what I have just done with one of my cars and number was swapped in a week ans all paperwork back with me within 10 days

If it's a proper trader he won't have an issue with this and will understand the process anyway

The problem is, you should have kept or transferred the plate before the car went up for sale because it can take a couple of weeks to get the log book back during which time you remain the registered keeper.

When I bought my old 328i it had a private plate on it which I agreed to transfer and the seller trusted me to and paid for, but it says on the forms themselves that whatever a plate might say it's part of the car and not yours to keep unless you take it off before a car is sold.

Derek as the others have said, its always better for future ref to get the plate transferred or retained prior to selling or letting it go, unless you have a good relationship with new buyer. Plate goes with car if not, and nothing you can do instantly in a matter of days to change that.

Mine took about two weeks recently ( month ago ) as were selling the missis car and she had my plate on, so did the paperwork and simply transferred to the merc ready to sell the family bus.

all info here bud :

https://www.gov.uk/personalised-vehi...tration-number