Private plate

[Russ59]

Anyone in the know about private plate ownership.

I’v recently bought my SC430 with a private plate on from a garage. The salesman said the previous owner didn’t want the reg back, SO does that make me the new owner of the plate? I don’t have any paperwork for it either

Reason I ask is that private plates have never been my thing so wondered if I can legally sell it, and if so, How, with no paperwork in my name.

Hope someone can shed some light.

Russ

[Bounce75]

From memory, you just go online to the DVLA website & put the plate on retention, they then issue a new plate or the old plate if it hasn't been used already.

The retention certificate should then come in your name, for you to do what you wish with.

[PRT68]

Technically DVLA own the registration number and you have the use of it. If used illegally ( ie incorrectly spaced ) they can confiscate it.

Because the reg came with the car, the previous owner relinquished the use of it and cannot now reclaim it. So you now have the use of it. 

To sell it, wait until you receive the V5. Then go online to the DVLA site and put the number on retention. This will cost £80. The car will most probably then be allocated the number it was first registered with. You will then be issued with a retention certificate, and a form to show an official number maker to make the newly allocated plate. 

When you receive the retention certificate you can then advertise it.

When you go online to do the above, only do it in their opening hours, the earlier the better, because if there is a ***** up, you can hopefully phone them to sort out. Doing things late on a Friday afternoon may not leave enough time for correction!

[wharfhouse]

Although called private plates you don't actually own them as such. The plate is registered to the car. By you now owning the car as the previous owner left it then it is now in your possession. If you want to do anything with it then as above you need to put it onto retention (there is a fee) and then you will get another registration number for your car and new V5 doc with those details. The registration number on retention can then be placed onto another car. This can all be done online with DVLA. By "selling" the registration number you are simply transferring the retention certificate to someone else in exchange for an amount agreed between you. There are also businesses that purchase these too (which may be a quicker way to turn it into money). However unless it's a particularly desirable registration number you probably won't get much for it. 

[Phil xxkr]

1 hour ago, Russ59 said:

Anyone in the know about private plate ownership.

I’v recently bought my SC430 with a private plate on from a garage. The salesman said the previous owner didn’t want the reg back, SO does that make me the new owner of the plate? I don’t have any paperwork for it either

Reason I ask is that private plates have never been my thing so wondered if I can legally sell it, and if so, How, with no paperwork in my name.

Hope someone can shed some light.

Russ

Chances are if a garage didn't retain ownership its not worth a lot. But think on a bit Russ, when you come to sell on it does make the car more desirable to some people 👍

[Linas.P]

As other explained you can sell it after paying some fees to DVLA... just don't be surprised if the plate is worthless. Most "private" plates are worthless, because they only mean something for the person who bought it in the first place, they are cryptic as well and very few have real value. General trend - the less numbers it has the more expensive it is (most expensive being F1 at the moment), if the plate is just older standard plate with some letters having some meaning they they can be bought for £150 and not even worth selling, because after you pay DVLA fees you will earn total if £10 😄

In short - people incorrectly think that private plates are valuable, 99% of them are not and 1% is mostly valuable only to particular owner. I remember my friend bought £800 and thought he got good deal because plate on it was E5 PUR and seller said that plate alone is worth £1500, by showing that similar length plates "A 0 AAA" are worth £1500 upwards on sites like "plates for less". Now obviously - there is no meaning in the plate he bought, so when he tried to sell it he realise that he needed to pay £80 for DVLA, then pay ~£56 to get original plate to be put back on the car, then pay £99 auction fees and estimated value for the plate was £150... in short the plate was beyond worthless and not worth selling at all. 

[Russ59]

Thanks for all the replies 👍

I’v got the gist of it now, but is there a way of getting to know the value of the plate before putting it on retention?

If it’s worth naff all then it’s staying on, doesn’t mean anything to me but hey it’s just a plate.

Personally can’t see it being worth much or the previous owner would have kept it 🤔🤔

[wharfhouse]

14 minutes ago, Russ59 said:

Thanks for all the replies 👍

I’v got the gist of it now, but is there a way of getting to know the value of the plate before putting it on retention?

If it’s worth naff all then it’s staying on, doesn’t mean anything to me but hey it’s just a plate.

Personally can’t see it being worth much or the previous owner would have kept it 🤔🤔

There are various online sites that sell personalised registration numbers (including the DVLA itself) - Google something like personalised car registrations - if you then enter the reg you have you will see similar ones and the prices they are charging - what you would get for selling your reg to them I don't know but a number of the sites offer a service to give you a price they will buy it off you for if you send them your reg number.

[PRT68]

You could tell us what it is, or contact one of the plate dealers. They will of course require a commission to sell.

[Russ59]

8 minutes ago, PRT68 said:

You could tell us what it is, or contact one of the plate dealers. They will of course require a commission to sell.

H18 BRO

👍👍

[hockeyedwards]

16 minutes ago, Russ59 said:

H18 BRO

👍👍

I'd imagine someone silly would be happy to purchase and space it badly for H1 8 BRO - because obvs that is mega cool 😛

Join some facebook 'private plate' groups and advertise it as a 'HI BRO' plate, you'll get some bites. Pre-warning, the groups are full of chancers, so be prepared for a lot of flack if you do join. Oh and brace yourself for every other post being a '..51 NGH' variant plate for £20k, as SINGH is mega popular/ common surname and as others have stated, for the right person, a plate can be priceless.

As a 'private' plate owner myself I do understand the call for them, but the crappy spaced ones do rub me up the wrong way 😆

[wharfhouse]

17 minutes ago, Russ59 said:

H18 BRO

👍👍

Unless I am missing something (which I could be) I don't see any significant meaning to the combination of letters and numbers other than to an individual whose initials it would match and so I would have thought if that were up for sale on one of the sites selling registrations it would probably be listed somewhere in the region of £400 to £600. What it would be worth to you actually selling it I think you would need to contact one of the sites and see what they say.

[Russ59]

13 minutes ago, wharfhouse said:

Unless I am missing something (which I could be) I don't see any significant meaning to the combination of letters and numbers other than to an individual whose initials it would match and so I would have thought if that were up for sale on one of the sites selling registrations it would probably be listed somewhere in the region of £400 to £600. What it would be worth to you actually selling it I think you would need to contact one of the sites and see what they say.

As you, I don’t see any significant meaning to the plate.

 

[Malc]

Russell hi  a few years ago I had a Saab with   N 4 PRO   ...  zero value

and some others when I was a car dealer too ....... looked good on the face of it but ended up with bugger all value to me, the business

The only one with any value was on my 2nd Ls400 about 15 years ago when the garage selling it to me had just sold the original registration for, I understand £8500  ......  so they said ....... ha !     BCA 3 ... now, who on earth would want to have added that to their collection I wonder 

Some have good value, most don't .......  if I was H 1 8 BRO   ......  my brother Henry had just turned 18, well, I guess I might have paid a few £00 for it as a birthday pressie .....  you'll be lucky to find him 

.......... and after all those advertising costs and the DVLA fees etc .......  not much profit for you methinks sadly

Good luck anyway and 

Best wishes

Malc

[Phil xxkr]

11 minutes ago, Malc said:

Russell hi  a few years ago I had a Saab with   N 4 PRO   ...  zero value

and some others when I was a car dealer too ....... looked good on the face of it but ended up with bugger all value to me, the business

The only one with any value was on my 2nd Ls400 about 15 years ago when the garage selling it to me had just sold the original registration for, I understand £8500  ......  so they said ....... ha !     BCA 3 ... now, who on earth would want to have added that to their collection I wonder 

Some have good value, most don't .......  if I was H 1 8 BRO   ......  my brother Henry had just turned 18, well, I guess I might have paid a few £00 for it as a birthday pressie .....  you'll be lucky to find him 

.......... and after all those advertising costs and the DVLA fees etc .......  not much profit for you methinks sadly

Good luck anyway and 

Best wishes

Malc

Couldn't find N4 PRO but V1 PRO is 6k! More than the value of the Saab 😎

[Malc]

10 minutes ago, Phil xxkr said:

Couldn't find N4 PRO

strange it's still registered to my old Saab tho' but with zero current or any other, come to that, MOTs

she's " gone to ground "

Malc

[Phil xxkr]

12 minutes ago, Malc said:

strange it's still registered to my old Saab tho' but with zero current or any other, come to that, MOTs

she's " gone to ground "

Malc

🤔