Can you transfer a private plate from a car if you don’t have the registration certificate and the MOT ran out several years ago as it’s s barn find?
The dvla site gives you all the answers you require. But in a nutshell. No
Hi,
This link from the DVLA will answer your question
Correct. But what is a private plate? DVLA has started using this term now instead of “cherished number” which to me is confusing. Once on a car, I thought a number was just a number, provided it is not one whose transferability is blocked (see below). It’s entirely possible I’m wrong.
Is it a ‘private’ number or just the one that the car was originally registered with?
However - start by checking if the car and number in question are on the DVLA system (probably not if it has been off the road for many years un-SORNed). If not, see if you can get them to ‘recover’ the number on to the ‘barn’ car. If you can recover the original number then you are in with a chance of transferring it from there, although the car might need to be a runner. What you won’t be able to do is just lift the number directly on to a retention form or another vehicle.
I don’t think you will see your way through this without talking to DVLA. Surprisingly they can be helpful. A friend has just bought a 1933 car that was registered in France, although first registration was in the UK. He has managed to get the original UK number back on it after some dialogue with DVLA. This may well have been possible only because the car was already a runner (he drove it back from France). As far as I know there are no restrictions on further transfer (I asked him). Sometimes a V5 is marked to the effect that a number cannot be transferred - usually when DVLA has issued it as an age-related plate - i.e. you can’t generally get dateless plates for nothing by re-registering old cars!*
*I have a number on one of my cars that I bought from a chap who dealt in old motorcycles. My number was lifted by him from one of those. When he put these numbers on retention, DVLA would issue a suitable age related plate, i.e. one without prefix or suffix. The new numbers issued were not themselves transferable, presumably because that would have given him a licence to print money.
Consider the following hypothetical situation.
The vehicle is old enough not to require an MOT or to pay road fund tax. You could transfer ownership and insure the vehicle and ‘tax’ the vehicle for no cost, remember it does not need an MOT. So in theory we have a car in our name taxed and insured so the number can then be transferred to another vehicle.
At some point I am sure you would have to lie and thus break the law so in hindsight probably not a good idea.
It is however interesting that a none existent car could be registered for the road at the DVLC.------or am I missing something-------those with better knowledge of the system please enlighten.
Car is showing on the DVLA database with the plate on it, the MOT and tax ran out 5 years ago, the car is un-driveable. Original paperwork is lost.
Be careful. A friend of mine bought a very old, scrap car for well over the odds, so he could transfer the non-suffix plate to a fantastic little car he was hand building. This is a 1920s style, three wheeler racing car lookalike; he made the entire chassis and body by hand apart from the front beam axle. It’s totally unique, well known in VSCC circles and of such high quality it’s since been valued at £45,000 by a classic insurance specialist broker.
He notified DVLA of the change of ownership of the old car. When he came to transfer the number to his car, he discovered that someone in DVLA had sold the plate to another car owner ON THE DAY HE NOTIFIED THEM of change of ownership and there was now no way he could retrieve it! The old scrap car he had bought was given an age related plate, which to him was worthless. He is still very bitter about this, not too surprising.
Do you know who the original owneris and are they able to get a replacement V5? If it’s 40 years old it may be possible to declare it as such and register as historical then swop the number to another vehicle?