Personal Registration and change of cars

[Truthseeker]

If you are thinking of changing your current car for a new one, and you have not changed in the last year or so, you may not be aware of the changes at DVLA, concerning personal plate transfers.

 

It can now take the dealer 4-6 weeks to arrange the transfer of a personal plate to a new car, which is most frustrating.

 

Best to just put your current personal registration on a retention certificate (£105 instead of £80 transfer fee), then take delivery of your new or used car on it's new/current number, and transfer yourself when relevant paperwork issued. Most dealers are happy with this arrangement,  as saves them the trouble and they get your money quicker.

 

Nothing more frustrating than deciding on a new car and have it sitting at the dealers for a month or so waiting for DVLA. Could also affect p/ex price as well, as the dealer may well value the trade on next month's guide price, knowing there will be a delay.

 

Apologies to those in the know, but have read other threads where delivery is held up because of this.

[LeeHarrison]

Just a quicker pointer on the plate change Truthseeker. If the reg is on retention it can go straight on to the new car (as long as the keeper has a retention certificate), if however the plate is currently on a vehicle this is where it will take up to 6 weeks and yes it is easier for the customer to take the car on the current plate and await the transfer to go through.

 

Why they ever dropped the local offices is beyond me, a plate change then was all of about 10 days, now 6 weeks, 6 bloody weeks 

[Truthseeker]

You beat me to it - was just going to edit my post to say that you can put number straight onto new car if already on retention (assuming the customer has submitted the paperwork in plenty of time that is!).

[P6bJOHN]

Just changed my plate on to retention paying the £105. When I got the retention certificate I took it to my dealer (Simpsons, Preston) who state they will put it straight on to my new car when it arrives.

[LeeHarrison]

As long as the plate is on retention it's not a problem and can be put on straight away as long as the car has not already been registered (as long as certificate is present), it's when it get's to changing from one car to another that it takes an age  

[bohmer]

Just a quicker pointer on the plate change Truthseeker. If the reg is on retention it can go straight on to the new car (as long as the keeper has a retention certificate), if however the plate is currently on a vehicle this is where it will take up to 6 weeks and yes it is easier for the customer to take the car on the current plate and await the transfer to go through.

Why they ever dropped the local offices is beyond me, a plate change then was all of about 10 days, now 6 weeks, 6 bloody weeks

Fortunately when I recently traded in my Roomster on personal plate the dealer warned me of this immediately and I put it on retention. Even so there have been delays, as I am still waiting for my 6 months road tax refund on the Roomster, as DVLA automatically credited the remaining road tax to the new number allocated to my old car, which by then was at the dealers! It was made more complicated as I didn't get the retention docs soon enough, and we were changing to another car that was in stock.

The Govt. Have ruined a perfectly good system, we are seriously considering not bothering with our personal plates in future.

[LeeHarrison]

That is painful, but out of interest with regards to the tax on the Roomster if the dealer knows that you are cashing it in anyway it would surely be easier for them to buy the tax off of you, that should save one headache.

Agreed, what was such an easier process is now a right royal palava

[Damo]

Moved to General Car chat, as it is of interest to all makes/models

[Truthseeker]

Regarding refund on tax disc.

 

Surely the "new" replacement tax disc gets sent to the original owner and not to the dealer, so why not just apply for a refund and advise the dealer, or do as Preston Motors states above.

[bohmer]

Regarding refund on tax disc.

 

Surely the "new" replacement tax disc gets sent to the original owner and not to the dealer, so why not just apply for a refund and advise the dealer, or do as Preston Motors states above.

the replacement disc did come to me, and I have applied for a refund, but as the car was in the process of being sold, and the new V5c's were somewhere in space, I had to send my application with a covering letter to explain, so maybe that was why I'm still waiting.

I didn't find out about the possible problem with delays until after I found the car I wanted unfortunately, so we were pushing it a bit.

There were minor ****-ups with the purchase anyway, I was dealing with a garage 300 miles away, so I didn't want them any more involved if I could do it.

[kevrs16]

 

Why they ever dropped the local offices is beyond me, a plate change then was all of about 10 days, now 6 weeks, 6 bloody weeks 

I have just transferred my private plates from my Fabia VRS, to my new Yeti. I did put the plates on retention, but only when i decided to buy the Yeti, but the whole process only took about 8-10 days. That was from sending the letter to the DVLA, to picking up the Yeti. It was a pretty quick process, and no-where near the 6 weeks quoted.

Hopefully that will give some hope to you all!

[lfc958]

Due to the local office mucking up may last transfer, this time i downloaded the retention form from the DVLA website, filled it in , posted off & had the retention certificate along with the replacement back in7 days ( incl w/end), new v5 following day, & replacement tax disc the following day.

 

This time - Now the dealer has the retention certificate ready for when the car arrives.

[Truthseeker]

Due to the local office mucking up may last transfer, this time i downloaded the retention form from the DVLA website, filled it in , posted off & had the retention certificate along with the replacement back in7 days ( incl w/end), new v5 following day, & replacement tax disc the following day.

 

This time - Now the dealer has the retention certificate ready for when the car arrives.

That is why it is best and quickest to put on retention yourself, and not rely on the dealer to it for you. I have just done a retention for my new car, and it took just over 2 weeks.

 

The (up to) 6 weeks that have been mentioned, is the time it can take to do a car to car transfer and not a retention. Not my stats but from a man that knows!

 

My Brother is not car savvy, and let the dealer do all the paperwork for him, and he waited 5 weeks for his plate transfer.

[samuir1974]

Indeed - it's an absolute disaster by DVLA.

Hindered our purchase on SWMBO's car too.

Our dealer offered to cover the extra costs for retention route to try and avoid the hassle, but still caused issues as the car being purchased had already been run on private plates.

[Truthseeker]

Indeed - it's an absolute disaster by DVLA.

Hindered our purchase on SWMBO's car too.

Our dealer offered to cover the extra costs for retention route to try and avoid the hassle, but still caused issues as the car being purchased had already been run on private plates.

Yes - only really works quick if the new car is unregistered.

[Defenderben]

Just try living in Spain...just changing cars can cost a small fortune as there is no such thing as the dvla and can take months!

You have to take all the vehicle documents to a solicitor and pay them to do a basic vehicle transfer of ownership, not sure even if private plates exist there.

If you do not do this you are still legally responsible for everything the car is involved with.

So 6 weeks to transfer a "private" registration and costing nothing to transfer/register ownership of a standard registration via the DVLA IMHO is nothing... We really have no idea how good this country is and how spoilt we truly are

I understand the OP was merely advising of the delay and not generally moaning

Waiting to be burned at the stake

Edited 20 April, 2014 by Defenderben

[Gyp]

Mine's takng a while.

 

When I bought my first Yeti back in January, the plate transfer was sorted out when the purchase was done; PX agreed, wait 3 weeks for the paperwork to come through, pick up car with personal plates on. No problem.

 

With the second Yeti, the dealer decided it best to swap the cars over and then do the plate transfer after the ownership documents were all sorted. I've had the car for 4 weeks now, and I've still not had the V5 back. When I do I am then to send that the dealer for them to initiate the transfer. Except that as it's taking a while, the dealer has decided to put the personal plate on retention (as they can't sell my first Yeti on my private plate) so it now looks like I'll be getting the V5 and the retention certificate. Which I then send to the dealer as they've got my transfer fee money so they send it off with a cheque. Probably.

 

Quite how long it'll take once I've got the the paperwork i don't know.

 

In all this time, I've not had a tax disk on the car. Fortunately, according to the DVLA site, it appears to be still taxed until end of June by the previous owner.

 

Update - checking the DVLA site, it looks like my private plate is now on retention, so at least something's happening

[slider]

When I put my plate on retention in September I got the paperwork back within a week, so no complaints there.

Just filling in the paperwork for V317 for SWIMBO's plat at the moment and hope it is just as quick!

[Defenderben]

Slightly off topic...

What is the deal when you hand over your car as a PX with a private plate and you have your new car,on its private plate (transferred) and then a couple of weeks later see your old car driving around still on the private plate that does not belong to it.

Think they may have been test driving without a trade plate as it still had remaining tax or where using it to do a snack run??

[Truthseeker]

Slightly off topic...

What is the deal when you hand over your car as a PX with a private plate and you have your new car,on its private plate (transferred) and then a couple of weeks later see your old car driving around still on the private plate that does not belong to it.

Think they may have been test driving without a trade plate as it still had remaining tax or where using it to do a snack run??

Most likely.