Good evening!

Got myself into a situation.

I have a private plate on my car and with a bit of luck a guy wants to buy my car. Problem is that I don't have time to get the plate put on retention before selling the car.

I spoke with the DVLA and obviously their stance is that the plate should be taken off the car before it is sold (i.e. all the relevant paperwork is done).

On further investigation I've found that you can fill out the V5 as usual when the car is sold and send off the V5/MOT and a V317 (the request for plate transfer/retention) with the new keepers details and myself down as the 'Grantee' on the V317.

Has anyone had experience of this? Obviously I don't want to lose my reg plate so I want to make sure there are no pitfalls.

Cheers

Paul

The only way to guarentee not loosing the plate is to transfer it before sale, otherwise its in the hand of the buyer as a fellow fourm member found to his cost when he lost his reg. If you knew you were going to sell the car why didnt you put it on retension weeks ago and leave it to the last minute.

The plate needs to be transferred to a retension certificate before it can be passed on as your first post, and it will be up to the buyer if they then pass it on to you. so you will need to factor in 2 lots of transfer fees if you go this way.

I hear what you're saying, and that's what a wise person would do.

The potential sale was by word of mouth rather than any advertising. It all happened fairly fast so haven't had chance to sort it.

tell the buyer to wait till its on retention, it only takes a week or 2, if he/she is that intrested in the car they will wait.

If you go to a DVLA office in person before you sell the car they will transfer the reg. onto a retention certificate and give you a new mot and tax disc. they will retain the V5 and post it back to you in a few days. Now this depends on your buyer if he is willing to wait for the V5 after buying your car, but at least you have the retention cert.

Most people realise that transferring a reg. no. takes a bit of time and I have done it this way twice before and had no problems. Some trust is required by the seller and vendor however it has gone tits up with another Briskoda member quite recently.

Looks like I got a timewaster so I have time to sort it out properly.

Cheers