Personal number plate - changing cars?

socks_uk

I have just put a deposit on a used car that we will be picking up next weekend (26th June).

My brother has trade insurance which he assures me that he can drive the car back from Nottingham to Grimsby without the car being taxed or insured. I will be going with him (I need to pay the rest of the money!)

So... I'm guessing that it is perfectly legal for him to bring the car home (on my driveway) so I can then transfer my personalised number plate before arranging insurance & tax to avoid insurance policy change fee. The registration document will of course be sorted on Sunday.

I will (probably) be scrapping the car the number plate is currently on, which is insured until 12th July and MOT'd until 15th July.

Could someone (in the know) please tell me the correct order of transfers and tax & insurance to make sure I do things all above board and legal? Thank you!

Iceweasel

I've no idea regarding the use of trade insurance to get your new car home, but I'd be starting the 'registration number retention' procedure tomorrow morning.

It's now incredibly easy on-line.

Take off - https://www.gov.uk/keep-registration-number

You pay £80 and it's valid for 10 years - once the online application is successful, you can use the retention certificate which will be issued by post to assign the personalised registration to a new vehicle.

Again it can be done on-line.

Put on - https://www.personalisedvehicleregistration.service.gov.uk/assign/vehicle-lookup

But beware - this is the new 'Beta' service which only works Monday to Saturday 08:00 to 18:00.

At other times those links will say 'Service Unavailable' or 'Page cannot be found'.

bigjl

You will need to display trade plates to drive it back without Roadtax.

Unless the current owner has just cancelled the Tax then you should still have the current Tax valid till the end of the month. As you can't get a refund for part months.

Unless they have changed the way RFL works when they went online only.

socks_uk

bigjl wrote: »

You will need to display trade plates to drive it back without Roadtax.

Unless the current owner has just cancelled the Tax then you should still have the current Tax valid till the end of the month. As you can't get a refund for part months.

Unless they have changed the way RFL works when they went online only.

My brother moves cars all the time and has been pulled up by police for driving a non-taxed car but he says he just shows his insurance documents and it covers him.

I trust that he knows what he's doing (but I don't have a clue!)

socks_uk

Iceweasel wrote: »

I've no idea regarding the use of trade insurance to get your new car home, but I'd be starting the 'registration number retention' procedure tomorrow morning.

It's now incredibly easy on-line.

Take off - https://www.gov.uk/keep-registration-number

You pay £80 and it's valid for 10 years - once the online application is successful, you can use the retention certificate which will be issued by post to assign the personalised registration to a new vehicle.

I will be hanging on until 1st July to tax the new car so I was hoping to start the number plate transfer when the car is in my possession (you never know what might happen :think: ).

Is it not just one 'transaction' to move from old car to new car? (I'm only just in the process of finding out - I have 3 weeks to complete the process) I wasn't aware that you have to pay to put the plate on retention to then put straight onto a different car.

I need to have a look at their website.

Nobbie1967

I doubt the trade insurance covers your brother as he is not driving the car in connection with his business. However, I'm sure he can BS the police if they happen to pull him over.

dannyrst

Nobbie1967 wrote: »

I doubt the trade insurance covers your brother as he is not driving the car in connection with his business. However, I'm sure he can BS the police if they happen to pull him over.

Indeed, although the OP should be careful as if the police find out this isn't the case, the OP can be held liable for allowing someone who isn't insured to drive a car that he owns, unless the OPs brother says he took the car without consent, making himself liable to theft prosecution.

I believe you can do a direct transfer from one car to another if you want, but I believe that is usually a longer process than just putting the car on retention and then submitting to another vehicle. Also, if anything changes during the time the plate is being put on retention, say the car is returned to the garage for a refund, then you don't have to pay for the number plate moving again.

tedted

of course he is doing it for his business,just because he is delivering it for his brother makes no difference in that he is delivering it for a customer related or nor

dannyrst

tedted wrote: »

of course he is doing it for his business,just because he is delivering it for his brother makes no difference in that he is delivering it for a customer related or nor

He isn't buying the car from his brother, so he isn't a "customer" of his brothers.

tedted

he is transfering the car for his brother as the op said so it makes no difference

dannyrst

tedted wrote: »

he is transfering the car for his brother as the op said so it makes no difference

Trade policies don't allow you to be a taxi service...