Bought vehicle with expired plate, V5 problems.. help?

facade

If you taxed it when you were not the keeper, then the tax will be cancelled and refunded to the last keeper when the keeper is updated, it doesn't matter who paid for it.

Did you tax it using the V5C/2 online, and tick the "I am the new keeper" box, as well as filling in your name & address?

EssexExile

This all sounds over complicated. The OP bought a bike with an interesting reg number. He now owns a bike with an interesting reg number. If the seller wants the interesting number back he's going to have to negotiate that separately with the OP. I was in a similar situation years ago but we never did agree terms so I kept the number. It's just a shame "RU" means nothing special to me.

se2020

Sounds more like the seller has done him over on the personal reg number. 
The seller should have sent the v5 off with the new buyers details on the day they bought the bike.
A new v5 with the personal number would then have been sent to the buyers address. There is no such thing as an "expired reg". 

What's happened is the seller has decided to pull a fast one and keep the personal plate (either on retention or transfer it to another car/bike). Rather than send off the v5 with the new buyers details they have had to ask deal for the plate change and then wait to get back a v5 with the bikes previous reg number on.
They then have to fill in that one with the buyers details and send off then dvla will send one out to the new keeper.

If the buyer got on with it quickly they could apply for a v5 using the vin and personal reg number and see what happens. They do have the receipt showing purchase of both..

sthomasj10

Right! 

Thankfully I received an email from the DVLA today to say the the registered keeper has been electronically switched over to me. I’m still naturally gutted that I wasn’t able to use the private registration but will put this down as experience and look out for this whenever I buy a used vehicle again. 

NBLondon

That's generous of you - you bought a bike and a reg for £XXX and have only received the bike.  Have you considered pursuing the seller for a discount?  He'll probably reply ".. Off" or not reply at all.   If you paid a higher price to include the reg, then maybe you could consider Small Claims?

sthomasj10

NBLondon said:

That's generous of you - you bought a bike and a reg for £XXX and have only received the bike.  Have you considered pursuing the seller for a discount?  He'll probably reply ".. Off" or not reply at all.   If you paid a higher price to include the reg, then maybe you could consider Small Claims?

It did cross my mind but ultimately this bike was purchased to use on track, it’s annoying as it was a nicety but the seller was nothing but hassle to deal with. I’d rather just put it down to a bad experience and move on. The price I paid was fairly decent without the reg but definitely feel I’ve been done over with it.