Resurrecting an old car reg number?

paulmshipley

Hi, I think the answer is to call the DVLA, but I have found interaction with them a painful process in the past, so I'm hopping someone else will be able to give advice.

About 17 years ago, I got a new job and a company car. I sold my car and with it the personalised plate.  Now I have a personal car again and was thinking of putting a personalised plate on it. I assumed that my old plate would be owned by someone else, but when I searched the DVLA database it says "could not be found", "have you entered it correctly?".

So, if the plate is 'dead', can it be resurrected?

Any help please!

Grumpy_chap

If the car the plate was on ended up scrapped with the plate still assigned then it is my understanding the plate died with the car.

The solution would have been to place the plate on retention before selling the car.

If the car and plate still exist, you could try to track them both and buy the car or the plate from the current owner.  The online registration transfer companies might be worth asking if that is possible.

cymruchris

If the plate was on a car when it died - got scrapped - written off - then it's gone.

There is a chance that one of the owners following you took it off the car to revert to a regular number plate, and so it might be sitting on a retention certificate somewhere, valid for 10 years from time of doing so - but under today's data protection laws, I can't imagine you'll ever track down the person that owns that piece of paper.

Grey_Critic

For nostalgic reasons  I am sure that there are many people would like to buy the number of their first car - one way of making money for the DVLA

Mildly_Miffed

Grey_Critic said:

For nostalgic reasons  I am sure that there are many people would like to buy the number of their first car - one way of making money for the DVLA

Except the car wasn't scrapped, just tucked in a barn, and is found and returned to the road.

EssexExile

Grey_Critic said:

For nostalgic reasons  I am sure that there are many people would like to buy the number of their first car - one way of making money for the DVLA

I don't understand why they won't let you have a plate with (almost) anything written on it - for a price. They could make a mint.

cymruchris

EssexExile said:

Grey_Critic said:

For nostalgic reasons  I am sure that there are many people would like to buy the number of their first car - one way of making money for the DVLA

I don't understand why they won't let you have a plate with (almost) anything written on it - for a price. They could make a mint.

It's possible they take the view that if the car had a particular assigned plate when last MOT'd/Taxed - and it's dropped into the abyss of not being sorn'd or written off - that there's a chance it would come back to life at some point in the distant future, and the original owner might insist on using their original plate. I can imagine the scenario would be few and far between, but they may prefer the easier life of once it's issued then that's it rather than get involved in any wrangles around ownership.

I agree that it would be nice to have the ability to buy older plates.

It might be useful to have a bit of a legislation change that says something along the lines of 'If a car registration mark has not been in use for 20 years, then ownership would pass back to DVLA' and then they could then sell them. I'm sure though there's reasons why they don't though. If they could make money - particularly with this government - they would

Car_54

cymruchris said:

EssexExile said:

Grey_Critic said:

For nostalgic reasons  I am sure that there are many people would like to buy the number of their first car - one way of making money for the DVLA

I don't understand why they won't let you have a plate with (almost) anything written on it - for a price. They could make a mint.

It's possible they take the view that if the car had a particular assigned plate when last MOT'd/Taxed - and it's dropped into the abyss of not being sorn'd or written off - that there's a chance it would come back to life at some point in the distant future, and the original owner might insist on using their original plate. 

It might be useful to have a bit of a legislation change that says something along the lines of 'If a car registration mark has not been in use for 20 years, then ownership would pass back to DVLA' and then they could then sell them. I'm sure though there's reasons why they don't though. If they could make money - particularly with this government - they would 

The original owner might 'insist', and indeed stamp his feet, but he didn't/doesn't 'own' the number. No-one does. It's assigned by the DVLA, and they're free to 'un-assign' it as they see fit.

NBLondon

There's also the issue of a plate being originally issued to a "famous" car - either one which had a racing history or appeared in a film/TV series.   Unscrupulous individuals could try and acquire the plate to make a replica vehicle and pass it off as the valuable original.

Contessa

Grey_Critic said:

For nostalgic reasons  I am sure that there are many people would like to buy the number of their first car - one way of making money for the DVLA

I'm one of those people. I always remember the number of my first car. The present one too but not those in between.

droopsnoot

Also note (ETA as Chris said above and I didn't notice) that you will get that message on the DVLA site if the plate is on a retention certificate, it doesn't only mean that the vehicle has been scrapped. You're doing a *vehicle* enquiry, not a registration enquiry, and that message just says there is no vehicle with that registration.