Tag Archives: Number Plate

Car Registration vs Number Plate Retention

V778 Retention Document

V778 Retention Document

I have seen this being asked quite often, and there is certainly a fair bit of confusion since it quite recently, well a year ago at time of writing, it all changed.

The million dollar question, I see asked is How Long Can You Keep A Personalised Registration on Retention (V778) or Certificate of Entitlement (V750) without actually assigning it to a vehicle ?

The Short Answer is, You can keep a private number plate on Retention or Entitlement for as long as you like, assuming renewals and such are kept up to date.  

Much like Domain Names, its quite common nowadays for parents, relatives and siblings to buy a domain name or reg plate for their relevant family member for future use. Its then gifted once the person passes their driving test and obtains a car of their own. 

The Fee’s

Until March 2015, the DVLA used to charge you £25 for every year you wanted to keep it on entitlement or retention documents. This all changed going forward from March 2015, when the DVLA issued Retention Document (V778) and Certificate of Entitlement (V750) documents became valid for 10 years. Beyond 10 years there are currently no fee’s to extend or renew. 

There are a few common questions asked around this question too, so threads often get “hi-jacked” from the OP (Original Posters) questions, so a few of them are below. 

My Retention or Entitlement Documents Expired

V750 Certificate of Entitlement

V750 Certificate of Entitlement

Its always best to renew your documents as soon as possible and not let them expire, but life happens. Mistakes happen, reminds get lost in the post, or we simply forget. Officially and again much like Domain Names, you lose the name or registration.

However while domains have a fixed grace period number plates current do not. 

Quite often its reported that an apologetic grovelling letter to the DVLA is often enough for them to update the records. Unlike domain names where there is often a new owner, registration plates don’t move so quickly. 

You will have to pay any back fee’s owed, which is £25 per year, since the certificate expired up until March 2015, when the fee’s were removed.

Renewing Your V750 0r V778

For the V750, you’ll get a reminder letter or email when the certificate of entitlement is about to expire. As soon as you get this document, I suggest doing it as soon as possible.

Create an Online Management Account over the DVA. You can add all your number plates to this one account, and handle renewals, details and nominee information.

You can also complete the V750 and post it with the appropriate fee, if any. 

For the V778, you nee to complete the V778 Certificate, signed by the grantee to the address listed on the document.

It can only be done via post currently.

Lost Retention or Entitlement Documents

This isn’t really a big issue any more, you do however have to write to the DVLA, emails and phone calls aren’t accepted. Simply write to them with a cover letter explaining what happened and what you need to: 

DVA Personalised Registrations
DVLA
Swansea
SA99 1DS

It will take upto 4 weeks for the new V750 or V778 to arrive.

Mistakes On Retention or Entitlement Documents

This MUST be done via Post, you can’t correct the name or address on either the V750 or V778 any other way. You need to return the incorrect V750 / V778 with a cover letter explaining what is wrong, and include relevant documents to support any change requested.

Most commonly this is misspellings or married names, it takes around 4 weeks for new documents to arrive. 

That’s All Folks

I think that covers everything you need to know about retention and entitlement docs. 

Number Plate Failure to Buy

S73VNS Reg Plate

S73VNS Reg Plate

I recently posted about a DLVA Auction I were interested in. As it happens the main plate I were interested in were S73VNS or in plain text STEVENS.

I opened the bidding at £950, and it rapidly hit £1,500 so I hit £2,000 hoping to scare people away, and then another 2 bids came in, £2,100 and £2,200 and it sat there for a while. I debated pushing it to £2,500, but didn’t in the end.

Now a month or so later, I kind of regret not pushing that final 2.5k bid.

The maths would have worked out like this…

£2500 + 20% VAT
£3000 + (8%+VAT)  – Buyers Premium
£3288 + £80 – Assignment Fee
£3368 – TOTAL

As a personal reg and not investment, were about £500 over my personal money amount. Now I have picked up a suitable car to put it on, which were a steal (pending a full check up), I could have swept the £500 out of the car fund.

This is all the assumption that a £300 leap on £2200 would have secured it for me.

Private Number Plates

MR57 EVE Number Plate

MR57 EVE Number Plate (not a real plate)

Like many people who deal in domain names, who also deal in other rarities. The most common of which are Car Registration Plates and Mobile Phone Numbers among various others.

I’m always watching DVLA Auctions for any decent number plates or plates which I like coming up. There maybe 1 or 2 I like in the 21st September to 23rd September auction (Catalogue Here). It made me think about my biggest personal reg plate purchase.

Suitable Cars

I bought the personal number plate which closest matches my surname, which were madness since I didn’t even have a car new enough to hold the plate. In general the rule is, you can’t put a plate on a car which is newer than the date of the car. So you can’t put a 2016 Plate on a 2012 registered vehicle, but you can put a 2012 Plate on a 2016 Registered Vehicle.

The person I took with me, had never been to a DVLA Auction, or even any auction before so they didn’t know the hammer price is a far cry from the price you pay. In this instance the hammer dropped at £4,000, on top of this you have pay VAT, Buyers Premium at 8%+VAT and a £80 DVLA Assignment Fee (about the only thing without VAT).

The break down of the costs looks something, more or less like this…

Hammer Price: £4,000.00
VAT on Hammer: £800.00
Buyers Premium: £384.00
VAT on Premium: £76.80
DVLA Assignment Fee: £80.00

Total Cost: £5240.80

This means the final price is just over 31% extra on the hammer price, so its a hell of a whack on top. When you add hotels, fuel, 2 days of food, drink, etc due to distance the auction were held away from my home, it were closer to £6,000 all in.

DVLA Auctions

New Look Plate

New Look Plate

This is just a standard auction, so I’ve decided to bid online, since there isn’t a plate I 100% want no matter what.

Some of the interesting ones are… I especially like “New 100K”, which as a personal trainer / fitness coach / body transformation expert / make over coach, this plate would be spectacular.

That’s not the plate I’m mostly interested in, but I have listed some of the nice plates due up in this auction… I have also added the perceived alphabetic words too.

Day 1 – 21st September
Lot 353, Plate: 848ES (BABES), Guide Price: £2200
Lot 346, Plate 82ENT (BRENT), Guide Price: £1200
Lot 462, Plate GRO11S (GROWS), Guide Price: £300

Day 2 – 22nd September
Lot 549, Plate: H311 KAT (HELL KAT), Guide Price: £250
Lot 689, Plate: KN16HTS (KNIGHTS), Guide Price: £700
Lot 890, Plate: NEW100K (NEW LOOK), Guide Price: £250

Day 3 – 23rd September
Lot 1099, Plate: RU13BER (RUBBER), Guide Price: £700
Lot 1228, Plate: THE 145T (THE LAST), Guide Price: £250
Lot 1229, Plate: THE 800T (THE BOOT), Guide Price: £250

Awesome Branding Opportunity

Its worth considering a private plate as an awesome branding tool. Can you imagine, you’re a professional, top of your game in Scratch and Dent Removal, so you turn up and your number plate is “RU13 BER” like in an eraser. You “rub out” spots, scratches and dents.