Removing personalised number plate

[JohnW2]

I have actually done it but you seem intent on ignoring people with experience. As usual

As I asked, how can I be 'ignoring' things that I haven't seen?

If you have 'actually done it', perhaps you could tell me what you did ....
.... - in particular, whether you carried on driving immediately after you had requested retention of the private plate, how long it was before DVLA informed you of the new plate number they had assigned, when did you physically change the plate, when did you inform your insurer and, probably most important, whether you believe that you acted legally by driving the car on public roads before the plates were changed?

 

[robinbanks]

I do sometimes wonder how (if) you actually ever get anything done, John

Never have I known someone drive a conversation in such circles, exploring every inanity

I don’t particularly mind what you do to resolve this latest first world problem you’ve fallen into, but I don’t think your “I never bothered to contact the DVLA your worship, as I wanted ignorance to be my defence” will wash, if you find yourself in court

I might have added ... if it were the fourth vehicle of your "MS" person, they could have started the plate with "MS4" (rather than "MS04"), thereby invoking no implications about the age of the vehicle.

No, because we haven’t got there yet. The first MS4… registered vehicle will be in early 2040. Absent them being able to procure a very old reg there isn’t any modern available pattern that matches your suggestion

I know a couple, Julian and Helen, who drive a 2018 Tiguan with JO04HEL as a number plate; they regard “Joo for Hel” as a declaration of affection for each other, another valid reason for having 4 in that position on a plate.

Having a plate 14 years older than their car doesn’t seem to offend their sense of vanity either..

 

[JohnW2]

I do sometimes wonder how (if) you actually ever get anything done, John .... Never have I known someone drive a conversation in such circles, exploring every inanity

That may well be true of some of my writings, but I really don't think it is a fair accusation in this case. In my OP, I asked two simple questions ...

"Does this really mean that there is a 4-6 [week] period during which one theoretically cannot drive the car legally, because the 'previous' plate is 'invalid' and the new one not yet available?"​

".... and ..."​

"Furthermore, if one does use the car during that period, when should one inform one's insurer in order to ensure that the vehicle remains covered?"​

The first of those questions is easily the most important one, and no-one has yet attempted to answer it, and no-one has really given a usefull answer to the second one.

I don’t particularly mind what you do to resolve this latest first world problem you’ve fallen into ...

... I've told you what I (personally) will 'do'- either 'nothing' (i.e. keep the private plate) or else apply common sense and carry on driving the car immediately after requesting retention of the private plate.

.... but I don’t think your “I never bothered to contact the DVLA your worship, as I wanted ignorance to be my defence” will wash, if you find yourself in court

It certainly wouldn't 'wash' if I worded it like that! However, it might stand a much better chance of 'washing if it were along the lines of "... like countless people before me, I applied commen sense and assumed that I was allowed to carry on using my car after requesting retention of the private plate (whilst that plate was still being displayed) until such a time as DVLA provided me with the means of replacing the plate"

No, because we haven’t got there yet. The first MS4… registered vehicle will be in early 2040.

I wrote "MS4", not "MS4...". There will never be a plate in the current series with the first part of (just) "MS4" ... come 2040, the first one will be MS40, followed by MS45, MS41, MS46 etc. etc.

I know a couple, Julian and Helen, who drive a 2018 Tiguan with JO04HEL as a number plate; they regard “Joo for Hel” as a declaration of affection for each other, another valid reason for having 4 in that position on a plate. ... Having a plate 14 years older than their car doesn’t seem to offend their sense of vanity either..

Fair enough. I'd overlooked the possibility that the 4 could be taken to phonetically represent "for" and for the zero to phonetically represent an "O"-sound - so, yes, I suppose that the plate currently sitting on my car could have, to someone, represented "Smo for XYZ", where "Smo" was some or of 'pet name'/whatever and XYZ was someone's initials/whatever (it is an essentially unpronounceable group of three consonants, so unlikely to be representing 'a word').

However, as I've written, that's all just about curiosity, and nothing to do with my questions - the private plate which I have is the private plate which I have, regardless of how it came about.

 

[JohnW2]

Check on the dvla database whether the car is taxed and mot¡d - that should tell you if everything is legal and above board.

Sorry, I somehow missed this one!

Needless to say, on the basis of the current private plate, the databases show that the vehicle is taxed, MOTd and insured.

What I do not know (and cannot know without trying, unless some 'experienced' person tells me!) is what the situation will be immediately after I request removal/retention of the private plate. However, since the DVLA seem to be saying that the changes are 'immediate', I would imagine that, very soon after my request, their database would show the car to be untaxed (and maybe not MOT'd, depending upon whether it looked at VINs) ... and may well show some new plate (which I would not necessarily know) to be taxed (and possibly MOTd).

If that's the case then I imagine that (unless their system is 'more clever' than I suspect ) an ANPR camera would pick up my car as being untaxed (and maybe without an MOT) - with the attended hassle that could result in - until the plates could be, and were, replaced?

Unless there is a lot more 'cleverness' in these systems than I suspect, I imagine that the insurer will continue assuming that the car I have insured bears the private plates unless/until I tell them otherwise?

 

[Mottie]

That may well be true of some of my writings, but I really don't think it is a fair accusation in this case. In my OP, I asked two simple questions ...

"Does this really mean that there is a 4-6 [week] period during which one theoretically cannot drive the car legally, because the 'previous' plate is 'invalid' and the new one not yet available?"

You should be asking the DVLA, not random people on the internet if you want the correct legal answer to this.

"Furthermore, if one does use the car during that period, when should one inform one's insurer in order to ensure that the vehicle remains covered?"

You should be asking your insurance company, not random people on the internet if you want the correct legal answer to this.

That’s it, I’m done on this thread.

 

[JohnW2]

You should be asking the DVLA, not random people on the internet if you want the correct legal answer to this.

I very probably will ask them, but only IF I decide to keep the private plate for the duration of my ownership OR if I effect the change and have changed the physical plates - but, for reasons I have given I would not ask them whilst there was a possibility that I might want to change the plate in the future.

You should be asking your insurance company, not random people on the internet if you want the correct legal answer to this.

I have already asked them to confirm (but have not yet had a response) that, if I request removal of the private plate, my insurance cover will remain valid whilst the car is still displaying the private plate, until such a time as the DVLA enabales me to physically change the plates. If I did that, I obviously would tell them, once the plates had been physically changed.

 

[Old Salt]

I have done it.
I have told you how to do it.
I dont often agree with mottie but he is right you are rude and intent on dragging this out.
I am done.

 

[JohnW2]

I dont often agree with mottie but he is right you are rude and intent on dragging this out.

With the best will in the world, and with all respect, I really can't see anything I've written in this thread which is remotely 'rude' - and I might add that some other contributors have probably not been quite as 'courteous' than they could have been. Anyway ...

I have done it. I have told you how to do it.

You wrote ...

As far as I am aware the V5 with personal plate will have your address on as the new owner. Once that arrives you can go online and “remove” the personal plate and get sent a new V5. When that arrives you get your plates made then go online and “changeover” the registration.

Indeed, as I wrote in my initial post. However, according to the DVLA, although the 'removal' (of the personal plate) occurs 'immediately' when one makes the online application, that "when it arrives" (with the newly-assigned plate number) may not be until 4-6 weeks later - and, until that new V5C arrives one will not usually even know what the newly-assigned number will be, quite apart from the fact that one theoretically cannot have new plates made up legally in the UK without having the V5C bearing that number. However, DVLC also say ..

• Before you can drive your vehicle, you must:
  ... put the original or new number plates on the vehicle before you drive it

I'm not sure what people here are doing - are you all perhaps trying to use 'common sense' to over-ride what DVLC have actually written? If so, it is surely the case that attempts to 'over-ride with common sense' do not necessarily work in terms of the law, isn't it?

 

[JohnW2]

This is interesting. I just found the below on the DVLA website. For whatever reason, although it gives the 'processing time' for producing a new V5C on sale of a vehicle and/or change of registered keeper, it's only 2 weeks for removing a private plate. That does not qualitatively alter what I've been discussing, but quantitatively it at least reduces the potential 'limbo' period

For what it's worth, as regards change of owner/keeper, we're now at about 17 days since DVLA were informed (online) about the change for the car I'm discussing, but I've not yet received a new V5C and nor does the DVLA database indicate that a new one has yet been issued.

 

[cdbe]

Make change online, DVLA issue V750/V750e certificate instantly, take to Halfords, get plates, ring insurer, fix plates to car.

May involve strategic military style planning - getting a lift to Halfords or catching the bus etc.

 

[ebee]

Oh Dear Oh Dear Oh Dear,
I am rather baffled by all of this.

Firstly, let me state my opinion about personalised number plates just for the record.
My opinion is that, in the main, people get personalised number plates for vanity

.Spending money without reasonable cause just to get a car reg plate changed.
If they want to do so as a memory aid (Taken to extremes you could, I suppose, only have one plate to remember for the whole of your life even though you have owned 300 different cars at varying times).

The next point is does it actually say what they want it to say or have they imagined it (by a far stretch of immagination at times).

I had a friend who was impressed by the ID plate B4RRY5 saying it was sold at a snip of a price (that I considered OTT) and of what use?
"Well it says BARRY`S!" he exclaimed, I retorted "NO it does not it says "B4RRY5" I retorted. I told him I thought it was silly but I did add that if someone had bought it and if they decided to say keep it a while and sell it at a higher price then that would seem not silly but a sensible thing to do.
Another example of what might be sensible was a firm known as LED locally (being the capital letters of the initials of their business name and they had a few vans with the reg LED1, LED2, LED3 etc etc or sumsuch sort of idea, if that firm decided that for the cost compared to the advertising value that cost might gain them overall, then that might actually be a sensible thing to do, if you could accurately measure it or make a reasonable guess at it!

Otherwise I am a little bit inclined to view it as Lunatic Vanity of a Purile Nature personally. I would never do it even if I had £Millions.
I would rather have a sign saying "Here comes the idiot" (I did see a reg abroad one time "U IDIOT" somewhere and it did make me laugh though. LOL.

So that`s my take on the whole personalised number thingy really.

Now then
I have just read thru this thread and I am a bit perplexed by the reaction of some folks on here. From my viewpoint it looks like JohnW2 has merely asked a perfectly normal question in a perfectly well mannered way and some folk have taken umbridge. Why I do not know. Can someone please explain why? I must have missed it or it`s been deleted perhaps?

I do note one such is a person who has in the past taken offence at John for speaking intelligently about things "Electric" and this person is apparently an Electrician who does not think that John can possibly know much about Electrics cos he is not qualified in that field but might actually be qualified in other things I reckon.
A fellow who lives near me, we calls him "Mr Sixpence" because for years we did not know his actual name but we all thought of him as stark raving bonkers - a conspiracy theorist and all that 9We all thought him to be "Not a Full Shilling" as the saying goes around these parts , hence Mr Sixpence became our nickname for him - he once said to me "What does Bill Gates possibly know about COVID?" as if to say Mr Gates is a computer bloke not a Dr or some such rubbish. I did answer mr sixpence to say "I have no idea if he knows nothing or a bit or a lot or if he is an expert!" I also mentioned how can a Pop Star become and Astronomer or how can a Comedian know a lot of such things either. etc etc etc.
I used to work alongside a few folk who used to use an expression I tittered at "Him, He has ideas well above his station in life!" well what dribble I always thought that was too! As if we are each alloted a station of knowledge about one subject and prevents us from knowing anything much about anything else. Hilarious.

Anyway I am surprised about (most) of the few folk who seem to think that John has been rude to them. Please can someone explain why offence has been taken?

PS DVLA etc - officialdom does seem to do some crazy things at times

 

[Mottie]

Well it says BARRY`S!" he exclaimed, I retorted "NO it does not it says "B4RRY5"

Are you sure? That combination of letters and numbers is just not possible.

 

[ebee]

Are you sure? That combination of letters and numbers is just not possible.

It was "Something" along those lines as I remember it but may not be 100% accurate but you pretty much get the gist of my meaning hopefully.
Must have been 20 years ago plus or minus a few.
I did once, a long time ago and jokingly saying I would consider changing my name by deed pole to DKU F823 or something as it was a cheaper option than the DVLA/C thingy (again just my recollection of a car I owned a few years back.

Actually it might have been F823 DKU if I remember rightly come to think of it.

 

[JohnW2]

Make change online, DVLA issue V750/V750e certificate instantly, take to Halfords, get plates, ring insurer, fix plates to car.

The V750 (similar to V778) is surely a certificate of entitlement to use the private plate - i.e. the last thing I would want?

What I would need to take to Halfords is a new V5C, bearing the DVLA-assigned NON-private registration number - and all they say about that is that it may take 4-6 weeks to appear.

May involve strategic military style planning - getting a lift to Halfords or catching the bus etc.

No problem Quite apart from the fact that I have ther cars, there is a Halfords within easy cycling distance (walking distance if I'm feeling energetic!) of my house!

 

[ebee]

Not really that long ago in the scheme of things you could go into a shop and ask for any number plate you needed without any paperwork to support it.

Bit like weighing stuff in at a scrap yard, can still be done without many questions in practice???