Bit of an odd one, but this place always seems to have some decent advice.

Sold a car last year and sent everything off to DVLA to retain plate. DVLA “never received” documents, we moved house and new owner applied for V5 in his name all within a month of each other. We never received anything regarding the V5 transfer request due to moving house, so it went through uncontested. New owner has been contacted numerous times and is avoiding calls, but he still has the car. He’s now put the plate on eBay for the ludicrous price of £2000 – I paid £288 from DVLA. It was my wedding present to my wife, so there’s a certain amount of personal attachment to the plate.

Any ideas where we stand in trying to get this back from him? Unfortunately, it appears that the number plate is legally linked to the car and he has the V5 in his name.

You sold the car with the plate still on?

v5 is not proof of ownership only of obligation to tax and insure. How you go about getting it back I do not know though – do you have anything like a copy of the receipt you gave him or communications arranging things?

MU99EDD?

simon-g: There is a form you can send off with the V5C when you sell a car that allows you to transfer/retain the plate. We sent this off and DVLA say it was never received.

did you right him a receipt saying numberplate was not included?

Nothing you can do legally I wouldn’t have thought, unless you have a written receipt stating that the plate was not included in the sale.

You will be relying on the good will of the buyer of the car, because by the sound of it, you sold the car with the registration plate still “attached” to it (in a DVLA sense) so he owns the car, and the registration.

The normal way, would be put the plate on retention before selling the car, and have a new registration (or the original one) put back on the vehicle before selling it.

In theory there should be no need to transfer the plate then sell the car, as there is a process to do both at the same time. In practice, we appear to have fallen victim to the DVLA’s glorious postal receipts department. Again. It would have been a non-issue if they hadn’t shut the local office the month prior to selling the car as we could have done the swap there and then and sent updated V5 to the new owner.

Will have a look through correspondence, but the wife is for some reason making it difficult to locate the receipt – apparently I should know where she keeps her receipts, and should first try looking through the post that arrived today. Mentallist.

try on the plod forum at Pistonheads

Aye, I’ll give that a shot.

Buy it off him on e bay ,when you’ve got all the docs he has, raise a dispute with Paypal/e bay saying the goods are stolen 😉

Sorry mate…this sounds daft but you only ever purchase the rights to display the plates (and you can have them taken off you in extreme circumstances where you display incorrect lettering etc). Once they are on a vehicle they then ‘belong’ to that vehicle. If you then sell the vehicle without having confirmation that the plates have either been ‘retained’ or ‘transferred’…then the rights to the plates transfer to the new legally registered keeper of the vehicle.

Unfortunately all this info is on the v750 that you would have got from the DVLA at the time of purchase.

It sucks but there it is. 🙁

this one?

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/porsche-911-number-plate-on-retention-/301160576865?pt=Automobiles_UK&hash=item461e91b761

some law

Not that one hora. Less car-related and more wife-related. Through a serendipitous combination of the UK’s number plate rules and her parents, I managed to get her exact full name. Not a close to, not initials, her actual name.

That certainly looks an interesting and useful bit of law nickjb. Thanks. He got the old jeep off us for £250, and the plate is clearly my wife’s. Shall look into that.

Not a close to, not initials, her actual name.

Her name has numbers in it?

Perhaps she came from a large family ?

Email Honest John at The Telegraph for advice

Perhaps she came from a large family ?

Where’s the LIKE button on this bloody forum?

Please tell us you had the buyer sign something like this (which is always a good idea anyway), explicitly saying that the numberplate was not included with the car?

Where’s the LIKE button on this bloody forum?

You could always share it? 😐

Hows life together been with MA56 TFB? Everything you expected?

If you only paid £288 and you got a good price for the car chalk it up to experience?

Just because someone advertises at a price doesn’t mean its money in the bank.

Want to buy my 2008 Orange Patriot frame? £2,000 – thats the going price for frames these days you know 😉

Well if he’s stuck he’s stuck but certainly worth seeing if he can get anywhere if there’s dishonesty here. Sounds like the plate will be worth a few quid more than he paid for it.

Get a solicitor to send a “Cease and Desist” letter to the owner.

Buy it off him on e bay ,when you’ve got all the docs he has, raise a dispute with Paypal/e bay saying the goods are stolen

Sounds like the best option!
If he sells it and it goes to someone else, you’ll never get it back.

You need one of those lawyer types. Selling the car at £250, it seems reasonable to assume that the plate was not included in the sale. Especially as they have now advertised it at £2000

Buy it off him on e bay ,when you’ve got all the docs he has, raise a dispute with Paypal/e bay saying the goods are stolen

Genius but then what name will you give him to put on the docs? Plus its a 2k gamble. He may end up with your 2k.

Well, things have taken a turn for the better. And slightly more interesting.

Guy who got the Jeep off us appears to have done a quick bodge and punted it on, then very shortly afterwards [Winstone]gone daaaaahhhnnn for a stretch[/Winstone], reasons unknown. Other guy left running the garage is scared of garage going under if linked to a crim and so makes excuses about his whereabouts. It also explains the lack of communication from original buyer.

New owner is pissed off because Jeep was sold for a decent amount, then promptly shat most of its innards all over his driveway. Garage don’t want to know, surprisingly. He was selling the plate to recoup some costs. He’s been very understanding and cancelled the eBay auction, and I’ve ended up buying it back from him privately. Mildly annoying, but nowhere near as annoying as losing the plate forever, and to be fair to the chap I’ve not paid anywhere close to what it was on eBay for.

I’m sure there’s a lesson to be learned from this somewhere. Most likely something along the lines of today marking the date when I no longer fall for the “I know it’s mine, but it’s car stuff. I don’t know what I’m doing” line the missus always trots out.

I’m sure there’s a lesson to be learned from this somewhere.

Yes, transfer your plate off and get your paperwork sorted BEFORE you sell.

And queue the theme song…

“I could be so good for you..” !!

FFS Ox! tell us what the plate says…

Jeep + private plate?

Whats that gay Manchester Soap series that used to be on?

OP you fruity devil. What did the plate say 1M4N L0V3

She’s a keeper.

Was it a Wrangler?

Binners would wear his best leather waistcoat and shorts in that!