Registrations are not items of property in their own right, and what is actually being purchased from the DVLA or a secondary market trader is the ‘rights to display’ particular number plates on your vehicle. Regardless of where you actually buy your registration, it must be assigned to your vehicle using DVLA assignment or the Cherished Transfer Scheme.
There are two different ways to buy registrations;
Both options are very suitable but equally there are points to watch out for.
The method of completing a Cherished Transfer is to collate the necessary documents, these being:
Historically the monopoly held by the DVLA ensured that they were always the cheapest source to buy registrations and frequently this was a good enough reason for people to go through the hassle of complying with the transfer process themselves; battling with traffic to get to the DVLA local office and then waiting in their queues for a few hours! But in May 2008 a company called New Reg Limited challenged the monopoly and won by selling DVLA registrations at discounted prices online. Even more useful to members of the public is that New Reg also performs the cherished transfer on their behalf and supplies the physical number plates for a modest additional charge.
In the event that you buy from DVLA Telesales directly then you will be sent what is known as a V750 or Certificate of Entitlement. This document effectively permits the keeper to hold the rights to the registration. There are a number of things that you need to be very careful of when dealing with V750’s. In particular you must make sure that you provide the ‘exact’ name that is to appear on the receiving vehicle after the mark has been transferred. Failure to get this information 100% correct will result in more fees charged by DVLA to amend the V750 document; this also delays the pending transfer.
A more recent problem has be that of fraud. There have been reports of people selling registrations on websites such as Ebay and other auction sites. Frequently the seller has requested a duplicate V750 from the DVLA, which supersedes the previously issue document. To any purchaser however the V750 is totally official and it is only when you present the V750 at the DVLA local office that you will be told that the document has been duplicated. Frustratingly the DVLA will do very little to combat this problem and simply refuse the transfer. It is down to you to then trace the seller and recover any money that you have paid out; the DVLA will not provide any assistance.
Another main area of fraud is when the perpetrator advertises the ‘Number Plates’ for sale as opposed to the Registration. The difference clearly is that the term ‘number plates’ refers to the physical acrylic number plates that you stick on the front and the back of the vehicle. These cost between £20.00 and £50.00 per pair, but more importantly they are totally useless without the rights to the Registration itself, and so are in essence totally valueless! Just one more reason to make sure that you buy from a respectable trader or Autonumerologist, as referred to in the trade.
When buying the registration from a trader the V750 is issued in much the same way but your contract to supply is with them and so in the event that problems do arise it is the trader that loses out and not you. Considering that the fee charged for handling the paperwork on your behalf is a little as £25.00 this is another significant reason to buy from a registered trader.
Please note that the problems referred to above are not reflective of any organisation in particular.
www.cherishedtransferscheme.co.uk • www.cherishedregistrations.co.uk