Selling a car with a private plate?

[Black9]

Selling my M5 soon, currently has a private plate on and I was thinking of having it transfered over to my curren golf. DVLA want an £80 fee for this and I'm not sure how long I'd have to wait till the plate was transfered and I had the M5 V5 back...

I don't mind paying the £80 but whilst the V5's away is there anyway I can sell the car without handing over the V5 to the new owner such as the new owners slip which is usually attached to the V5 instead?

Or are my only 2 choices wait till V5 is back with original plate then sell or just sell with the private plate?


 

[vRS Carl]

Depends on the person buying the car.

I sold my last car to a dealer without the V5 as i'd sent it off to change the address on it after we moved. They took a holding deposit on my Credit Card until the V5 turned up.

If you're selling private then it will be up to the buyer. But unless i trusted a person implicitly then i wouldn't buy a car without a V5 in a private sale.

[Black9]

That's exactly as i thought... I thought maybe the "new buyer" slip which is usually attacked to the V5 would be adequate but guess not. Guess I'll just need to buy a new one then :-(

[Baz300]

I have sold 2 cars like this

On both occasions I stated on the ad what the situation was with the plate

I made a receipt so state that the car had been sold to X and I was to place the private plate onto retention then fill in the new keepers details when the V5 was returned (keeps both parties safe,speeding tickets etc)

But I did not start the transfer process until a sale was agreed so that the buyer could check the V5

It states on the V5 that the registered keeper may not be the legal keeper I would assume the receipt given would legally transfer ownership of the car.

If the DVLA still had the regional offices offices open it would make life so much easier 

[garrardrj]

I bought my freelander with a private plate on it and in the process of being changed . I trusted the seller so paid for the car with no V5 . They had applied for the transfer etc on 28/05/14 and the new plates have come through and i have received the new V5 and sent it off but it is still not back from DVLA ! So  the buying process is still not over , until the V5 is in my name is when i can relax

[Viking]

Much easier and simpler for the seller to just remove the plate well in advance. You know you're going to sell the car, you know you're going to have to remove the plate at some point, and you know it's going to cost £80 whatever way you do it, so just make the sale an easier experience for the buyer and get it done. Makes the car a much easier piece to sell as there's no unknown factors to put buyers off.

[Black9]

I'm just going to sell the private plate with the car as it seems like a much easier & quicker process. It's a Shame dvla are so slow...

[Horatio]

Do you have any dvla offices near you?  If so, just turn up on the day, make the payment and job done. I think they give you a weeks grace to change the plates on the car.

[andyR43]

Do you have any dvla offices near you?  If so, just turn up on the day, make the payment and job done. I think they give you a weeks grace to change the plates on the car.

I believe all the local offices are now closed down and all services have to go through Swansea.

[swgti]

I've done this before with my Clio RS, basically when you sell the car you fill the plate retention/transfer form in with the person basically saying that they're handing the plate over to you as detailed below, you will become the grantee-

How long do you want to retain the vehicle registration number?
One year: £105
Two years: £130
Three years: £155
If you are retaining the vehicle registration number, as the
registered keeper do you want to become the Grantee
(the Grantee is the one who has the right to the vehicle
registration number)?
Yes
No
If you
do not
want to become the Grantee, for example you are
giving the vehicle registration number as a gift, give the details
of who should be the Grantee in the box below.
This means
that as the registered keeper, you will give up the right to
the vehicle registration number

You keep form and send off with the fee, they'll then get notification to change plate over and you'll receive the plate certificate. Very simple. Bear in mind the DVLA for some reason will not tell you that you can do this even though the form is specifically set up for it.