Peteusa

We are returning to the UK briefly, and one thing we have to deal with when we get back there is the disposal of my late father in laws motor vehicle. It has low mileage for its year, and is in generally good condition, since its been kept in his garage. Unfortunately it hasnt been started or moved for over eight years, so the MOT and tax has run out. It has a number plate which might be worth some money as seperate entity, because of what it 'loosely' says. This is the aspect that I'm most interested in.

I've checked various registration plate sites, and looked at the DVL Swansea sight, and its all beyond my understanding. I'm wondering therefore if anyone has dealt with this in the past on here, and can advise me.

The main question is, am I too late to use the existing number plate, since its been idle for so long, and the DVL were'nt informed. It appears that they only allow this kind of reinstatement for up to three years, and we're well beyond that!

Any help or clarification would be greatly appreciated.

Pete

Trevski

Hi
There are many website in uk that will sell your number plate but you need to get it on retention certificate to enable you to sell, also looking at these sites will give you a good idear of what it could be worth.
DVLA will issue a plate for the vehicle,if it is a old vehicle they will issue a date related plate or if its not so old they just issue another registration number.
You dont need to have MOT and Tax on it to sell the car but DVLA might ask you to have the vehicle MOT`d to remove the old registration
all the best

Peteusa

Thanks Trev.

A couple of questions though. Can I get a retention certificate for the number plate after so many years have lapsed? It appears to me from an article I read on the DVLA site that they would have needed to be told that the car was going to be laid up at the outset, and I could only have done that for three years, and paying 80 pounds per year for the priveledge! (although I could be wrong).

On the number plate issue, its that that I want to keep most of all. I'm not necessarily bothered about getting it up and running or MOT'd. I just want to be in a position to sell the plate, assuming thats possible after eight years.

Pete

Trevski

When i last did this i purchased a car and then had it mot`d and then removed the plate and sold the car, the rego whent on a rentition cert of which you pay a charge each year to keep it on that cert not when its attached to a car.
Also i have purchased plates on retention cert to keep then sell.
My farther has also purchased a 1926 motor cycle that was in boxes and after a few months he was able to obtain the origional number plate that was on the bike so it can be done,also with the car being in family their should not be any probs in proving ownership and title.Dont let dvla push you away, that car is still in the system with that plate,all they might want you to do is prove that the car is able to be driven again so they might want to have the car mot`d as any one could go to scrap yards and apply for a rego that may be on a car.

ann m

Did you inherit the car? I would think that if you explained that the vehicle had been garaged by elderly father-in-law- (even if he wasn't that elderly ), you have no idea and no control of whether it was declared off the road, but that you would like to "activate" the number plate, someone could surely point you in the right direction at DVLA.

Do the equivalent of batting your eyelashes on the telephone

formula

Don't forget that that new law came in this month and the car will have to have insurance if a SORN hasn't been declared. That includes vehicles that aren't used and are even kept in a private garage. £1000 fine to the legal owner, so if the OP now owns the car, she is liable for it.

Peteusa

And therein I think will lie the problem.

To my certain knowledge, my late father in law never advised the DVLS or anybody else that the car was going to be laid up. He had a sudden stroke, which ultimately lead to his death eight years later. The car just stayed in his garage, and everything expired. I take it that according to the law you've pointed out above that as the new owner (by inheritance, as his name is still on the logbook) I'd be liable to pay 1,000 pounds to put it on the road for any reason, whether it be for the plate, or even if I wanted to drive it myself? Its looking like I wont be able to give it away, except for scrap/parts.

Looking Gloomy?

formula

If you want to drive the car yourself, you can MOT, Tax and insure it.

Leaving a vehicle off the public road without insurance and with no SORN declared, use to be within the law, until this month.

If the car is in his name and a SORN was never declared, watch for any post coming through from the DVLA, reminding him of the new law and of his need to insure the car (or declare a SORN). The penalty for failing to do this is £1000 and the vehicle can be seized and destroyed.

This is an article on the new law
http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/new...nsurance-rules

hilasbat

I had this problem with my old car that was off the road for a couple of years, but with a cherised number plate.

After arguing lots with the DVLA the upshot is, you can only put the plates on retention, and then sell them on or keep them yourself (off car), if it has valid MOT and tax. For my car it would have cost several hundreds of £ to get it through an MOT, and the plates were only worth about £2-400 to someone else, so we ended up just selling the car on ebay. I got about £190 for it, so it wasn't too bad. They turned up with a trailer and took it away (no idea what they did with it).

If you want to keep the car and think about things, you will need to SORN it, however this isn't a hassle, doesn't cost you anything and can be 'revoked' as it were at any time (I just SORNed one of our cars because the MOT ran out, two weeks later we took it for MOT and taxed it the next day - we lost out on about 2 weeks tax, but not a huge problem in the grand scheme of things). If you just want to sell the car asap you could not bother with the SORN, and just let the new owner sort that out (as I say, its not a hassle to do though - if you have the V5 you should be able to do it online, otherwise you can go to a DVLA office to help you).

If you want to sell the plates seperately from the car, you will need to put it through an MOT, then get a valid tax disk (6 months is fine) then you can apply to retain them, and the DVLA will issue the car with a new registration, you need to pay a small sum to put the old plates on retention (or transfer them to another car). If you keep them on retention, you need to pay every year for this, and I'm not 100% sure, but have a funny feeling you can only do this for 3 years (that I am not sure about though), but if you just want to sell them, obviously thats not a problem.

I was gutted to sell mine, and looked into it from every angle, but we simply didn't have the money/space to keep them nor the dead car

Peteusa

Thank you very much for that. Your past experiences are very similar to my situation.

I think the plates might only be worth 400 pounds at best, so it really doesnt seem worth going through all that hassle for so little return. I'm thinking I might advertise and sell the car 'as is' and get what I can for it.

Thanks again, and thanks to everyone for their valued advice.

Peteusa

Hi all!

Just another quick question regarding my late father-in-laws car.

I've learned from somebody close to the situation in England that this car was in fact SORN'd not long after he was first taken ill. Apparently there has been no communication from the DVLA, particularly in the last two/three years, so I suppose its fairly obvious that the original SORN has run out. If the car should have been SORN'd every year upto the present day, which it appears it should have been, then I guess any previous SORN history is irrellevant.

I'm a bit hesitant to contact the DVLA for clarification on this, since I dont want to alert them to a situation where they could be looking for a 1,000 pound fine from somebody! (if I'm reading the new law correctly). It might be a case of 'letting sleeping dogs lie'! I've checked the DVLA database online, and the vehicle is there, and it shows its status as 'unlicenced'.

The probabability is that I'll just sell the car 'as is', but I was wondering if in the unlikely event of me resurecting it, would it be insisted upon by the DVLA that new registration plates be issued?

Any thoughts?

hilasbat

The car wouldn't need new plates at any rate - it only needs new plates if you are taking the cherised plates onto retention or onto a new car. Once a car has cherished plates instead of 'normal' reg plates, you don't need to pay anything each year to keep them on it. You only pay a yearly fee if the plates are not attached to a car at all ('on retention').

From this point on you either need to:

SORN the car - costs you nothing, and you won't be fined if it isn't currently due to the fact a) you haven't owned the car for long (recent death of relative and only just found out about the car) b) it hasn't been on-road (which would be a serious offence). The law changing shouldn't really affect you tbh - you didn't own the car previously and having only just found out about the situation are now trying to recifiy it. Even if they could fine you, I think you would find it would be a very hard hearted person indeed who would take this route given the situation - its really there to stop people scamming the system, and those people are not the people who approach the DVLA saying 'my relative died and they seem to have had this car, and I want to sort the situation out'.

Tax & MOT it - obviously this is not ideal if it costs lots of money and you don't sound like you want to g down this path.

If it were me I would be contacting the DVLA and SORNing the car, then selling it off road and with the SORN. You have nothing to loose imho, but if they are aware of the car (as shown on their database) and you make no attempt to contact them, this is when they might fine you - like I say, SORNing costs nothing, and probably very little bother (if you have any paperwork from your late relative from the DVLA it will be no bother at all, just a case of going onto the direct Gov website and doing it, they even enter you into a comp to win a brand new car I believe lol), but it means nohing will come and bite you on the bum in the future (which could happen via them tracing you through the solictors acting on behalf of your late relative).

To sum up - contact the DVLA, explain the situation, get it SORNed, then sell it, then send of the relevant part of the V5. Job's done, situation all happy and resolved.

hilasbat

Oh, and there would have been contact from the DVLA, they will have sent a SORN/Tax reminder every year - its automatically generated, so would have been sending them out each year to the DVLA registered address.

Peteusa

Thank you so very much for that in depth explanation and advice. Greatly appreciated.

hilasbat

no worries, hope you get it sorted