I was chatting to a guy yesterday, who was telling me his tale of woe about having lost his personal number plate. He’s still battling with the DVLA to get his personal number plate back.
Why?
Well this was his story.
His car had been in an accident, and declared a written off by his insurance company. And he didn’t want to lose his personal number plate with the car.
He did everything according to the DVLA rules. He obtained a letter from his insurance company which stated they had no interest in the private number plate and sent in the appropriate forms to retain his number plate.
Unfortunately, his application was declined. He’s not entirely clear why his application was not successful. I suspect that the car insurance company were a little quick off the mark in disposing of the car. A Certificate of Destruction (CoD) had been completed for the vehicle, before the the application to retain the number plate had been processed by the DVLA. And once a CoD has been issued, the registration number is ‘retired’.
Which means his personal registration number has been lost. And so far pleading his case with the DVLA hasn’t helped. The rules are very black & white, and there’s little room for flexibility in their application. The DVLA have told him his number plate has been ‘retired’ and will not be re-issued.
Although his number plate wasn’t particularly expensive, that’s not the issue. This would have been the case, whether the number plate was worth £50 or £500,000! A rather vulnerable situation.
So be warned. If your car is written off, act quickly to retain your number plate. Before the vehicle is either declared destroyed (on a CoD) or sold on by the insurance company. Or you risk losing your cherished registration!
More on what to do with a personal number plate when a car is written off.
