Is there anyway to find the owner of a particular reg plate?

[Rick-sta]

Is there any way of tracing the owner of a particular reg plate?

Been looking for a personalised reg plate for Deanna's car for some time now. The perfect plate would be D34NNA. Looking it up it's registered to a 1987 Austin, most likely the original plate that car was registered with. However the car hasn't been MOT'd since 1998.

Does anyone know if there is any way of tracing the owner of the plate? Assuming the car still exists. And if the car is scrapped, is it still possible to purchase the reg from DVLA? Not sure if it's worth contacting the DVLA, but going by other threads on other forums on this topic, they refuse to give any info at all?

Cheers
Rick

[bendrick]

If you can be bothered registering just for a quick query Its normally pretty productive asking any query about what the DVLA do or don't do on the Swansea City fans site, non football section.

Normally its not too long before a DVLA employee pops up with an answer, not personal information of course but what is or isn't possible or procedures etc.

https://www.fansnetwork.co.uk/footba...seacity/forum/


Must admit I can't guarantee a response but I always have had one, including one of the respondents turning around my replacement licence application inside 24hrs after I discovered that the original was lost 2 days before going on a driving holiday in France.

[wullie480]

I’m not sure you’d be able to get it even from the current owner as to long has passed from the MOT expiry. I could be wrong though.

[Rick-sta]

a little more digging, it was registered to a Red Austin Metro City X.

Checked on some HPI check sites, 1 identified that the reg belongs to a Austin Metro, but the others all say reg no found could that mean it's been scrapped?

[trikey]

You can ask the dvla Rick, if its available they will put it up for auction.

[edwardmk]

Originally Posted by Rick-sta

a little more digging, it was registered to a Red Austin Metro City X.

Checked on some HPI check sites, 1 identified that the reg belongs to a Austin Metro, but the others all say reg no found could that mean it's been scrapped?

Be a little cautious how you proceed. I tried to buy MU55ANG from the DVLA but through an agent in 2005. I was quoted just shy of £400. I then got a another call from another individual while I was 'thinking' about it to say they had bought the registration and it would cost me £900 plus VAT if I wanted it. I called back the number to buy and was then told it had been sold. The next owner wanted £3500 and that was in 2005, so I walked away and settled for the plate on the vehicle SN55 JPJ. I guess someone else paid as they never got back to me!
I still have no idea how my telephone number got passed around and felt I was definitely being manipulated into buying at a high price.
Just recently however I managed to find MG53ANG on a trader's site for just under £600 which is now on my V8 ZT, but I suspect if some traders detect you really want something, they may try to beat you to it and the price goes up. I'd present a laundry list of 20 possible numbers if you end up dealing with a trader and get quoted for all of them so no-one knows the one you really want. Very best of luck finding a plate that suits. You probably already know that any reg can't make the car look younger than it actually is.

[steve-45]

Originally Posted by wullie480

I’m not sure you’d be able to get it even from the current owner as to long has passed from the MOT expiry. I could be wrong though.

You have up to 5 years to transfer the registration number off after the last MOT expired.
That’s why I had to transfer my other personalised plate onto a retention certificate as the car it was on has been on SORN for the last 4 years.

[clf]

Originally Posted by wullie480

I’m not sure you’d be able to get it even from the current owner as to long has passed from the MOT expiry. I could be wrong though.

you used to be able to do this, however, when I approached the DVLNI to retain the reg. I was told I had to bring the car on a trailer to a tax office so someone from the office could verify the vin plate against the log book. I had the car, but not the £150 I would have needed to hire someone to trailer it to the office.

I do not know if this still applies, and it may be different to the mainland too. We have different rules here, eg I can register my car with a MGZ prefix plate (2019) if I wished. I believe too, if the car is registered in NI it can be registered with a new plate. I may have misread it, but how I read it was, if the car was currently registered in NI or was originally to an address in NI, it could be registered with a newer than its age plate.

[COLVERT]

If you had a good friend in the constabulary an address might be had.---

[trikey]

Originally Posted by COLVERT

If you had a good friend in the constabulary an address might be had.---

This has been clamped down on nowadays, it all goes on the database when requests are put through.