Retention system is now available in Northern Ireland

From the 21st July 2014 you will be able to transfer a registration from a vehicle in Northern Ireland straight to retention. In the past, in order to retain your registration in Northern Ireland you had to use a donor vehicle in the GB mainland to transfer your registration to. You would have to pay a transfer fee of £80 to transfer the registration off your vehicle and a further £105 to retain the registration. When you were then transferring the registration to a vehicle you would again have to use a donor vehicle in the GB mainland (transfer fee is prepaid on the certificate) and then to transfer the registration back onto your Northern Ireland Vehicle you would have to pay a further £80 to DVLNI. As you can see there was quite a cost involved.

After 21st July this will all change. You will be able to retain a registration in Northern Ireland simply by filling out a V317 form in the retention section and sending off your vehicle documents along with a cheque for £105 to DVLA. It will take around 6 weeks to receive your Retention Certificate back from DVLA Swansea, however you will receive new vehicle documents with a replacement number in around 2 weeks.

People generally retain a cherished registration if they are selling their vehicle, if the vehicle has been in an accident and there is a chance that it may be written off or simply if you are fed up with the registration and want to put a different registration on.

If you would like to look into retaining your current registration in Northern Ireland but are unsure how this works and would prefer to speak to someone directly who knows what they are talking about. Why not speak to Speedy Reg. For a small admin fee we can handle all your paperwork for you.