Selling your car? Here’s how to keep your registration.

Do you have a personalised registration on your car that you really love and couldn’t part with? What happens if you decide to sell your car? If you are thinking of selling your car and would like to hold on to your registration there are two options for doing so.

Firstly if you have already purchased a new vehicle or are in the process of doing so you will be able to transfer your registration to the new vehicle. This can be done through your garage or if purchasing a vehicle privately you can send a V317 form along with both vehicle log books or a V62 form along with the V5c/2 (new keepers supplement) for your new vehicle and a cheque for £80 made payable to DVLA as payment of the transfer fee.

If you are selling your vehicle and don’t intend on getting a new vehicle for a while the best thing to do is to transfer your registration onto certificate. To do this again you would fill out a V317 form and complete the section for retaining a registration. Send this off with your v5C registration document and a cheque for £80 payable to DVLA as payment to retain your registration.

All forms can be downloaded and are printable from the DVLA website, however if you cannot access them from here they are available in most Post Offices.

Remember when you purchase a new vehicle you will need to tax it as the new keeper. Any tax currently held on the vehicle will no longer be carried forward but instead will be refunded to the previous keeper upon receipt of an application to change keeper details. You can tax the vehicle online using the V5C/2 or at your local Post Office using the V5C/2. If you are in Northern Ireland you cannot tax a vehicle online using the V5C/2 as DVLA do not hold insurance information online for Northern Ireland customers. In this case you will have to tax the vehicle at a Post Office.

It may be beneficial and may aid the sale of your vehicle to leave the registration with the vehicle. When you transfer a registration from a vehicle it will be replaced with either the original mark (if this is not the registration you are removing) or with a DVLA issue number. A buyer may be more interested in the vehicle if it has a nice registration that is perhaps personal to them. If the registration means nothing to you then you should consider leaving it with the vehicle as it may make you a little more money. However make sure you have an idea of the value of the registration before doing this as you may end up losing out.

If you are unsure of the value of your registration you can contact Speedy Reg, who will give you an accurate up to date valuation and will assist you in the transfer of your registration, should you require assistance. You might just find your registration is worth more than you thought and you may then be interested in selling it.

If transferring your personalised registration to your new vehicle just ensure that the new vehicle is suitable to receive the registration in terms of age. For example if your registration is JE55 TOD you cannot transfer this to a vehicle registered in 2004. If you are unsure of the rules and regulations of transferring a registration speak to DVLA or a reputable registration dealer like Speedy Reg.