Personalised Number Plate Information

NUMBER PLATES:

A Statutory Off Road Notification is a declaration made by the registered owner of a vehicle that they are removing their car from the public highway.

By doing this, the person will no longer need to pay road tax, as the notification tells the DVLA that a vehicle is registered but not currently being used.

Those who have their insurance and road tax expire and don’t want to renew them may find it makes more sense to declare a SORN instead.

When do I have to make a SORN?
If one of the following situations applies to your vehicle you will need to declare a Statutory Off Road Notification:

You haven’t paid tax for your vehicle
You haven’t paid insurance for your vehicle
You want to break a vehicle down for parts before scrapping it
You purchase or receive a vehicle and don’t want to put it on the road
If you’ve sold a vehicle and been sent a V11 reminder letter, you won’t need to make a SORN, as you’ll receive a confirmation that you no longer have the vehicle within 4 weeks of informing DVLA you’ve sold it.

How do I declare a SORN?
People wanting to declare a Statutory Off Road Notification can go to the DVLA website to fill out the necessary details.

You will receive a refund for any full months of remaining tax, and won’t be able to use the vehicle on the road until you tax it again.

If you want to start the SORN immediately, use the 11 digit number on your vehicle log book (V5C).

If you want it to begin on the first day of the following month, use the 16-digit number on your vehicle tax reminder letter (V11) - but bear in mind this number can only be used once.

If the vehicle isn’t registered in your name you will need to tell the DVLA it’s off the road by post.

You can also send applications in the mail by filling in the V890 application form, or calling the DVLA vehicle service.

ext week the number plate “TAX 1” is up for auction – with bids expected to reach £100,000 – but anyone buying it might want to think twice.

That's because if your car is stolen or written off, it turns out not only is a personalised number plate not covered by insurance, you might lose it forever.

Personalised plates are getting more popular, with 374,968 auctioned off by the DVLA in 2016/17 alone. And while very few of these will cost more than a few hundred pounds, they might all be at risk.

The problem isn't just that the plates aren't covered, it's that unless you're careful when something happens to the car, they could be gone for good.

“A registration number is attached to the vehicle it is assigned to, not the person who purchased it,” said Matt Oliver from GoCompare Car Insurance.

That means if – for whatever reason – your insurance claims the car, they get the plates too.

A number plate for the Swiss canton of Zug has sold anonymously at auction for CHF233,000 ($253,353), breaking the previous record of CHF161,000.

For now, the buyer of the “ZG 10” plate remains unknown, as the item was sold on Wednesday at an anonymous online auction. Several other car and motorcycle plates were auctioned off at the event, the proceeds of which brought more than CHF500,000 to the treasury of the central Swiss canton.

The previous Swiss number plate auction record was set last March by a buyer who paid CHF160,100 for the privilege of owning the canton Valais registration number “VS 1”.

An Emirati businessman set the world record in 2008, paying 52.2 million dirhams (CHF14.4 million) for a plat displaying only the digit “1”.

A personalised registration plate is, by its very nature, very important to the owner and of special, sentimental value.

My wife and I bought one 10 years ago with a new car. When the dealer showed us the numbers it had available, we jokingly asked if we could get a plate that incorporated both our initials. A quick check with DVLA and, £399 later, we have that plate which is now on its third car.

My younger son has one too, bought for his 21st birthday by grandad as something he would keep the rest of his life.

You assume you will always have the plate, swapping it from vehicle to vehicle, but that may not be the case because it is assigned to a vehicle not the person who bought it.

Rare DVLA number plate TAX 1 – which may appeal to tax experts or taxi firms – is expected to fetch up to £100,000 at auction on Thursday which has prompted GoCompare to warn drivers with personalised plates about the insurance implications.

Personal registration numbers are increasingly popular, starting at £250 from the DVLA which sold 374,968 of them in 2016-17.

But GoCompare car insurance says drivers with a personalised plate risk losing it if the vehicle is stolen or written off.

It analysed 302 comprehensive car insurance policies which revealed only 19 specifically cover the loss of a personalised plate if the car was lost or stolen. The sum insured varied from £200 to unlimited.

When an insurance claim is made for the cost of a car, the insurer owns both the vehicle and the registration number assigned to it, even if it’s a personalised plate. The claimant can buy the registration number from the insurer, if it still owns it, for no more than the settlement price. But, if the vehicle has already been disposed of by the insurer, all rights to the registration plate go with the vehicle.

If a car with a personalised plate is stolen and not recovered, its owner will have to wait 12 months to get the plate back. To reclaim the plate, they will have to prove the car had a valid MOT and tax at the time of theft.

Similarly, motorists who have had a car with a personalised plate written off have to arrange for the number to be transferred to another vehicle or retained on a certificate in sufficient time before the claim is settled. Registration numbers move with the vehicle they are assigned to, not the person who bought it. So, if the vehicle is written off and the car scrapped, the number plate can disappear with it.

The policyholder will need to contact the DVLA and their insurer to let them know that they want to keep the plate. The insurer will then write a letter of non-interest and send it to the DVLA.

Matt Oliver, of GoCompare Car Insurance, said: “When you register a personalised plate to a vehicle you need to tell your insurer immediately, otherwise your policy could be invalidated and, particularly if you’ve paid a lot for a registration number, you should consider whether it’s properly insured.”

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Unique Number Plates

Y B-ZAR?

Because his license plate is APRIST - short for apiarist, a fancy word for beekeeper.

Lots of people don't get it, because it's not a very common word," said Clark, who keeps honeybees in the backyard of his Old Louisville home. "Every once in a while, somebody sees is and asks me about beekeeping and honey. But the whole point of a vanity plate is to create a word which is just like the real words but is itself a puzzle, so when you're driving down the road, it's 'Oh, yeah, I got it!'""

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A businessman who bought the No.1 limited edition licence plate in Abu Dhabi for Dh31 million has been sentenced to three years in jail for issuing a dud cheque to the organisers.

The Emirati man had bought the special number plate at an auction last year.

The Abu Dhabi Misdemeanour Court handed down the sentence to the Emirati man after he was found guilty of fraud and issuing a bounced cheque.

Abu Dhabi public prosecution had ordered for the detention of the 32-year-old man after organisers of the auction filed a complaint that he issued them a cheque after buying the number plate, even though he didn't have enough balance in his bank account.

Prosecutors had detained the businessman. He was charged with fraud and issuing a bounced cheque.
And during interrogation, the Emirati admitted to giving the cheque to orginisers despite being aware he didn't have sufficient funds in his account, said prosecutors.

"He said he was planning to re-sale the rare number plate at a profit so he could pay the value of the cheque to the organisers and maintain enough balance in his account," said a prosecutor.

Authorities, however, said one can only re-sale a number plate bought in an auction after one has paid the full amount and that any resale before making the payment is considered illegal.

The auction, which generated Dh99 million, was hosted by Emirates Auction in cooperation with Abu Dhabi Police on November 19, 2016 at Emirates Palace hotel to commemorate the Abu Dhabi Government's Golden Jubilee.

And the Emirati beat several bidders for the coveted plate after starting at Dh1 million. The limited-edition golden jubilee plates all featured the number 50 in the top left corner.

Fifty vanity Abu Dhabi number plates were up for grabs at the Emirates Auction event.

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Overseas territories

Some of the British overseas territories, including Gibraltar and the Falkland Islands, use similar number plates to the UK, with the same colours and typeface.

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Students at a school in Surrey have been threatened with having their bikes locked away unless they comply with a new policy on cycling to school, which includes having a number plate attached to their bikes.

In a letter sent to parents, Keith Batchelor, head of the Beacon School in Banstead, said that he was implementing new rules on children cycling into school, and parents would have to sign an agreement before their children were allowed to ride in.

As well as telling students to stick to the Highway Code, wear a helmet, and use hi-vis clothing and bike lights “where appropriate”, the new rules also mean that students will have to have a number plate (supplied by the school) attached to their bikes, which Mr Batchelor hoping that this will make students not following the rules more identifiable.

“On joining the school this September, I decided to refine the current cycling policy to enhance further the safety of the students in our care and develop their sense of responsibility on the road,” Mr Batchelor said in a statement, as reported by Get Surrey.

“The procedures will support the safeguarding of our students on their journeys to and from school and help us to celebrate safe cycling. We will provide extra training to students where it is needed.”

As part of the new policy, the school says that students who fail to follow the rules may be banned from cycling to school, with those who continue to ride in having their bikes locked up until their parents or carers are available to collect them.

Number plates for bikes have been the subject of discussion in recent months after a survey by Halfords found that two-thirds of respondents were in favour of cyclists having to have them attached to their bikes.

However the idea came was slammed by both cycling campaigners and motoring groups, with the AA describing it as “impractical and unnecessary” while Cycling UK said “rather than encouraging people to cycle, and bring all the associated health and wealth benefits, it is more than likely to put newcomers or occasional cyclists off cycling altogether.”

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As popularity grows, the prices reached for the most expensive plates are always increasing. As of 2008, the record price for a number plate is £397,500 paid at auction in September by an anonymous buyer for the plate S 1. This was originally owned by Sir John H A MacDonald, the Lord Kingsburgh and was Edinburgh's first ever number plate. Car design entrepreneur Afzal Kahn paid £375,000 on 25 January 2008 for F 1 previously owned and sold by Essex County Council and affixed originally in 1904 to the Panhard et Levassor of the then County Surveyor. £330,000 was spent on M 1, sold at auction in Goodwood on 7 June 2006.

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