Cherished number swap

[6cwtplumber]

Now before you all jump up and down with steam coming out of your ears, I'm not selling an original number off a standard! My recently purchased van has a age related number been issued to it after a previous owner must of sold its number already. The question I have is, can you put a cherished plate on a car that has had a age related number issued to it? I recently lost my Dad through covid, and his lorry has carried his number plate on it for over 20 years. I'd like to put it on my van, if it's possible. Has anyone any idea?

[misterm]

Has the V5 got "non transferable" in the notes section?

[marshman]

As far as I am aware you can put a number onto the vehicle. BUT the age related number cannot be transferred to another vehicle it is effectively "lost" when the new number is transferred. Where it has "non transferrable" on the V5C notes I am fairly certain it refers to the number allocated to the vehicle, meaning it cannot be transferred to another vehicle, but I don't stops you changing the number on the vehicle to a "personalised" one.

[Phil Hetherington]

So just out of curiosity, if 6cwtplumber sold his van again some years later, presumably keeping his Dad’s old plate for further use, would the van get its ‘old’ age-related plate back or a new one?

I only ask because I vaguely recall seeing a car at a show once which according to the info in the window had carried half a dozen different number plates in its life and I wondered how this happened.

[magnet]

My only point of confusion here is ‘ my recently purchased van.....age related plate...’ Just to confirm - are we talking an Historic Vehicle classed van here?
If so, the caveat for transferring a cherished number onto this van rests with the ‘age’ of the number to be transferred off the lorry, since that numberplate would have to have been first ‘used’ before the date of registration of the van onto which it is to be transferred.
In far less words:- Yes possible, unless the cherished number appears to make the van appear newer than it actually is.
Kind regards,
Gareth.
p.s. If the van was later sold and the cherished number retained on a Retention Certificate, then the van would revert to its current registration. Any reference on V5s to ‘Non transferrable’ applies to the current number on the van - that cannot be transferred onto another vehicle.

[6cwtplumber]

Thats a good point. The van is a '61 Standard 10 van, but the number going on it is a three letter three number northern Irish plate. I don't know when it was issued originally, but as it has no age defining letter or mark, I wouldn't of thought it would matter. I bought the van in August and still need to do quite a bit of work to it to get it how I want it. The 40tonne Volvo it is being removed off will need its Ministry test before I could take the plate off, so I was wondering if the effort was worth it. I personally don't really like Irish plates, but sentimentality etc....

[magnet]

You will need to find out when that NI plate was first assigned, but my gut feeling is it could be as late as the 80s.
If the NI plate has a greater sentimental attachment than its actual (relatively low) value then you can always put I on a Retention Certificate (c£110?) and put it on some other vehicle in the future.
Re the current age related number on the van, it depends how ‘unattractive’ it is. The latest so called ‘age related’ sequences in the form of numeric before alpha, are to my mind totally non- period and I can understand a desire to replace with a more appropriate number.
Kind regards,
Gareth.

[Eternal Optimist]

Non age related plates can be put onto any vehicle of whatever age.

[magnet]

Fair point Eopt, but the poster’s NI plate will not be a non-age-related plate. i.e. It will be age related.
Kind regards,
Gareth.

[Eternal Optimist]

Jan 2, 2021 18:05:34 GMT 1 magnet said:

Fair point Eopt, but the poster’s NI plate will not be a non-age-related plate. i.e. It will be age related.
Kind regards,
Gareth.

To be fair, every plate can be dated with reference to Newhall’s ‘A History of Motor Vehicle Registration in the United Kingdom’.

However, the DVLA view any plate without a generally recognisable date identifier (suffix, prefix or current system) as being ‘’dateless’ and therefore suitable for vehicles of any age’ - quoted directly from the DVLA’s own website selling dateless NI registration numbers.

[magnet]

Thanks Eopt. So it seems DVLA have now taken a different lenient approach in terms of considering NI numbers to be ‘dateless’ - which as you say - they aren’t!