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What are the rules for private plates?
Private plates must meet the regulations set out by the DVLA.
So, what are the rules for private plates?
To comply with the law, your private plate must:
- Be made from a reflective material.
- Have black display characters on a white background (front plate).
- Have black display characters on a yellow background (rear plate).
- Not have a background pattern.
- Be marked to show who supplied the number plate.
- Be marked with a British Standard number.
- Be made from durable materials.
- Be applied in a secure and visible area.
- Not display different colours: only single colours are allowed.
Your personalised number plates can also:
- have 3D (raised) characters.
- display certain flags, symbols and identifiers.
- display a green flash, if you have a zero-emission vehicle.
All private number plates must be supported by legal documentation
Private plates must have either a V750 certificate or a V778 retention document to prove you have the legal ownership and the right to use the bespoke design.
The V750 is the document that assigns the actual registration mark to the new owner. This document will be needed for assigning a plate and for selling in the future.
The V778 is the retention document needed to keep ownership of a private plate and to be able to use it legally on the roads. Valid for ten years, it only needs to be renewed if the plate is not currently assigned to a vehicle.
Private plates must always be legally assigned to your vehicle before they are used
If you are changing cars or have recently come into ownership of your private plate, you must legally process the change. Once you have successfully been approved to use the plate on a new vehicle, you must ensure you have the physical copy of the V778 retention document and V5C logbook before you can use the plate.
You can also only assign private plates to vehicles that meet the below criteria:
- The vehicle must be legally registered with DVLA in the UK and have a valid MOT certificate.
- Only operational cars can be assigned private plates so they must be able to move under their power.
- The DVLA reserves the right that you be available for them to conduct inspections on cars with a private plate. This can be at any time, so the car must always be available for inspection.
- The vehicle has been taxed or had a SORN in place continuously for the past 5 years.
If you want to apply to change a vehicle’s registration, this will cost you £80. You must also update your insurance at the same time otherwise your coverage is not legally relevant.
How do I pick a private number plate?
There are a few things to consider when you are shopping for a private number plate, such as:
Come up with a budget
Custom number plates can run up a hefty price tag, so make sure you decide what your budget is.
Once you start researching the types of plates you like, you can get a better idea of how much they cost.
Think about the legal requirements for your number plate
You need to make sure your number plates are road-compliant if you plan on putting them on a vehicle which you drive regularly. Click here to find out what the Private Plate Rules and Regulations are.
If you are buying a number plate to put in your house as a keepsake, or for use on a show car, which cannot be driven on the road, then there is no legal obligation to stick to the legal requirements. You can be as creative as you want with the colour, style, lettering and number combination!
Make sure you have the correct documentation to support your number plate
Private plates must have either a V750 certificate or a V778 retention document to prove you have legal ownership and the right to use the bespoke design.
The V750 is the document that assigns the actual registration mark to the new owner. This document will be needed for assigning a plate and for selling in the future.
The V778 is the retention document needed to keep ownership of a private plate and to be able to use it legally on the roads. Valid for ten years, it only needs to be renewed if the plate is not currently assigned to a vehicle.
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FAQs
You could run into legal trouble if your private plate is incorrectly displayed or not affixed to your vehicle securely.
- If you drive with incorrectly displayed number pates, you could be fined up to £1,000 and your vehicle will fail its MOT test.
- If it is not being used on a vehicle, you must renew your right to use your private plate every 10 years. If you bought your private plate before 2015, you must renew it more frequently.
- If you do not renew your right to use your private number in time by the expiry date, you will permanently lose your right to use it.
Check your V750 or V778 document to figure out what is required of you if you wish to retain a private plate.
You should always inform your car insurance provider that you have added a private plate to your vehicle. If you don’t inform them, this could invalidate your insurance coverage.
If you are driving a vehicle with illegally or incorrectly displayed number plates, then this may impact your car insurance. The police will pull you over and fine you up to £1,000, as the number plate is not identifiable on APNR.
ANPR refers to Automatic Number Plate Recognition cameras, which read the registration plates of cars and check them against their database of registered vehicles, which is done to help detect criminal activity.
Your insurance rate could bump up too if you have been handed a hefty motoring fine by the police. Your insurance premium could rise by up to 86%, which means you could be paying nearly twice the price.
When purchasing a number plate, you must prove that you are the registered vehicle owner. Hence, you will have to provide us with either:
- the V5C logbook
- the V5CNI logbook
- V5C/2 or V5C/2NI new keeper slip
- the V778 certificate
You must also bring a document to confirm your name and identity. For example, your driving license, a current passport, or a financial statement from the last 6 months.
Private plates hold a financial value, though the value will vary from plate to plate. Private plates hold value as they could spell a name, or word, have a significant meaning, or be very rare, an example being the ‘F1’ Plate.
Prices range from hundreds to tens of thousands of pounds and beyond depending on the seller. The high price range of some private plates is due to the previously mentioned factors alongside the fact that number plates are individual and can’t be replicated.
One of the most expensive private plates ever recorded in Britain is ‘25O’, which was purchased for £518,480 by classic car collector John Collins for his £10 million Ferrari!
The luxury car enthusiast bought the private plate to put on his Ferrari 250 Lusso, which once belonged to musician Eric Clapton.
Meanwhile, the most expensive number plate in the world belongs to Emirati businessman Saeed Abdul Ghaffar Khouri. The Arab entrepreneur purchased the number plate ‘1’ for a whopping 52 million dirhams (around £7.2 million).
Well, the reason is, that each private plate is completely unique. No two personalised number plates are ever the same.
Every time a custom plate is manufactured, it has a new, original registration number, with a new letter and number combination.
This creates exclusivity and scarcity when it comes to custom plates, meaning there is a huge demand for popular names, numbers, phrases and slogans.
This hikes the prices up because the original owner has many customers who are willing to buy the plate off them. That is why private number plates are a highly lucrative investment opportunity.
When you don’t want your private plate anymore, you can sell it on and make a profit. Other people might see the value in your plate, as it may reflect their personality or align with traits of their life. So, there will always be buyers who are eager to get their hands on it!
