Legal & compliance

There are two steps to the idea: first, taking the registration off the vehicle it’s currently on (the “donor” vehicle); then, putting it on another vehicle (the “recipient”).

The £80 fee is the DVLA fee for taking a registration off or transferring it — it isn’t normally charged again when you assign from a valid V750 or V778.

Retention certificates normally run for up to 10 years; you must assign the number to a vehicle or renew before the expiry date. If a certificate is allowed to expire, the right to use the number can be lost and the registration can return to DVLA and be reissued — so renew on time.

Q registrations: registrations beginning with Q (and NIQ) are not transferable. You cannot take a Q registration off a vehicle or put a private registration onto a Q-registered vehicle.

Northern Ireland: NI registrations generally cannot be transferred onto vehicles registered in Great Britain in the usual way — we check each one before promising anything.

Note that you can sell or give a registration held on a V750 or V778 to someone else, but it must be assigned to a vehicle in the buyer’s name before they can use it.

The Gibraltar authority is the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Department (DVLD), and personalised Gibraltar registrations are issued through their scheme.

personalised marks begin with “G” followed by up to five further characters. The letters I, O, Q, S and Z are not permitted in personalised combinations, and offensive or confusing combinations can be refused or revoked.

Ownership, retention and transfer: buying a personalised Gibraltar number comes with a Certificate of Ownership, initially valid for 48 months, within which you must either assign it to a vehicle or place it on retention. Retention can be renewed. Transferring a number to another vehicle or owner, removing it from a vehicle, and obtaining a duplicate certificate all carry a fee set by DVLD.

Fees and charges are set by DVLD and can change — see the current figures on the official Gibraltar personalised plates service ↗. For department guidance, see the DVLD department page ↗.

If ownership rights lapse, the Licensing Authority may reissue the number — for example where the vehicle is deregistered, or where it has had no roadworthiness certification for seven years.

To register a personalised number to a Gibraltar vehicle, DVLD normally requires proof of identity, documents proving ownership of the vehicle, insurance valid in Gibraltar, any customs/import and roadworthiness paperwork, and DVLD approval of the registration.

Anyone, anywhere can buy and hold a Gibraltar plate. Driving a Gibraltar-registered vehicle in Spain or the rest of Europe does not require the plate to be changed from its Gibraltar format, provided it’s valid and correctly displayed.

We can't issue DVLD registrations ourselves — we source and broker them and handle the paperwork with you. Always check the current rules and fees with DVLD before you commit.

Road-legal plates: for UK road use we supply plates built to the current British Standard for retroreflective number plates (BS AU 145e) — the plate must carry the supplier’s name and postcode, the BS AU 145e marking, and the characters must be in the mandatory font at the legal size and spacing. Front plates are black on white, rear plates black on yellow. A front plate must not carry a blue band if it would breach the standard.

Proof of entitlement: to supply road-legal plates we must see evidence you’re entitled to the registration — normally the vehicle’s V5C log book, or a V750 certificate of entitlement, V778 retention document or V948 certificate of authorisation. Bring or send that and the plates can be printed.

Show plates (display plates): not legal for road use. They exist for events, films and off-road use only. Marked “Currently not available” on our printed plates page.

Gibraltar plates: only manufacturers licensed by DVLD may produce Gibraltar plates, and they must meet the DVLD format, font and reflectivity rules in section 3. If you need Gibraltar plates we’ll tell you honestly whether we can supply them or whether you need a DVLD-licensed manufacturer.

Prices: standard road-legal plates £22 per pair, 3D gel plates £32 per pair, 4D acrylic plates £35 per pair. Prices are plus VAT where applicable and postage may apply; we confirm the final total on your enquiry.

Registration prices are for the registration. The £80 transfer fee, with VAT payable in addition, is separate.

Printed plate prices are per pair, plus VAT where applicable.

We’ll always set out the full total in writing before you commit to anything.

When we advertise a registration on behalf of its owner, we agree the asking price with the owner and advertise it at that price plus our fee, which is 15% of their asking price or £100, whichever is greater. The owner receives their full asking price; our fee is what we’re paid for advertising it, handling enquiries and guiding the transfer.

We only advertise a registration once the person advertising it has confirmed the registration, or the vehicle or retention document it sits on, is in their name, or that they have permission from the registered keeper or the grantee.

We fact-check that a registration is transferable before it goes live, and we can remove a listing from public view at any time at the owner’s request. Removed listings are retained on our records rather than deleted.

We don’t guarantee a sale, a timescale or a price.

We don’t run accounts and we don’t store your details on the website. When you send an enquiry through a form on this site, the details you type are delivered to us by email so we can reply.

We use what you send only to answer you and to handle your enquiry or listing. We don’t sell it.

Photographs, paperwork and details sent for a listing or a valuation are kept for as long as we’re handling your plate and then removed on request.

We don’t hold card details. We don’t take payment on this website; where payment is due we send an invoice or a payment link by email.

Ask us to correct or remove your details at any time and we’ll do it.

Whatever the problem, start with us: email, or phone our mobile or office line. We’ll come back to you.

If we can’t put something right, you’re entitled to take it further with the relevant authority (DVLA for UK registrations, DVLD for Gibraltar) — we’ll give you the details you need on request.