Private Registrations

Can You Put a Private Plate on a Lease Car?

You may be the type of person who likes to personalise your car by using your own cherished number plate that you’ve had for years. You may think that you won’t be able to put a private plate on a lease car and you’re second guessing whether to lease or not. Don’t worry! You can easily put your personal plate onto your new lease car but there are a few steps you need to follow before we get there.

We’ve put together this leasing guide so that we can go through the process with you and make sure you know exactly what needs to happen if you want to put a private plate on your leased car!

How Do I Get A Private Plate?

If you already have a private plate, you can skip this section and move on to the next. When it comes to actually acquiring a new private registration there are few ways to do so.

Buy Online

There are over 45 million vehicle registrations available to buy online through the DVLA. We recommend starting here as you have the highest chance of finding the perfect plate number for you.

Registration Auctions

For rare registration numbers, the DVLA hosts auctions roughly every two months and prices tend to start from £130. Bidding can be done by phone, writing, in person or online.

Private Sales

You can also buy a registration number from a dealer or from another car owner privately.  

What Do I Need to Do to Get My Lease Car on A Private Plate?

As long as you have the finance company’s permission to do so there shouldn’t be any problems in adding a private plate. To start you will need to get in contact directly with the funder of your lease agreement as they are the registered keeper of the vehicle and not yourself. This should be done after you have taken delivery of your lease vehicle as we are unable to arrange for this to be done beforehand.

After gaining permission from the funder, you will need to assign them as a nominee on your documentation. You can do this using the V778 form (retention document) or the V750 form (certificate of entitlement). To nominate the finance company, you will need to fill in their details in section 1 and section 2 on either the V778 or V750 and then sign it.  The funder should inform you of the correct nominee details when you call and ask for permission to add the private plate to the leased vehicle.

Once this has been done, you will then need to send the V750 or V778 document (with the funder named as a Nominee) and an administration fee (there is no set figure for this as this can vary between funders) directly to the finance company by post. Make sure you include a cover letter with the documents, as your information can get lost if not identified correctly.

Once they have received it, they should send you a letter to confirm this before passing the appropriate information onto the DVLA who will assign your private registration number to your lease vehicle. You should receive documents that will allow you to update your lease car with the correct plates.

It is essential that you do not change the plates on the lease car until you have confirmation from your finance company and the DVLA.

It’s The End of My Contract, How Do I Get My Private Plate Taken Off of My Lease Car?

We recommend organising this switch over six weeks in advance of your lease car being returned. This will need to be arranged directly with your finance company. To start the switchover, get in contact with your finance provider and inform them that you wish to remove and retain your personalised plate.

The DVLA charge an £80 retention fee which will need to be sent to the finance company as well as the funder’s administration fee. The finance company should identify how they wish for this to be paid. When everything is completed, the funder should complete a V317 and send it to the DVLA.

After the DVLA has processed this, they will send the finance company a new logbook (V5C) and a retention document which they will forward to you.

Any Questions?

If you have any questions about putting a private plate on your lease car, we are happy to answer them for you. Get in contact with us at 0345 350 3776, email us at enquiries@willowleasing.com or send us a message through our online chat service.