Hi,
I've been after a particular personalised number plate for a while. Checked on the RMS website that the person who has previously had it has lapsed on their registration a day ago. Myplates is still showing the plate as unavailable. Any idea if I can purchase it?
Thanks in advance!
OzServicesNSW
They are retired if previously used and the plates still exist in circulation. There are certain circumstances they may be kept; but generally retired.
Why would the current plate owner be rushing to hand in their personalised plates? They may want to hang them on their wall.
I just checked my plates from circa 2000 which havent been registered since 2009, not available.
SA here. Knew a SAPol officer whose wife was after a particular plate so he checked when it was due to expire. I think you get x days advance warning so you can renew it before it expires but the plate owner didn't renew. As a result the plate expired at midnight on a particular day and my friend registered it in his wife's name ten minutes later. Previous owner would still have had these plates on their car so would have had to surrender them and apply for a new registration.
Plates will be available for purchase after 3 months from expiry date. (Terms:3.5.4)
https://www.myrta.com/myrta/applications/olrr/olrr_special_p…
Nooooooooo! This sucks for me, but thanks for the info 😊
That’s only if the plates are in storage, and even then you have 28 days to pay storage, and after that, another 3 months before they release the combination again.
In that example, if the plates OP want are in storage, it would be 28 days + 3 months.
Lol WA let's you store plates at DOT indefinitely for free…
Yep, I've still got a set there from about 15 years ago 😂
From NSW.gov.au-
"If your vehicle's NSW registration has expired but it's within 3 months of the expiry date, you're still able to renew the registration".
So most likely you will have to wait 3 months.
So most likely you will have to wait 3 months.
And hope they hand in the plates. If plates are in circulation (previous owner has not handed them back), then you can't register the plate.
I think this is the case. I had personal plate on a motorbike I had 5 years ago. Paid for the plate and sold the bike after rego had run out. Kept the plate and never handed it back in.
On the RMS rego check it comes up as “invalid plate” because it has been out of the system for so long, but on the myplates site, it comes up as an unavailable combination, most probably because I never handed the plate back.
Same, NSW - JAM35 was the bike plate, no longer lookup on the rego check, unavailable in the rms system.
Interestingly I suspect it's only bikes they do that for. I can lookup a car plate from the 90s I never handed back and it's still attached to the car. Last registration: 2009.
The bike plate was more recent, can't look up the vehicle though …
@MorriJ: I don’t have any car plates, but just tried a trailer plate and it failed on both as well. Invalid plate to mlook up and unavailable as a custom plate.
@pegaxs: I’ve checked several of my old car regos that I can remember. All showing as expired on rego check, nominated to the vehicles that they were last on back as far as 1995. At least one I didn’t hand the plates in and are prob still in dads shed. sold the other cars so don’t know their final resting place.
None were listed available on myplates.
90 days at a minimum. And maybe not even after that. Possibly not until they have handed the plates back in.
But think of it this way… do you really want some other random person driving around with your plates on their car? If they don’t hand them back in, they would have a copy of your plates still in their possession.
I had a mate who had his car stolen with personal plates. Was told he would need to wait for about 2 years to get them back again.
It would make sense that the old plates need to be handed in first, or wait a significant period of time so that there are not two of the same plates out there.
Potentially never. I have been keeping my eye on buying a set of plates which matches my initials and birthdate for the last 10 years and it stills says unavailable. Rego on the plates last expired in December 1992. If they are never handed back then they will never be available for purchase.
How do you see when the rego last expired?
In USA we had a personalised plate which expired. Six months later we wanted to register another vehicle with that personalised number plate and was told someone else had now registered it!! We made a similar personalised rego and applied and were repeatedly told it was offensive and we couldn't register that name even though it was more cryptic than the original we had and that was still in circulation..!!! Just thought I'd share their stupidity and or frustration. Plus it wasn't that offensive, something like MD BMBR or so ..
Contact NSW Services
Ask RMS tomorrow and report back.