i came by these plates purchasing an ex taxi some 6 yrs or more ago and the plates were attached, the plates are consecutively numbered that is to say the name CITY is preceded by the vehicle's number
there was NO CAVEAT fm the seller concerning the plates, or any other part of the vehicle (for that matter) and there has never been any request for their return, either verbally, in writing (be it hard copy or email), no phone call, no courtesy in the least claiming any ownership. a while back i sold the vehicle but retained the plate which is common enough practice thru out this country. where would we be if people who sold vehicles with personalised plates came back hunting them down many yrs later.
the plate 29 CITY has been DUPLICATED & reissued! last july and currently attached to a CITY taxi being offered for sale on trade me.
one would expect the previous registered owner having demonstrated no interest at all for 6 yrs or more to hv any legal claim!
gammelvind,
Jan 4, 2:26am
So if I understand, you kept the original personalised plates and someone has had them remade and registered them on their vehicle. I guess that you let them lapse making them available to be remade.
pico42,
Jan 4, 2:36am
Are the plates on your vehicle current! Or had they lapsed!
lazeeboy,
Jan 4, 2:49am
You don't own them, I think you might find the legitimate owner as far as plates.co.nz are concerned, has had them reissued and is using them now.
Because you bought the vehicle with them on doesn't mean ownership of the plates was transferred to you along with the vehicle, that is a whole different story.
That would be the case here, when the vehicles were sold to you, the change of ownership of the plates were not transferred over to you.Just because the vehicles changed ownership, doesn't mean the plate have also. You will find the transfer of entitlement for the transfer of the plates on the P/P website.
supernova2,
Jan 4, 4:28am
Just out of interest what happens if you buy a car with the PP and don't do the plate transfer!Can you renew the licence each year and in who's name!I presume LTNZ will update the change of registered owner on their system and that would show the PP would it not!Just asking.
sw20,
Jan 4, 4:36am
The old owner probably didn't have your details, so probably just checked carjam every now and again to see if you had taken them off the vehicle. When they found out they weren't attached to a vehicle, they had them reissued and remade and they also have the paperwork.
lazeeboy,
Jan 4, 5:12am
Yeah the car would be registered to current owner.
LTNZ doesn't keep a record of ownership of private plates as far as I'm aware, the pp company does, doesn't make much sense I know, but yes you can re licence a vehicle registered to you even if it has plates owned by somebody else.
Had one where I bought a ute from a guy that had lapsed rego, had the last owners plates too which suited the ute. Took awhile to figure out how to change those into my name, got there eventually.
I do believe the registered owner of the plates got a notice in the mail giving him xxx period of time to object to the transfer.
royal.mint,
Jan 4, 5:20am
thank you very much indeed for the positive feedback, it is appreciated.i'm not a lawyer and at this point it doesn't interest me enough to pursue the matter but, i would say this, if i did contest ownership, fortunately a private company such as 'PP' doesn't decide the law in this country, then there is the statute of limitations (6yrs) and thirdly a court is probably going to consider the matters i have raised concerning timeline, no caveat ie the vehicle was sold unconditionally, zero comms in 6 or more yrs.i seriously doubt that party could 'prove ownership'.
luxy,
Jan 4, 5:36am
So I have a set pps on one of my cars. The person that owned it before me is unwell and cannot remember a thing! I do know that he bought the car about 12 years ago with the plates on it. The car was restored in the 1980s and the pps put on the car, I doubt that the original owner of the plates is still alve. I emailed P Plates and asked the question and got no reply!. So how do i get them into My name! Any help would be appreciated
royal.mint,
Jan 4, 6:10am
i think too much stock is placed in the belief a private company called 'personalised plates' who apparently hold some ancient dusty datedfile in some obscure office decide ownership. they do not, if you tested it in court the court will say how can you possibly expect this court to award 'custody' all these years later when you haven't lifted a finger to until now! imagine somebody comin' after a chattel left in a house sold6 or 7 yrs ago (they ain't got a prayer) NZ transport agency (formerly LTSA) have abdicated responsibility to PP but that is merely a convenience for process,. but i never received any advice re the matter, and was 'told' by 'the young lady' over the counter at VTNZ! when i changed the plates, oh just come back in when you find a suitable replacement vehicle not a prob! i would have thought, when you are asking to replace a set of plates there must surely be a declaration of some kind otherwise it's the quick & the dead. 'the wild west'.
studio1,
Jan 4, 7:59am
According to the PP website, when you purchase a plate you own it for life. I have plates which were made back in the late 80s - PP had just started and I was an exhibitor at a car show and they had the stand next door. I spent a lot of time there looking up what was available on their computer (no internet back then) and decided on a set. They were made and I put them on my car. I sold the car a few years later and transferred them to my next car. When I sold that I took the plates off, and at that stage you had to surrender them to the Post Office who sent them somewhere and they were stored on a shelf until requested again. I never requested them, and I got a letter from PP some years later telling me the plates had been destroyed and how to apply to have them remade under the new system. I never did, but a few years later I wrote to them to check that the plates were still 'mine' and they assured me they were. I suppose I should check and make sure I still own them!
socram,
Jan 4, 8:21am
It appears that the initial seller here is 100% at fault. We know that you own the plates for life, but if you want them, then surely, when you sell the vehicle, it is up to the seller/owner to remove them and get an ordinary number issued!If they fail to do this, then obviously they don't want them and if they do not state at the time of sale that they are not part of the deal, then they lose them! The receipt for the purchase of the vehicle (assuming there is one - and there should be) should give the registration number of the vehicle being sold.If that a number is the PP, then the buyer has a valid receipt for the car AND the plates. (Not a legal opinion, just a personal opinion.)
ola_bitchola1,
Jan 4, 8:30am
i have p plates on my car that i got from my brother never have transfered them he never did when he got the car i asked about getting new plates made and all they said was this
Hi there
Thanks for your enquiry.
To have your plates remanufactured please contact 0800 736 253 (Licencys) They will allocate the plates to your registered vehicle and send them out to you in the mail.
my other plates for my racecar i had to transfer the ownership of them due to the fact that they hadn't been manufactured before
royal.mint,
Jan 4, 12:27pm
bravo socram, merci beauchoup a votre sante mon ami
lazeeboy,
Jan 4, 8:36pm
Ahh I see now,
You have good cognition, this you have shown.
You were happy to have the benefit of a private service, as with ANY service it is the end users responsibility to be sure they read the fine print and play by the rules.
You don't own those plates no matter which way you look at it.
Unfortunate you found out the way you did, but you never changed the plates into your name, what did you expect!
socram,
Jan 4, 8:52pm
Sorry, I beg to differ.If he has a receipt with those plates noted, then he must be the legal owner!That is what a receipt is for.The seller hasn't abided by the rules if he hasn't removed/replaced the plates or stated that he retains them - which he clearly didn't. TM is full of ads that state "does not include the plates".Buyer has not stolen them or acquired them illegally so has not broken any rule.I think that any court would rule in the buyer's favour as there is no evidence whatever to suggest that the plates were not included in the sale.
As someone else pointed out, you can't go back to a house sold previously, several years later, and decide you do want the dishwasher after all, even if you are clutching the original receipt and warranty documents.You can't repossess the stereo system from a sold car afterwards and the plates are no different.
I think we'd all be interested to have a proper legal opinion on this rather than our personal opinions!Certainly on any cars I have sold, the first thing I do before even advertising, is to swap the PP for govt issued plates, otherwise I could be accused of false or misleading advertising which is the other side of the coin.
lazeeboy,
Jan 4, 9:01pm
As you may.
The right to hold a pp is a contract. Doesn't matter where the plate is.
If the contract is valid, and it IS.as the old owner had them remade, PROVING ownership to the rights.
I don't believe there is any such law of 'squatters rights' as far as personalised plates are concerned. Just you & OP seems to think so.
Why don't you do some research before you argue instead of battling the idea with how you 'think' it should work!
If you have someone interested in your plate for a private sale, you will both need to complete a Transfer of Entitlement Form and send it to the Government Plate Manufacturer (details below) so they can update their records. This transfers the entitlement of the "right to receive" the plate over to the new name. The new owner will not be able to get the plates manufactured unless this form is lodged correctly.
Government Plate Manufacturer (LicenSys NZ Ltd.) PO Box 22078 Otahuhu Auckland
lazeeboy,
Jan 4, 9:04pm
Look at it like Trade Me
They make the rules, you agree to the terms of trade by using their service.
OP was using a service provided by Personalised plates LTD, but had not agreed to the terms of use.
Simple really.
auck101,
Jan 4, 10:23pm
And that also being the case for me just recently. Bare in mind i hold ownership of these plates. I had one set of P/P that had not been on a vehicle in 7 years, in which was the last time I had a vehicle personally registered to myself. Since then I've married, so recently when I wanted these plates on a vehicle, a) I had to transfer entitlement from my maiden name to my married name, b) Vehicle had to be registered to me in my married name. Second set of P/P, I wanted these remade (1 plate was damaged) to put onto one of our trucks, same situation, as the truck is registered to our business I had to have entitlement transferred from myself to our business a) Enorder to have remade b) To be able to put it on the new vehicle.
LicenSys NZ will not remake a P/P unless it is going onto a vehicle in which they want to know the current regn number of the existing vehicle & to whom it is currently registered to. If it is not registered to you, then you are asked to transfer entitlement, if for whatever reason you decline, then your request for remake is cancelled.
lazeeboy,
Jan 4, 10:30pm
Yep! Dot the I's and cross the T's, everything should be sweet.
It is too bad people can't accept responsibility for their actions, or in this case - lack of action and blame the person behind the counter at LTSA instead, or whoever else for not telling them how it works.
supernova2,
Jan 4, 11:06pm
Well that's all interesting.So what happens in the case where somebody buys a car with a PP and the plate is not transfered correctly and the new owner then gets a traffic ticket.Would that make the owner of the PP liable rather than the owner of the car!That could get very messy as in most cases the owner of the PP would now not have a clue where the plate is.
The problem as I see it is how does LTNZ record registration/licence!Is it by plate number (unique identifier) or by VIN number!If its plate number then their records are incorrect as the plate number belongs to someone other than the owner of the car.
As the regs refer to "unique identifier" presumably the plate number is the way things are recorded.
trader_84,
Jan 4, 11:17pm
So do PP's 'lapse'! as mentioned above.
luxy,
Jan 4, 11:26pm
My concern is that if I lose a plate and they are not in my name , I cannot get it replaced
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