Replacement plates

If the plate was stolen, report it before you order

Plates are not stolen for scrap value. They are stolen to be fitted to another vehicle, and the reason somebody wants that is so the fuel they drive away without paying for, the tolls they do not intend to settle, and the camera images they generate all resolve to a record that is not theirs. That record is yours.

Report it to Police as soon as you notice, and keep the reference. It will not stop the plate being used, but it creates a dated record that you reported the plate gone, which is the document you will want if an infringement arrives for a vehicle you were nowhere near.

Then decide, deliberately, whether you want the same number back. Keeping it is simpler and means nothing else about your paperwork changes. Taking a new number means the plate now circulating in somebody's boot no longer points at you. Neither answer is wrong; the mistake is not realising it was a choice until the new plates arrive.

Damaged, faded or delaminated plates

This is the category people leave for years, and it is worth taking seriously precisely because it creeps. Plates corrode from the edges, lose their reflective layer, cloud over, and eventually fail the only test that matters: can this be read, at distance, at night, by something with a flash.

The practical check is to walk ten paces back and photograph the plate with your phone at night. If you cannot read your own plate off that photo, you have a compliance problem sitting on the car right now, and it is invisible to you in daylight.

Bent plates deserve a separate mention. A plate that has been kinked, folded around a tow bar or straightened after a knock can end up with characters that read ambiguously, and ambiguity is not a defence — it is the thing that turns a fitting issue into a question about whether the alteration was deliberate.

What it costs, and where to find the real number

We do not publish fee figures, because plate and licensing charges are set by the transport agency, they differ by plate type, and a number that was right last year is a liability this year. The fee schedules live on the agency's own site under vehicle licensing fees — that is where to look, and it is worth reading the schedule rather than a summary of it, because the line that applies to you depends on which transaction you are doing.

An agent will also quote you before you commit. Ask for the total, including whether taking a new number changes the figure, before you sign anything.

Ordering them

In-person vehicle transactions are handled at a vehicle licensing agent. Take photo identification, know the plate number, and be able to say which vehicle it is. If the plates were stolen, bring the Police reference.

One national rule and one local reality. Nationally, plates are issued through the official process and cannot be manufactured privately. Locally, which branches handle which transactions, whether plates are made on site or ordered in, and whether you collect them or they are posted, all vary by provider. Ask those questions at the counter rather than assuming, because the answer determines whether you are coming back or waiting at home.

If time passes and nothing turns up, the fix is not to reorder. Plates ordered and not arrived sets out what to establish and who to chase — most of the failures are address or collection problems rather than production delays.

Once the new plates are on

Fit both, front and rear where the vehicle was designed to carry them, upright and unobscured. Check they clear any frame, rack or towing gear. Then run a vehicle check against the plate number to confirm the register returns the vehicle you are standing next to — a thirty-second confirmation that the transaction landed the way it was supposed to.

Dispose of the old plates properly rather than throwing them in a bin or leaving them in the garage. A discarded plate is a working plate to the person who finds it, and the record it points at is still connected to you. If you are unsure what to do with them, ask at the counter when you collect the replacements — that is the moment when someone can take them off your hands.

The rest of the plate rules, including what happens when a vehicle is sold or written off, are in number plates.