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DVLA GUIDE - Unofficial Guide to the DVLA Register a Rebuilt, Altered or Kit Vehicle

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Register a Rebuilt, Altered or Kit Vehicle

Are you rebuilding or radically altering a vehicle, or building a vehicle from a kit? It'll need to meet certain criteria before the vehicle is registered. The Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency (DVLA) local office will assign the original or an appropriate registration mark on the evidence provided.

Vehicle Identity

Sometimes, however, a vehicle needs to be rebuilt and this can call the identity of the vehicle into question. Is it the original that has simply been repaired, or have so many new or different parts been used in the rebuilding process that the original vehicle has been effectively broken up? 

In allocating a registration mark to a rebuilt vehicle, the Agency's main interest is to establish whether or not the vehicle is newly constructed with no previously registered identity (in the present form). Vehicles that have been substantially rebuilt need to be examined by one of the DVLA local offices.

Vehicle Identity Check

All cars notified to DVLA as ‘written off’ within salvage categories A, B or C are required to pass a vehicle identity check (VIC), conducted by the Vehicle and Operator Services Agency (VOSA), before DVLA will issue a registration certificate V5C. If a car has been rebuilt as part of the repair process, this can call the identity of the car into question.

If a car fails a VIC because its identity cannot be confirmed, it won't be entitled to retain its original registration mark.

Following a successful SVA inspection and DVLA local office assessment, a ‘Q’ registration mark will be allocated.