Timeout limit for retaining a plate?

[ChemicalChaos]

Afternoon all, bit of an odd one here.
My father has a private numberplate on retention from a vehicle that was sold 7 years ago. He's recently had a letter/email through from the DVLA stating that he has until the end of this month to assign it to a vehicle, or the DVLA will take it back off of him. This seems odd to me as I thought you could retain plates for as long as you wanted? Is it possible to renew the retention? He says he has had a look and that doesn't seem possible.
Unfortunately all the vehicles eligible (age wise) for the plate that we own are already on private plates, so we can't take the obvious solution.
Can anyone help advise please? Thanks in advance!

[drdel]

He could sell it to you if he can't extend Retention Certificate.

[cuprabob]

That's very odd as since 2015 when you put a plate on retention the certificate was valid for 10 years and as far as I'm aware you can then renew it free of charge for another 10 years.

I currently have a plate that's been on retention since 2013 with the last retention certificate issued in 2015. Prior to 2015 you had to renew the retention annually at a cost of £25. I'm expecting to renew it next year for another 10 years.

[alscar]

You can keep private plates on a retention certificate for 10 years and then just renew the certificate for a further 10 years if you want to retain and not allocate it.
Can’t remember offhand what section you fill in but it’s on the certificate itself.

[B'stard Child]

I agree with cuprabob

From here I've snipped a bit of DVLA response to a similar question

https://dvladigital.blog.gov.uk/2015/03/09/it-now-...

[alscar]

Just checked one of my 778’s - It’s box 5 that needs a x ,sign and send back and you can do this up to 28 days ahead of expiry.

[ChemicalChaos]

Thanks all for the replies.

I probably should have read further into this myself before taking my fathers word at face value ....
It turns out he's panicked over an email from the numberplate dealers website who sold him the plate in 2014, hence the date mismatch and the exaggerated dire consequences....and now I look like an idiot by association

[alscar]

But on the plus side , only just over an hour to resolve your Father’s (non ) issue.

[B'stard Child]

alscar said:

But on the plus side , only just over an hour to resolve your Father’s (non ) issue.

This ^

I was going to suggest you posted up the letter with “redacted” personal info because it didn’t pass the sniff test