Some personalised plate owners are being stopped from using or selling their prize plates, due to a loophole allowing double-ups to be registered.
When someone buys a plate they are buying the rights to that specific combination, which can end up being worth thousands of dollars.
Fair Go previously reported on a plate duplication dispute in 2021 when two plates were mistakenly made at the same time.
READ MORE: Fair Go: When a personalised plate isn't so personal
Since then, the show has received more complaints from people who can’t use their plates because someone else has registered a copy to another vehicle. These are cases where a plate has been lost, stolen or left unregistered for a time.
If someone wants to register a plate to a vehicle, they need to physically show the plates to an authorised agent. But there is no cross-check to see whether the person holding the plate is the rightful owner of the combination.
Waka Kotahi, the New Zealand Transport Agency, has advised complainants to take the matter to police or a lawyer. But those Fair Go spoke to say police weren’t interested and, with limited information about the other plate owner, it’s very difficult to pursue legal action.
Fair Go tried to obtain this plate ownership information from Waka Kotahi, but it refused the request on privacy grounds.
"Waka Kotahi is not responsible for the legal ownership of plates and we can’t intervene to remove a plate recorded against a vehicle in order to resolve a civil ownership dispute."
Leaving plate owners like Lachlan Downing, without a way forward.
"I bought them, I own them. I want the right to be able to use them. At the moment that's been taken away."
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