If your vehicle licence has been cancelled, the number plates must be surrendered to a Driver and Vehicle Services centre, regional DoT office or agent.
How and where to return number plates
WA plates
If your vehicle licence has been cancelled, the number plates must be surrendered to a Driver and Vehicle Services centre, regional DoT office or agent. Number plates cannot be returned to Perth metropolitan Australia Post outlets.
Where one or both of your number plates have been lost or stolen, you must complete a Lost - stolen number plates notification (Form VL14) detailing the circumstances surrounding the loss or theft.
Any remaining plates should be returned to a Driver and Vehicle Services centre, regional DoT office or agent.
Plates can also be posted back to the Department of Transport (DoT). Please include a note explaining why you are returning the plates.
Interstate plates
Driver and Vehicle Services centres, regional DoT offices and agents do not accept number plates from another State, unless they are surrendered at the time the vehicle is being licensed in WA.
When you license your vehicle in WA and surrender interstate plates, you will receive a plate receipt. You should contact the licensing authority in the State where your number plates were issued to find out how to delicense your vehicle and avoid any penalties.
You can usually send the plate receipt to the licensing authority in the State where the plates were issued to delicense the vehicle in that State.
WA licensed vehicles transferred interstate
If you have a WA licensed vehicle and you no longer reside in WA, you must return the number plates to DoT within three months of the current expiry date. Number plates must be returned within the prescribed period to avoid penalty.
If you have transferred the WA licensed vehicle to another State/Territory and subsequently surrendered the number plates, you will be issued with a plate receipt. You are required to send a copy of this plate receipt to DoT via post or fax.
Outstanding work order/defect notice
If you own a vehicle that has been issued with a work order, you must have the vehicle inspected or alternatively return the number plates and cancel the vehicle licence.
Should you fail to comply with the notice, you will be issued with an Infringement Notice and the vehicle licence will be cancelled. If you fail to pay the infringement, the matter will be referred to the Fines Enforcement Registry for action.
Voluntary cancellation of vehicle licence by owner
Vehicle owners can voluntarily cancel their vehicle licence by surrendering the number plates, or by completing a Lost - stolen number plates (Form VL14). If the vehicle is licensed in joint names, only the nominated responsible person needs to complete the form.
Vehicle owners can then apply for a pro rata refund of the licence fees for the balance of the remaining licence period.
Dishonoured payments
A vehicle licence will be cancelled if the payment of the licence is dishonoured by the payee's financial institution.
Failure to fit an immobiliser
If you purchase a vehicle, you must ensure that it is fitted with an approved immobiliser before payment of the transfer. If an immobiliser is not fitted, you will receive a 'Requirement to Fit an Immobiliser' letter.
Failure to respond to this will result in the issue of a 'Notice of Intention to Cancel Vehicle Licence' letter and then, again if no action is taken, with a 'Notice of Cancellation of vehicle Licence'.
Vehicles added to the Written-Off Vehicles Register (WOVR)
Licences of vehicles recorded on the Written-Off Vehicles Register (WOVR) as a statutory or repairable write-off will be cancelled.
- Statutory write-off - the VIN number is cancelled and can never be licensed.
- Repairable (economic) write-off - the vehicle can be re-licensed subject to an identity and roadworthiness examination.
Owners can apply for a pro-rata refund of the licence fees for the balance of the remaining licence period. The date of the accident or the date the vehicle was stolen must be supplied.