Updated questions and answers on the issuance of license plates on demand

Since when can I apply for a license plate on demand?
You can ask for a license plate on demand since January 1, 2016, the first opportunity for personal application you have on January 4, the first working day of the new year. On this day will also start processing of the applications. The change is the part of an amendment to the law no. 56/2001 Coll., on traffic conditions on roadways.
How do I apply?
Go to a competent authority of a municipality with extended competence in the the place of vehicle registration with the application where you provide information about yourself and the proposed wording of the license plate on demand. In case of an assignment of the proposed wording and after the payment of a fee, you receive the license plate within 15 days. As it is a common application, the forms of submission are regulated by the Administrative Procedure. Therefore, you can submit an application in person at the office but, for example, also by writing a mail or through the data box.
What must the application include?
What must be clear from the application is who submits it, what it concerns and who is the proposing person. A natural person fills in the application his name, surname, the date of birth and place of residence. A legal person must include the name or business name, identification number and registered address. The application must also contain the wording of your desired plate on demand.
What is the fee?
The fee is 5,000 CZK per table, i.e. 10,000 CZK for two license plates for a passenger car.
Can I somehow book the requested wording on a license plate?
Yes, in this case, contact the appropriate authority of a municipality with extended competence in the place of residence or the company address (i.e. the site of the future vehicle registration) and after the approval the office will book the required plate wording on demand for a period of three months. In this period, no license plate with the same wording shall be issued to any other applicant. At one moment, however, you can have only one reservation to a natural or legal person. The same is the case when an applicant owns no car or owns a vehicle that has not yet been registered by the time of an application for a license plate on demand.
What are the limitations of the wording on a license plate on demand?
Generally, it is possible to put a combination of numbers and uppercase letters on a license plate on demand (only Arabic numerals and Latin alphabet without diacritics, with the exception of the letters G, CH, O, Q and W - because of their easy interchangeability). A license plate must also contain at least one number so it must not be composed only of letters.
On a license plate on demand cannot be put words that are defamatory, incite racism, xenophobia and general hatred towards a group of people, special characters (- */ ? ! § etc.) or abbreviations of government authority, diplomatic corps, regional authorities etc. (e.g. abbreviations used in a public administration - e.g. the Czech Police, Fire Brigade, Ministry of Transport of the Czech Republic, etc.). Municipalities with extended competence received recommending instructions and general criteria under which they follow the approval process of a proposed wording on a license plate. The final assessment and approval of a wording on license plate on demand is subject to a decision of a competent authority. The vehicle registry also keeps an eye that no two identical plates on demand have been issued.
What characters must a license plate have?
In case of a car, a license plate is composed of 8 characters, for motorcycles it has 7 characters, in case of a moped it is 5 characters.
Is a license plate portable?
Yes, a license plate is portable, you can use it on your next car, motorcycle or moped, but always on one vehicle only. A license plate is tied to a specific person, thus it cannot, for example, be sold to another person.
What will happen to a license plate on demand when a vehicle is sold?
In case a vehicle is sold, the original owner has two options:
1. He either keeps a license plate for his other vehicle (this means that when selling the car, he comes with his plate on demand to the office where it can be re-registered with another car or it can be booked for 3 months and then put, for example, on a newly purchased car), a new owner of the vehicle comes to the office and asks for an assignment of a new license plate to the purchased vehicle (he either gets a common license plate or he can ask for a license plate on demand too).
2. The owner decides that he is no more interested in the license plate on demand, then it remains on the sold vehicle.
How the process proceeds if I let my plate on demand to issue for a vehicle that is not registered in the central vehicle registry?
When registering a new vehicle (i.e. a vehicle that has not yet been registered in the Czech Republic), there are two options:
1. The owner of such a vehicle wants to register it straight with a license plate on demand. Therefore, he will not drive the vehicle until he receives the license plates, then he goes to a municipality with extended competence to have the vehicle registered to the assigned plates on demand. In this case, the driver pays 800 CZK for registering a new vehicle + 5,000 CZK per table (for which he receives technical certificates and the license plates).
2. The holder of such a vehicle wants to drive it immediately without waiting 15 days before his plate on demand arrives. In such a case, he registers the car and let it assign a common license plate and then apply for an assignment of a license plate on demand (that may have been pre-booked). When picking up a table with a license plate on demand, he returns the tables with common license plates back to the office.
Is a license plate on demand subject to inheritance?
A license plate on demand is not subject to ownership and therefore no inheritance. It must be seen as a registered sign whose substantive materialization is just a table with the features according to the wishes of the vehicle owner. So even though the car owner pays for a license plate on demand a higher fee than a normal license plate, his approach to the table doesn’t alter as he doesn’t become the owner of the table in the legal sense. A vehicle owner pays the fee for drawing extra service which is just a license plate on demand. However, if someone inherits a vehicle equipped with a license plate on demand, then he becomes a new operator of the vehicle with the license plate. But he cannot inherit the license plate itself, apart from the original vehicle.
Is it possible to sell a license plate on demand written on a legal person along with the respective company and thus transfer it to a new owner?
In case that a business owner has changed and a new owner obtains a car fleet along with the company, there are two options – basically, it is an analogy of sale of a vehicle (see question concerning a sale of vehicles):
1. The original owner wants to keep the assigned license plates on demand and ask the office about their re-assignment to another vehicle (or booking them), then the license plate on demand doesn’t stay on the original vehicle which gets assigned a common license plate instead.
2. The original business owner is not interested in transferring a license plate on demand to his other vehicle so they remain on the vehicles they were before.
It is not about transferring an ownership of a license plate, neither natural nor legal person owns the license plate (the administrative fee 5,000 CZK is only adequate to the exclusivity of the operation). A license plate must be understood in this case only as an indication of a vehicle registration. At the same time, a license plate is tied to the vehicle on which it is, i.e. if the vehicle is sold, the license plate can also go along. An option to transfer it to a new (another) vehicle has only a person who purchased a license plate and the other vehicle is in her possession. If this option is not used, the license plate remains on the vehicle where it was before but is not a business property. It is bound to a vehicle on which it is and can no longer be even transferred to another vehicle.