Putting your rego on hold means getting an exemption from vehicle licensing, so you pay no licence fees or ACC levies while the car is off the road. Each hold lasts 3 to 12 months and can be renewed. For as long as the hold runs, the car cannot be driven or left parked on a road.
A hold protects the registration while it lasts. Once the last hold expires, a 12-month clock starts, and at the end of it the registration can be cancelled.
Fasttrack Compliance provides WOF inspections, car servicing and mechanical repairs, and re-registers vehicles whose registration has lapsed for more than 12 months, from Penrose in Auckland and Waltham in Christchurch.
NZTA handles the application, which is a request for a temporary exemption from licensing made online or at an agent on the MR24 form. The hold takes effect when your current licence expires, so the application can go in ahead of that date.
The eligibility test is short. You must expect the vehicle to stay off the road for at least 3 months in a row. Applying online needs:
A single hold runs for at least 3 months and no more than 12, and the licensing regulations allow renewal on one or more occasions. A car can stay on hold for years if each hold is followed promptly by the next.
The risk sits in the gap. Under regulation 7, NZTA can cancel a registration once 12 months have passed since the latest licence or hold expired, with no new licence or hold issued since.
As an illustration, here is how the dates can fall:
So diary the end date of the hold, not the original licence expiry.
No on both counts. Regulation 88 makes it an offence to drive a vehicle on a road while a hold is in force, and to leave it standing on one.
That second part matters for anyone without a garage. A car on hold parked on the street outside the house is on a road. A hold generally suits a car stored in a garage or elsewhere off the street.
There is one narrow defence: the person charged must prove the car was only on the road while being taken directly to be repaired or inspected. A detour to the shops is unlikely to fit.
NZTA can also revoke a hold if the vehicle is used during it.
Yes. A hold pauses licence fees and ACC levies, and the exemption rules never mention a warrant of fitness, so treat the expiry date on the label as fixed.
A car that went on hold with four months of WOF left and then sat for a year will need a new WOF before normal driving resumes. NZTA's WOF guidance allows an unwarranted car on the road only when it is being taken for repair or a new WOF, and only if it is safe.
Stored cars often develop faults while parked up, so before booking, check:
Sort anything obvious before relicensing and booking the WOF inspection, so licence fees are not running on a car that is still off the road.
When a hold expires, the car is unlicensed again and its registration has lapsed. NZTA sends reminders, and relicensing or applying for a fresh hold puts things right.
Leave it unlicensed for 12 months and that easy fix is at risk.
Once NZTA cancels the registration, renewal is off the table and paying the overdue fees will not bring the car back. From there, the only route is to re-register the car. That involves a detailed inspection to entry-certification standard, any repairs, a new WOF, an MR2A registration form and new number plates.
Usually not, because vehicles held for sale by a motor vehicle trader are listed in Schedule 2, Part 1 of the regulations as exempt from continuous licensing.
Trade stock also gets a longer runway: regulation 8 allows 24 months unlicensed, not 12, before cancellation becomes possible. That exemption is tied to the car being held for sale, so once it is sold, the new owner should relicense it or apply for their own hold.
Nothing, if you apply on time. Lodge the application more than 60 days after the licence or last hold expired and you pay an administration fee plus licence fees for the uncovered period.
Relicense the vehicle online or at an agent. If you do it within the first 3 months of the hold, NZTA starts the new licence from the date the previous licence or hold expired.
Not as a single hold, but you can apply for another exemption when the current one is due to expire soon. Lodge it before the existing hold ends and the new one runs on from that date.
On the published rules, yes: the regulation's test is whether the vehicle will be used on the road, and neither it nor NZTA's application page mentions a WOF.
A stored car with a cancelled registration is a re-registration job. If that describes your car, send the vehicle's details through the Fasttrack quote page, and the team aims to reply within 24 hours.
