Scrapping your vehicle and insurance write-offs
Insurance write-offs
When you make an insurance claim because your vehicle is damaged, your insurance company will tell you:
- if your vehicle is being ‘written off’
- how much they’ll pay you
When your vehicle is written off, your insurance company pays you the current value of the vehicle, instead of the cost of repairing it.
Your insurance company will decide if the vehicle should be written off or not.
Write-off categories
What you do next depends on which category your vehicle is in.
| Category | Repairing the vehicle | Using the vehicle |
|---|---|---|
| A | Cannot be repaired | Entire vehicle has to be crushed |
| B | Cannot be repaired | Body shell has to be crushed, but you can salvage other parts from it |
| N | Can be repaired following non-structural damage | You can use the vehicle again if it’s repaired to a roadworthy condition |
| S | Can be repaired following structural damage | You can use the vehicle again if it’s repaired to a roadworthy condition |
What you need to do
Your insurance company will usually deal with getting the vehicle scrapped for you. You need to follow these steps.
-
Apply to take the registration number off the vehicle if you want to keep it.
-
Send the vehicle log book (V5C) to your insurance company, but keep the yellow ‘sell, transfer or part-exchange your vehicle to the motor trade’ section from it.
You can be fined £1,000 if you do not tell DVLA.
Keeping the vehicle
If you want to keep a vehicle in category N or S, the insurance company will give you an insurance payout and sell the vehicle back to you.
To keep a category S vehicle, you also need to:
- send the complete log book to your insurance company
- apply for a free duplicate log book using form V62
DVLA will record the vehicle’s category in the log book.
You can keep the log book if you want to keep a category N vehicle.