Scrapping your vehicle and insurance write-offs
How to scrap your vehicle
When your vehicle has reached the end of its usefulness, you must get it scrapped at an authorised treatment facility (ATF). These are sometimes known as a scrapyard or breaker’s yard.
There’s a different process if your vehicle is an insurance write-off.
This guide is also available in Welsh (Cymraeg).
Scrap your vehicle without keeping any parts
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Apply to take the registration number off the vehicle if you want to keep it.
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Scrap your vehicle at an ATF. This is usually free.
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Give the ATF the vehicle log book (V5C), 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.
Scrap your vehicle and keep parts from it
You can take parts from your vehicle before you scrap it so you can use them to repair another vehicle that you own.
You must remove parts in a way that does not pollute the environment, for example making sure that oil and other fluids do not soak into the ground or enter drains.
If you buy a vehicle for the sole purpose of removing parts to sell or to restore another vehicle, you must have the parts removed at an ATF.
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Tell DVLA the vehicle is off the road while you’re taking parts from it. You must keep the vehicle off the road, for example in a garage, on a drive or on private land.
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Apply to take the registration number off the vehicle if you want to keep it.
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Scrap your vehicle at an ATF when you’ve finished taking parts from it. The ATF can charge a fee if you’ve removed essential parts, such as the engine, gearbox, bodywork or wheels.
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Give the vehicle log book (V5C) to the ATF, but keep the yellow ‘sell, transfer or part-exchange’ section from it.
Scrap a vehicle that’s registered abroad
If you have a vehicle registered outside the UK that’s classed as ‘seriously damaged’ you will not be able to register or tax it in the UK. Serious damage means the vehicle cannot be repaired - it might say something like ‘statutory write-off’, ‘scrapped’ or ‘non-repairable’ on the registration certificate.
If the vehicle is damaged, check if it is ‘seriously damaged’ with the registration authority for the country the vehicle is from.
If it is not ‘seriously damaged’, ask them to provide evidence of this.
To scrap it once it’s in the UK, you must use an ATF.
You’ll get a ‘Certificate of Destruction’ to prove that the vehicle has been destroyed.
It’s your responsibility to tell the driving authority in the country where the vehicle is registered that it has been scrapped.