What to do if your car is scrapped or written off

You can decide to get rid off your junk car by having it scrapped by a scrapping dealer. In such an event, you are entitled to cease any car possession rights of the car. This is because of the fact that after your car is scrapped off it ceases to exist. As such, you are required to contact the relevant authority notifying them of the scrapping off your car. Notification is done with the aid of the Certificate of Destruction that you are issued with after your car is written off. The first step to take before your car is written off, is taking it to an authorized treatment facility. This essentially important in instances where your car requires to be written off by an insurance company. The treatment facility takes your car and in return, they treat it as a total loss payment. After your car is treated as such, you can now proceed to have your car scrapped.

The Certificate of Destruction is issued by the authorized treatment facilities. The treatment facility also contacts DVLA notifying them that the car is no longer in your possession. You can not be held liable for anything that is done to your car and even if it gets its way back to the road, you are not responsible. The law does not allow for cars that have already been written off to be got back on the road. It is therefore very important to ensure that you are issued with the Certificate of destruction.
Notifying DVLA of the termination of ownership

Even after being issued with the Certificate of Destruction, it is important to follow up the deregistration of the car. You should do this by contacting DVLA and notifying them that the car is no longer under your ownership. This helps in ensuring that there you will no longer be taxed for owning the car. It also helps in shielding you from legal battles in the event that your car gets its way back to the road. Not all scrapping companies can be trusted and as such you should ensure that you clear your name from the car’s ownership. There are scrapping companies that fix your junk car and offer it for sale at a lower price. This is against the legal provisions on car scrapping and therefore it is illegal.

Retain your car’s personalized registration
Before you successfully dispose off your car, you should ensure that you retain the car’s registration. This is important as it covers your interests before the scrapping process is over and before you receive payment. The main reason behind retaining your car’s personal registration is to protect you from dubious dealers who may want to “steal” your car from you. The registration number becomes important while following up the payment of your car from the scrapping company. After the scrapping company is over, you should surrender your car’s registration to the relevant authority.

Third party insurance cover
After your car has been scrapped and written off, you should ensure that you contact your car’s insurance cover to terminate the cover. This is because of the fact that the insurance cover ceases to be in operation and as such you should not pay any monthly premium for the cover. Always ensure that you detach yourself from your junk car once it’s scrapped off.

Leave a Comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *