What documents do I need to scrap my car?

You might be happy to hear that scrapping your car is a lot less complicated than people sometimes assume. As long as you’ve made all the key preparations, it’s straightforward – and with more than 70 years of experience to our name here at EMR Vehicle Recycling, we make the process even easier.

Lots of those key preparations are fairly intuitive. For example, making sure that there’s easy access to your car for the recovery vehicle, so that it can get loaded up and on its way in no time. But other pre-requisites aren’t quite so obvious, such as knowing what documents you need to scrap your car. And if that hurdle has become a complete roadblock for you, don’t worry. Here’s what you need to have ready.

Proof of identity

Before anything else can happen, the collection team will ask you for some kind of verifiable personal identification. It’s a legal requirement under the Scrap Metal Dealers Act 2013, which was designed to cut down on fraud and similar illegal activity around recycling.

A lot of the measures the Act introduced are aimed at creating a verifiable paper trail - to make it harder to get away with fraudulent, or otherwise criminal, behaviour - and providing legal proof of identity is the first step in that.

You’ll generally find that a valid UK driving licence or passport is all you need. In some cases, scrap yards may request an additional document to confirm your address, like a utility bill dated within the past three months.

Proof of ownership

Once you’ve established who you are, the next stage is to prove that you have the legal right to scrap the car in question. And of course, it also ensures that nobody can claim they’re the owner and scrap your car without your consent! The most common way to do this is by presenting the V5C logbook, which names you as the registered keeper – we’ll go into more on that in a moment.

If you don’t have the V5C though, you can use alternative documents like a bill of sale, an insurance certificate, or a receipt. In short, any document that helps to clearly and directly link you to the car.

If you recently bought the car, or someone else bought it for you, and the V5C hasn’t yet arrived, a combination of an invoice and photo ID is usually enough to begin the process. It’s worth noting that it may depend on the specific policies of the company coming to collect your car.

V5C / logbook / vehicle registration document

Sometimes known as your logbook or vehicle registration certificate, your V5C holds all the key details about the car and its registered keeper. It’s not actually a book, but a piece of paper, which includes information like your name, address, the registration number, and the identification number stamped into the chassis. If you’ve already presented a form of ID, like your driving licence, the V5C can serve as proof of ownership.

When you scrap your car, you’ll fill in section 9 – or section 4 on newer versions – and send it to the DVLA. What that does is help the DVLA to update its records and confirms that the car is no longer in your name. If you’ve lost your V5C, which is a very common issue, the good news is that you can still scrap the car by writing to the DVLA with your details and confirmation of the car’s transfer to an ATF. Keeping a receipt from the facility gives you a clear record of the transaction. Some recycling facilities may also provide a separate confirmation note that you can file for future reference.

Telling the DVLA

That’s all the documentation covered – but there’s one last thing that it’s a good idea to do, and that’s to make certain you’ve notified the DVLA. Depending on which Authorised Treatment Facility (ATF) you’re dealing with, they may do it on your behalf. However, it’s still best to do it independently, just in case.

There are several ways to do this. As we’ve touched on above, if you have your V5C then you can complete and post the relevant section, which effectively does the job for you. Alternatively, you can write to the DVLA with your name, address, the car’s registration number, and details of the Authorised Treatment Facility. Or there’s also a third option – you can use the DVLA’s online service, which gives you instant confirmation that the update has been made.

So, how do you know when it’s all sorted? Easy – they’ll send you that Certificate of Destruction. As soon as you’ve got that in hand, you can rest assured that it’s all sorted!

Certificate of Destruction (CoD)

This certificate officially confirms that the car has been permanently taken off the road and processed in line with government regulations. Crucially, it frees you from any legal responsibility from it, which effectively protects you from being linked to anything that may happen to the car after it has been taken away.

In case you’re wondering, there have been cases where drivers have not been issued with a CoD, and then their cars have later been found being driven illegally on the roads or even being involved in car crime. It’s rare, but it can happen! The slightly less scary and far more common scenario is a little more mundane – if the DVLA isn’t aware that the car is off the road, you may simply end up being liable for the tax it’s accumulated since you thought you’d scrapped it. That can often run into the hundreds and even thousands of pounds – so it’s well worth double-checking you’ve got that all-important certificate! EMR Vehicle Recycling will always inform the DVLA your car has been recycled, but for extra peace of mind you can request a copy of the CoD for your records.