How to Scrap Your Car in the UK (Step by Step)

Scrapping a car in the UK is straightforward, as long as it goes to the right place and the paperwork is done. Do it wrong and you can stay legally responsible for a car you no longer have, including any fines or tax it picks up.

1. Use an authorised treatment facility (ATF)

A car can only be legally scrapped at an authorised treatment facility: a yard with an environmental permit to depollute and dismantle end-of-life vehicles. Many breakers yards are ATFs. Some scrap car “buyers” are brokers who pass the car on to one, which is fine as long as the car ends up at an ATF and you get the certificate below. What an ATF is, and how to check one.

2. Get a Certificate of Destruction

When the ATF takes your car for scrap, it issues a Certificate of Destruction (CoD), normally within 7 days. The CoD is your proof that the car has gone and is no longer your responsibility. Keep it.

3. Tell DVLA

Give the yard the vehicle log book (V5C), but keep the small yellow slip (“sell, transfer or part-exchange your vehicle to the motor trade”). Then tell DVLA the car has been scrapped. You can do this online with the 11-digit reference from the log book. DVLA then:

• takes the car off your name, and
• refunds any full months of vehicle tax left, automatically. You don’t need to apply.

Cancel the insurance yourself once the car has gone. Insurers don’t hear from DVLA.

4. Getting paid

In England and Wales, the Scrap Metal Dealers Act 2013 means scrap metal dealers, including ATFs, can’t pay cash for scrap. Expect a bank transfer or a cheque. A buyer offering cash in hand isn’t following the law, which is a good reason to look elsewhere.

What you’re paid depends mostly on the car’s weight and the scrap metal price that week, plus anything a breaker can resell: a good engine, gearbox, catalytic converter or body panels. Ring two or three yards with the make, model, year and whether it drives. Ask whether collection is free and whether the price changes if parts are missing.

5. Before it goes

• Take out your personal things, including the glovebox, boot and under the seats.
• Keep or remove a private number plate if you want to keep the registration. Apply to retain it before the car is scrapped, because it can’t be done afterwards.
• Leave the keys and the V5C (minus the yellow slip) with the yard.

Scrap it or sell it to a breaker?

If the car still has good parts, a breakers yard may pay more than the scrap price because they’ll sell the parts on. Either way, the paperwork above still applies: it must end up at an ATF, and you should still receive a Certificate of Destruction.

Find a yard

Search your postcode at the top of this page to see the nearest breakers and ATFs, or browse by area. Yards showing a Licensed ATF badge appear on the regulator’s public register of permitted sites.