The short answer: A car that has been officially scrapped should never return to the road.
It’s a nightmare situation that is more common than you think – you hand your old car over for scrap and do everything right. Then, months on, a picture from a speed camera comes through your door and there it is, your old car back on the road and a fine in your name.
This is a real problem that happens when fraudulent individuals get their hands on cars that are meant to be scrapped. This blog will go over how this situation can happen and how you can avoid it, while unpacking any misconceptions about whether scrap or write-off cars should return to the road.
Can Written off Cars Return to the Road?
When asking whether scrapped cars can be put back on the road, the lines sometimes get blurred when people use the terms ‘scrapped’ and ‘written-off’ interchangeably.
To clarify, when cars are written off by an insurer, they are filed into one of four categories:
- Cat A: Vehicles listed as Category A are so damaged that the car must be scrapped in its entirety, meaning no parts of the car may be salvaged.
- Cat B: Vehicles listed as Category B must have the shell and chassis scrapped, but some parts may be removed if they are still in safe working order.
- Cat S: Vehicles listed as Category S have structural damage where the cost of repairs outweighs the value of the vehicle itself. If the owner chooses to repair the car, it may go back on the road.
- Cat N: Vehicles listed as Category N have non-structural damage (usually electrical or mechanical) where the cost of repairs outweighs the value of the vehicle itself. Once again, if the owner chooses to repair the car, it may go back on the road.
Any car that has is deemed to be Category A or B can not be returned to the road at all and must be listed as scrap. Vehicles that have been listed as Category S or N are still insurance write-offs, but can return to the road after repairs are complete.
So in summary, cars that are listed as scrap should not ever return to the road, whereas some written-off cars can be driven again after repairs.
How Do Some Scrap Cars End Up Back on the Road?
If your scrap car ends up back on the road, something has gone very wrong. Usually this is due to a rogue trader buying your car for scrap price, giving it a quick repair and illegally selling it to an unsuspecting buyer. Sometimes these traders tell you that they have notified the DVLA about your car being scrapped but they never do, so the car still legally belongs to you.
How can you avoid this? By always using an Authorised Treatment Facility – like us at A&L – and insisting that you receive a Certificate of Destruction as this is physical proof that your car was meant to be destroyed. You should also never accept a cash payment for your scrap car, this is illegal and will leave you without a paper trail to refer back to if something were to happen.
At A&L, we have been responsibly scrapping and recycling cars for over 10 years, so you can trust us to make the scrapping process as hassle-free and transparent as possible.
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