Scrap Car Collection Across North London
Free collection from Barnet, Camden, Enfield, Hackney, Haringey and Islington, in any condition, runner or not. The vehicle goes to an Authorised Treatment Facility, a Certificate of Destruction is issued and the paperwork is handled.
- Free collection
- Any condition
- CoD issued
- DVLA notified
Scrap car collection across North London is free, and it covers Barnet, Camden, Enfield, Hackney, Haringey and Islington, including N, NW and EN postcodes. Call or WhatsApp CityGrip Recovery on 07960 200253 with the registration, the postcode and where the car is standing. We collect in any condition, including non-runners, flat tyres, no MOT and vehicles that have not moved for years, and we collect vans and 4x4s as well as cars. The vehicle goes to an Authorised Treatment Facility permitted by the Environment Agency, a Certificate of Destruction is issued, and the paperwork is handled. Payment is by bank transfer, never cash, because section 12 of the Scrap Metal Dealers Act 2013 prohibits cash payment for scrap metal. You must also tell DVLA yourself.
The six boroughs, and the postcodes inside them
North London on this page means Barnet, Camden, Enfield, Hackney, Haringey and Islington. That is not a boundary we invented for marketing. Those six boroughs, together with Waltham Forest, are the constituent boroughs of the North London Waste Authority, the statutory joint waste authority for the area, so it is a genuine recycling region with a genuine definition. In postcode terms the area runs across the N districts from N1 in Islington up to N22 in Wood Green, the NW districts from NW1 in Camden Town out to NW11 in Golders Green, and the EN districts from EN1 to EN5 across Enfield and Barnet.
The districts people actually use to describe where they live are the ones we work to. In Barnet that is Finchley, North Finchley, East Finchley, Finchley Central, Friern Barnet, Whetstone, Totteridge, Mill Hill, Hendon, Colindale, Golders Green and Cricklewood. In Enfield it is Enfield Town, Upper and Lower Edmonton, Ponders End, Palmers Green, Southgate and Winchmore Hill. In Haringey it is Tottenham, Wood Green, Hornsey, Crouch End, Muswell Hill and Seven Sisters. In Camden it is Camden Town, Kentish Town, Hampstead, Kilburn and St John's Wood. In Islington it is Highbury, Holloway, Archway and Finsbury Park. In Hackney it is Stoke Newington, Shacklewell, Dalston, Hoxton and Stamford Hill.
Routing across this area follows three roads. The A406 North Circular is the east to west spine, crossing the A10 Great Cambridge Road at the Great Cambridge Interchange and sharing carriageway with the A1 further west, which is how a transporter moves between Enfield, Haringey and Barnet without dragging a dead car through central London. The A10 is the practical access route for Edmonton, Ponders End and the Tottenham corridor. The A1 through Archway and Highgate towards Mill Hill serves Barnet and north Islington. If your street sits off one of those, tell us which junction is nearest and the collection is easier to plan.
Driveway, kerbside or estate: what access really decides
A scrap collection in North London is rarely a driveway job. Hackney's own figures put 65 per cent of residents with no access to a car and 87 per cent of journeys starting in the borough made by walking, cycling or public transport, which is exactly why so many end-of-life cars in the borough are sitting on-street rather than behind a gate. Islington operates controlled parking zones lettered A through Z plus variants such as HE, TW, MA and MD, each with its own hours, and zones C and K run 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Barnet runs its own zones including Colindale, Cricklewood with specific terraces zones, and East Finchley, and issues resident permits virtually against the vehicle registration mark, which is worth knowing because once the car is deregistered that permit stops being usable.
Tell us the zone letter or the sign wording when you book and we will tell you honestly whether the truck can load where the car stands. Where a bay genuinely needs suspending, start that with the borough before you fix a collection date, because in tightly controlled Camden streets the suspension lead time, not truck availability, is usually the thing that sets the day. On a TfL red route, double or single red lines mean no stopping, loading or waiting by motor vehicles at all, and TfL civil enforcement officers issue the penalties rather than the borough, so a car parked on a red route section has to be moved or a dispensation arranged first.
Two other North London realities matter. Hackney states that cyclists, emergency vehicles and waste vehicles may drive through its low traffic neighbourhood filters and that it does not offer general exemptions, and a recovery transporter is neither an emergency nor a waste vehicle, so we route around the filters rather than through them. And in Hampstead, Highgate and Muswell Hill the streets are steep, narrow and often lined both sides, with roads such as Swains Lane and Highgate West Hill that no full-size transporter should be reversed into. In those cases we winch from the road end or bring a smaller tilt-bed. Tell us the street, not just the postcode.
Your paperwork, and the one slip you tear off and keep
Have four things ready: the V5C logbook, photo identification, proof of address dated within the last three months, and your bank details. A UK photocard driving licence is the ideal ID because it carries name, face and address in one document. This is not the yard being awkward. The Scrap Metal Dealers Act 2013 requires the dealer to verify the supplier's full name and address from prescribed documents and to keep that record for three years, recorded so the information and the metal can be identified against each other. A buyer who does not ask for ID is not following the law that governs them.
The V5C handling is where most sellers slip up. GOV.UK is blunt about it: give the ATF the vehicle log book, but keep the yellow sell, transfer or part-exchange section from it first. That yellow slip is headed for selling or transferring your vehicle to the motor trade, insurer or dismantler. On a V5C issued before April 2019 it is section 9, and on one issued after that date it is section 4. Tear it off, keep it, and hand over the rest. If you hand the whole book across intact you lose the piece of paper that proves when you passed the vehicle on.
A missing logbook does not stop the job. It makes your proof of identity and address more important, not less, because the paper trail has to be built from the documents that are left. The same applies where the registered keeper has died: the vehicle can still be scrapped, but expect to be asked for proof of your authority to deal with it alongside your own ID. Lost keys are not a barrier either, since a non-runner is winched or tilt-bedded on regardless.
Telling DVLA is the one job that stays with you
We collect the vehicle, we deal with the ATF, and the Certificate of Destruction comes back. What nobody can do on your behalf is notify DVLA that you have taken the vehicle to an ATF. You do that yourself, online, and GOV.UK states plainly that you can be fined £1,000 if you do not. Do it the same day the truck leaves and the job is finished.
It matters because of what happens if you skip it. Stay recorded as the registered keeper and you stay exposed: to vehicle tax enforcement, to penalty charge notices, and to being the first name on the file if the vehicle or its plates turn up somewhere they should not. Telling DVLA is also the only way to cancel the vehicle tax, so it is the same action that starts your refund. Confirmation of the scrapping typically reaches the former keeper within about four weeks. Keep that confirmation with the yellow slip and the certificate.
One local point of urgency. Haringey states that vehicles on its housing estates that are untaxed, or that have no MOT where one is required, are treated as abandoned and removed, that they cannot use an estate parking permit, and that permission to keep a SORN vehicle on an estate is only given in exceptional circumstances. If you live on a Haringey estate with a dead car outside, that is a real deadline rather than a sales line. Since 2004 the last registered keeper carries responsibility for an abandoned vehicle, which is another good reason to close the record properly rather than let the car sit.
The Certificate of Destruction, and why only an ATF can issue it
GOV.UK is unambiguous that when a vehicle has reached the end of its usefulness you must get it scrapped at an Authorised Treatment Facility, an operator working under an environmental permit issued by the Environment Agency in England and Wales. Regulation 27 of the End-of-Life Vehicles Regulations 2003 puts the certificate duty on that facility: when an ATF accepts delivery of an end-of-life vehicle transferred to it for treatment, it shall issue a certificate of destruction to the last holder or owner. Part V of the same regulations adds that a certificate is validly issued only where it is issued by an ATF, and regulation 29 fixes what it must contain. A receipt from a man with a trailer is not a Certificate of Destruction and never becomes one.
A Certificate of Destruction is not a receipt, it is a record that closes the DVLA vehicle record so the vehicle can never be taxed or re-registered. Certificates are issued for cars and light goods vehicles up to 3.5 tonnes and for eligible three-wheelers. Vehicles outside that scope receive a Notification of Destruction instead, which tells DVLA the vehicle was destroyed but does not close the record in the same way. Only the holder of a valid ATF permit can access the DVLA service that issues either document. DVLA guidance says you should receive your certificate within seven days.
After the certificate comes depollution, the removal of hazardous liquids and components, followed by dismantling and recycling. This is measured, not claimed: producers work to targets of 95 per cent recovery and 85 per cent recycling by average weight of each end-of-life vehicle. Producers must also provide a convenient network of ATFs offering free take-back, which is why being charged to dispose of an ordinary end-of-life car should prompt questions rather than a payment. For the full legal walkthrough of the regulations, the certificate and the recycling chain, see our scrap car collection and car recycling guide.
How you get paid, and why nobody may lawfully hand you cash
Section 12 of the Scrap Metal Dealers Act 2013 says a scrap metal dealer must not pay for scrap metal except by a cheque which under section 81A of the Bills of Exchange Act 1882 is not transferable, or by an electronic transfer of funds. Home Office supplementary guidance removes any remaining doubt: cash cannot be used by any scrap metal dealer to buy scrap metal, it is an offence under section 12, and there are no exemptions. A person guilty of that offence is liable on summary conviction to a fine at level 5 on the standard scale, which GOV.UK describes in this context as a fine of an unlimited amount. The dealer, the site manager and the individual who hands the money over can each be liable.
In practice that means payment reaches you by bank transfer. Permitted methods include BACS, faster payments, direct debit, standing order and online, telephone or mobile banking, along with non-transferable crossed cheques. What is not permitted includes postal orders, gift cards, anonymous prepaid cards and virtual currency. The reason is traceability: each permitted method leaves a record running from the payer's account to the payee's account, which was the whole point of licensing scrap metal dealers from 1 October 2013 and stripping the anonymous reward out of metal theft.
So treat an offer of cash as information about the buyer. If someone advertises cash for your scrap car, they are either not licensed or not intending to comply, and the vehicle may not reach an ATF at all, which leaves you with no Certificate of Destruction and your name still on the record. We quote a fair price before collection, agree it with you in advance, and pay by bank transfer.
What the quote is built from, and the North London catalytic converter problem
A scrap car quote is not a mystery number. It is built from the vehicle's kerb weight multiplied by the current scrap steel rate per tonne, plus the value of the catalytic converter and any genuinely reusable parts, minus the cost of getting the vehicle collected. That is why a heavy 4x4 and a small hatchback of the same age are worth different amounts, and why the same car can be quoted differently in different weeks. Published UK price ranges vary widely from source to source and steel rates move with the market, so any fixed figure printed permanently on a website is a guess. We give you a figure for your vehicle before we come, and it does not change on the doorstep unless the vehicle is materially different from what was described.
The catalytic converter is one of the highest value single items on an end-of-life car, which makes it a specific North London issue. Metropolitan Police recorded figures show more than 10,000 catalytic converter thefts in London in 2021, down from more than 14,000 in 2020, against 173 in 2017, and the Met runs a dedicated response through Operation Ferrous. If your car has been standing on a street in Tottenham, Edmonton, Holloway or anywhere else with the cat cut out from underneath, the quote will be lower, and that is arithmetic rather than a haggle. Tell us when you call and the figure you get will be the figure you keep.
Condition beyond that matters far less than people expect. Flat tyres, a seized engine, missing panels, no keys, water damage, years off the road: none of it stops the collection and none of it stops the certificate. A non-runner is winched or loaded on a tilt-bed, which needs a clear line from the vehicle to the truck and enough room alongside to work, not a running engine.
Before the truck arrives: private plate, tax refund, and the ULEZ question
If the car carries a private registration you want to keep, take it off before the vehicle goes anywhere near an ATF. Once the record is closed the plate is gone. Retention costs £80, and the eligibility rules catch out most long-standing cars: the vehicle must be currently taxed or have a SORN in place, must have been taxed or had a SORN in place continuously for the past five years, must be of a type that needs an MOT or HGV test certificate, and must be available for inspection if DVLA asks. A car that has been sitting untaxed and unSORNed on a North London street for three years will usually fail the five-year test, and the number is simply lost. If you value the plate, that alone is a reason not to leave the car sitting any longer. A successful application produces a V778 retention document holding the right to assign the number for ten years.
Vehicle tax comes back automatically once DVLA is told. DVLA issues a refund cheque for any full months left on the tax, calculated from the date it receives the information, and cancels any Direct Debit automatically. Three things are not refunded: credit card fees, the 5 per cent surcharge on some direct debit arrangements, and the 10 per cent surcharge on a single six-month payment. If the cheque has not arrived after eight weeks, contact DVLA. Note again that telling DVLA is the only way to cancel the tax, so the refund and the deregistration are the same action.
On scrappage, the honest answer is that the London vehicle scrappage scheme is closed. It ran from 30 January 2023 and closed to new applicants on 8 September 2024, having approved 53,944 applications and awarded over £186 million, with up to £2,000 available to individuals scrapping a car and up to £9,500 to businesses for a compliant or retrofitted van. Some sites still advertise free ULEZ scrappage collection. There is no grant to apply for now, and anyone implying otherwise is working from an out of date page.
North London scrap car FAQs
Do you collect scrap cars from every North London borough?
Yes. We collect from Barnet, Camden, Enfield, Hackney, Haringey and Islington, which covers the N postcodes from N1 to N22, the NW postcodes from NW1 to NW11 and the EN postcodes from EN1 to EN5. That includes Finchley, Mill Hill, Hendon, Colindale, Golders Green, Edmonton, Ponders End, Palmers Green, Southgate, Winchmore Hill, Tottenham, Wood Green, Hornsey, Crouch End, Muswell Hill, Camden Town, Kentish Town, Hampstead, Kilburn, Highbury, Holloway, Archway, Finsbury Park, Stoke Newington, Dalston, Hoxton and Stamford Hill. Call or WhatsApp 07960 200253 with your postcode.
Is collection really free, or is the cost taken off the quote?
Collection is free. The figure we agree with you before we come is the figure you are paid, and no collection charge is deducted from it afterwards. This also aligns with how the end-of-life vehicle rules are meant to work: producers are required to provide a convenient network of authorised treatment facilities offering free take-back. If a buyer tries to charge you for disposing of an ordinary end-of-life car, or quietly shrinks the quote when the truck arrives, that is worth questioning.
Can I get cash for my scrap car in North London?
No, and nobody may lawfully offer it. Section 12 of the Scrap Metal Dealers Act 2013 says a scrap metal dealer must not pay for scrap metal except by a non-transferable cheque or an electronic transfer of funds. Home Office guidance confirms there are no exemptions, and the penalty on summary conviction is a fine at level 5 on the standard scale, described by GOV.UK as an unlimited amount. Payment reaches you by bank transfer instead. If someone offers you cash for a scrap car, treat it as a warning sign about the buyer.
What documents do I need ready on collection day?
Four things: the V5C logbook, photo identification, proof of address dated within the last three months, and your bank details for payment. A UK photocard driving licence works well as ID because it shows your name, face and address together. The reason for the ID check is legal rather than procedural: the Scrap Metal Dealers Act 2013 requires the dealer to verify the supplier's full name and address from prescribed documents and to keep that record for three years. A buyer who skips it is not complying with the law.
What do I do with the V5C logbook when the truck arrives?
Hand over the logbook, but tear off and keep the yellow section first. GOV.UK's instruction is to give the authorised treatment facility the vehicle log book but keep the yellow sell, transfer or part-exchange section from it. That slip is headed for selling or transferring your vehicle to the motor trade, insurer or dismantler. It is section 9 on a V5C issued before April 2019 and section 4 on one issued after that date. Keep it with your DVLA confirmation and your Certificate of Destruction.
Do I have to tell DVLA myself, or is that handled for me?
You must tell DVLA yourself that the vehicle has gone to an authorised treatment facility. You can do it online and it takes a few minutes. GOV.UK states that you can be fined £1,000 if you do not. Until you do it you remain the registered keeper on the record, which leaves you exposed to tax enforcement, penalty charge notices and anything else associated with the vehicle. It is also the only way to cancel your vehicle tax and trigger your refund. Confirmation typically arrives within about four weeks and should be kept.
What is a Certificate of Destruction, and who issues it?
It is the document that records that an authorised treatment facility has destroyed your vehicle, and it closes the DVLA record so the vehicle can never be taxed or re-registered. Regulation 27 of the End-of-Life Vehicles Regulations 2003 requires the ATF to issue it to the last holder or owner when it accepts the vehicle, and Part V of the same regulations says a certificate is valid only where an ATF issues it. Neither a seller nor a broker can issue one. DVLA guidance says you should receive it within seven days.
Can you scrap a car that will not start, or one with no keys?
Yes. Non-runners are the majority of what we collect. A seized engine, flat or missing tyres, a dead battery, a car that has not moved for years, missing panels, water damage or no keys at all: none of it prevents collection or the certificate. The vehicle is winched or loaded onto a tilt-bed instead of being driven on. What we do need is honest information about access, meaning where the car is standing, whether the wheels turn and whether there is a clear line for the truck.
My car is parked in an Islington controlled parking zone. Can it still be collected?
Usually yes, but tell us the zone letter before we book a time. Islington operates controlled parking zones lettered A through Z plus variants such as HE, TW, MA and MD, and while many run daytime hours on weekdays, zones C and K operate 24 hours a day, seven days a week. That changes when a transporter can legally stop alongside. If a bay needs suspending, start that with the council before fixing the collection date, because the notice period is normally the constraint rather than truck availability.
Can I just drive the car to a scrapyard myself?
Usually not lawfully. Driving with no MOT or no vehicle tax is unlawful except when you are travelling to a pre-booked MOT test, and a vehicle under a SORN declaration may not be used on the road at all. Most cars that have reached scrap condition fall into at least one of those categories, and many are not roadworthy in any case. Collection on a transporter is therefore not a convenience upsell, it is normally the only lawful way to move the vehicle.
Can I scrap a car that still has finance outstanding?
Not until the agreement is dealt with. On hire purchase or PCP the finance company remains the legal owner of the vehicle until the agreement is settled, and being named on the V5C makes you the registered keeper, not the owner. Scrapping it without settling would put you in breach of the credit agreement and exposed to civil recovery. Request a settlement figure, clear it or get written consent from the lender, then scrap. Yards run finance checks on incoming vehicles and will pause a flagged car. A vehicle bought with a personal loan is owned by you outright and is unaffected.
Does having no MOT, no tax or a SORN reduce what I am paid?
No. None of them blocks scrapping and none of them reduces the value of the vehicle as scrap, because the value is built from weight, metal price and salvageable parts rather than from roadworthiness. The reverse worry is just as common and just as unfounded: you do not need to SORN a car in order to scrap it, because the Certificate of Destruction closes the DVLA record anyway. What does matter is telling DVLA once the vehicle has gone.
Will I get a refund on my road tax?
Yes, automatically, once DVLA has been told. DVLA issues a refund cheque for any full months left on the vehicle tax, calculated from the date it receives the information, and cancels any Direct Debit automatically. There is no refund of credit card fees, of the 5 per cent surcharge on some direct debit arrangements, or of the 10 per cent surcharge on a single six-month payment. If the cheque has not arrived after eight weeks, contact DVLA. Telling DVLA is the only way to cancel vehicle tax.
Can I keep my private registration number?
Only if you take it off before the vehicle reaches the authorised treatment facility. Retention costs £80 and the vehicle must be currently taxed or have a SORN in place, must have been taxed or had a SORN in place continuously for the past five years, must be of a type that needs an MOT or HGV test certificate, and must be available for inspection if DVLA asks. Cars that have sat untaxed for a long period commonly fail the five-year test and the number is lost. If the application succeeds you get a V778 retention document valid for ten years.
Is the ULEZ scrappage grant still open?
No. The London vehicle scrappage scheme ran from 30 January 2023 and closed to new applicants on 8 September 2024. In total 53,944 applications were approved and over £186 million was awarded, including over £116 million for vans and minibuses, with up to £2,000 available to individuals scrapping a car and up to £9,500 to businesses. Some websites still advertise free ULEZ scrappage collection, but there is no grant left to apply for. Scrapping the vehicle through an ATF is now a straightforward sale rather than a grant application.
My catalytic converter was stolen. Will that change the quote?
Yes, and materially, because the catalytic converter is one of the highest value single components on an end-of-life car. This is a common situation in North London: Metropolitan Police recorded figures show more than 10,000 catalytic converter thefts in London in 2021, down from more than 14,000 in 2020 and against 173 in 2017. Tell us when you call rather than on the day, and the quote you are given will reflect the vehicle as it actually is, so nothing changes when the truck turns up.
Hackney Council will take an unwanted vehicle. Why use an ATF instead?
Because the council route costs you the value of the car. Hackney's vehicle surrender service is free for Hackney residents and £30 for non-residents whose vehicle is in Hackney, you send part 9 of the V5C to DVLA separately and the rest to the council with proof of address and a surrender form, and removal is normally within about three working days of both sets of documents arriving. Until then the council says it remains your responsibility to keep the vehicle parked legally. It is a valid disposal route, but it pays you nothing, whereas an ATF pays for the metal.
How can I check that a scrap buyer is a genuine ATF?
Use the Environment Agency public register of End of Life Vehicles Authorised Treatment Facilities at environment.data.gov.uk, which lists permit numbers, locations and permitted activities. One honest caveat: absence from that register does not by itself prove a site is non-compliant, because some operators are not listed by choice where they only handle vehicles that do not require a Certificate of Destruction. The practical test remains the same. A genuine ATF asks for your ID, pays by bank transfer rather than cash, and issues a Certificate of Destruction.
Updated August 2026. Lines open 24 hours. Call 07960 200253.
Get your North London scrap car quoted and collected
Send the registration, your postcode and where the car is standing to 07960 200253 by call or WhatsApp. Free collection anywhere in Barnet, Camden, Enfield, Hackney, Haringey or Islington, any condition, runner or not. A fair price quoted before collection, paid by bank transfer, with the vehicle taken to an Authorised Treatment Facility and a Certificate of Destruction issued.