Scrap My Car London: Free Collection and the DVLA Paperwork Handled
Free collection of cars, vans and 4x4s in any condition, running or not, across London, the M25 and the Home Counties. The vehicle goes to a licensed Authorised Treatment Facility, a Certificate of Destruction is issued and the DVLA is notified.
- Free collection
- Any condition
- CoD issued
- DVLA notified
To scrap a car in London, call CityGrip Recovery on 07960 200253 for a price quoted before collection. Collection is free, the vehicle is taken in any condition including non-runners, and vans and 4x4s are collected as well as cars. The vehicle is delivered to an Authorised Treatment Facility permitted by the Environment Agency, which is the only kind of site that can lawfully destroy it. The ATF issues the Certificate of Destruction and the DVLA record is closed. You keep the yellow V5C/3 slip and tell DVLA yourself that the vehicle has gone to an ATF, because that duty stays with you and carries a £1,000 fine if it is missed. Payment is by bank transfer, never cash, because cash payment for scrap metal is a criminal offence for the dealer.
What happens from the phone call to the closed DVLA record
The process has six stages and only one of them is yours. First, you call or WhatsApp 07960 200253 with the registration, the make and model, the condition and where the vehicle is sitting. Second, you are given a price before anything moves, so there is no renegotiation on the doorstep. Third, the vehicle is collected free of charge from a driveway, a street, a garage, a car park or a workshop, running or not. Fourth, it is delivered to a licensed Authorised Treatment Facility. Fifth, the ATF depollutes and destroys the vehicle and issues the Certificate of Destruction. Sixth, the DVLA record is closed permanently.
Being precise about who does what matters here, because a lot of scrap websites are deliberately vague about it. CityGrip Recovery collects the vehicle and delivers it to a licensed ATF. The Certificate of Destruction is issued by the ATF, not by a recovery firm and not by DVLA. DVLA's own terms for the CoD service (leaflet INF251) state that a certificate must be issued to the keeper of the vehicle or to the person who presents the vehicle to an ATF, and it expressly forbids one facility issuing certificates on another's behalf. Anyone who tells you their collection driver will hand you a certificate at the kerbside is describing something the system does not permit.
One job stays with you throughout. You must tell DVLA that the vehicle has gone to an Authorised Treatment Facility. The ATF notifies DVLA electronically through the CoD system, but the legal duty on the registered keeper is separate, and GOV.UK states you can be fined £1,000 if you do not tell DVLA. Do both. It takes two minutes online and it is the difference between a closed record and a liability that follows you.
What an Authorised Treatment Facility is, and why the law will not let anyone else do it
An Authorised Treatment Facility is a site that holds an environmental permit from the Environment Agency for the treatment of end-of-life vehicles. GOV.UK is unambiguous on the point: when your vehicle has reached the end of its usefulness, you must get it scrapped at an authorised treatment facility. ATFs are also called scrapyards, breaker's yards or dismantlers, but the permit is what makes the destruction lawful and what makes the paperwork real.
In England a site actually needs three separate permissions to treat end-of-life vehicles, not one. It needs the correct environmental permit for the treatment it carries out, it needs planning permission for the activity, and it needs a scrap metal dealer's licence from the local authority. An operator missing any one of the three cannot lawfully destroy your vehicle or close your DVLA record. That is the practical reason a man with a flatbed and a phone number cannot legitimately be the end of the chain: the destruction has to happen somewhere permitted.
You can check the yard yourself before anything is handed over. GOV.UK runs a Find a vehicle scrapyard service covering England, and the Environment Agency publishes a public register of End of Life Vehicles Authorised Treatment Facilities on data.gov.uk. You can also ask to see the scrap metal dealer's licence, which every legitimate operator has and every legitimate operator expects to be asked for. One thing you should treat as a warning sign rather than reassurance: DVLA's terms allow a permit holder to say it participates in the CoD scheme but expressly forbid implying that DVLA has endorsed or approved the organisation. A 'DVLA approved' badge on a scrap website is not a credential.
Why nobody can legally pay you cash for a scrap car in London
A very large number of people search for scrap car cash, and the honest answer is that in England and Wales the transaction they are imagining is a criminal offence for the buyer. 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 is not transferable under section 81A of the Bills of Exchange Act 1882, or by an electronic transfer of funds. The offence catches the dealer, the site manager and any person who makes the payment on the dealer's behalf. It was brought in to defeat metal theft: a traceable payment ties every load of scrap to a named, verified seller, and cash does not.
Two claims circulating on other scrap websites are wrong and worth correcting. The first is that the fine is capped at £5,000. Section 12 sets the penalty at level 5 on the standard scale, and section 85 of the Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Act 2012 removed the £5,000 ceiling on level 5 fines in England and Wales from 12 March 2015. The correct statement is an unlimited fine. The second is that you, the seller, commit an offence by accepting cash. Section 12 places the offence on the dealer and those paying for the dealer, not on the person selling the vehicle. The seller-side offence in the Act is section 11(3), giving a false name or address when delivering scrap metal.
So the real risk to you from a cash offer is not prosecution. It is that an operator willing to breach section 12 is operating outside the licensing regime that produces your Certificate of Destruction. No licence means no lawful destruction, which means no certificate, which means the DVLA record stays open in your name against a vehicle you no longer control. CityGrip Recovery pays by bank transfer. That is not caution, it is the only lawful way the payment can be made.
The Certificate of Destruction: what it is, who issues it and what it actually does
The Certificate of Destruction is the document that ends the vehicle's legal life. Its basis is section 17A of the Road Vehicles (Registration and Licensing) Regulations 2002 as amended, together with the End-of-Life Vehicles Regulations 2003. Regulation 27 of those regulations puts a duty on the ATF: when it 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. Regulation 28 says the ATF may not impose any charge for issuing it. If a yard tries to charge you for the certificate, it is charging you for something the law requires it to give you free.
What the certificate does is permanent and one-way. DVLA states that once a CoD is completed the notification automatically closes the vehicle record and no further action is processed against it, including a change of keeper or the issue of a replacement V5C. Regulation 34 bars the Secretary of State from recording further keeper changes once notified. DVLA adds that there is no legal provision to remove a CoD declaration from a vehicle record, so accuracy is vital. A vehicle carrying a CoD can never lawfully be sold on or returned to the road: once a CoD is confirmed the vehicle must be physically destroyed.
On timing, most of the industry quotes 'within seven days' and most of the industry is wrong. The End-of-Life Vehicles Regulations 2003 set no time limit at all for issuing a certificate. The figure comes from DVLA's own terms and conditions for ATFs, which say the facility must ensure a CoD has been issued within a reasonable time scale of 7 to 14 days of making the decision to destroy a vehicle, a timeframe agreed with industry representatives. If your certificate arrives on day eleven, nothing has gone wrong.
Your log book, the yellow slip, and telling DVLA yourself
Hand the ATF the vehicle log book (V5C), but keep the yellow slip headed 'sell, transfer or part-exchange your vehicle to the motor trade'. That slip is the V5C/3. On the older blue and green log books it is Section 9; on the red version issued from 2012 onwards it is Section 4. If you are holding the document while reading this, that is the piece you tear off and keep. The rest of the book goes with the vehicle and does not come back: the ATF must write or stamp 'cancelled' in ink across the front of it and hold it securely for twelve months from the date it notifies the scrapping, for DVLA audit, before shredding it.
The yellow slip carries an 11-digit reference number, and that number is what lets you notify DVLA online in a couple of minutes. Do it the same day the vehicle is collected. The alternative is notifying by post, which can take weeks to be processed, and during those weeks the record still shows you as keeper. Keep the confirmation email or a photograph of the slip until the Certificate of Destruction arrives.
The consequence of not telling DVLA is the £1,000 figure quoted on GOV.UK, but the realistic first step is smaller and worth knowing. DVLA's published enforcement policy sets an out of court settlement of £55 for failing to notify a sale or transfer to a motor trader, insurer or dismantler, reduced to £35 if paid within 17 days. If it goes unpaid the case can reach a magistrates' court where the maximum is £1,000. None of that is inevitable and all of it is avoidable by spending two minutes on the DVLA website on collection day.
No log book, no keys, no wheels, no engine: what actually stops a collection
Almost nothing does. The missing log book is the single biggest thing people believe blocks a scrap job, and it does not. DVLA tells ATFs directly that they can still make a CoD or NOD declaration for a vehicle without the V5C, provided the vehicle details were captured by a visual check of the vehicle before it was destroyed. A legitimate yard will instead want photo identification and a proof of address in your name, and will want to be satisfied you are entitled to dispose of the vehicle. Where there is no yellow slip, you notify DVLA in writing instead, giving the registration, make, model and the name and address of the ATF.
Lost keys are a recovery question, not a legal one. A non-runner with no keys is loaded with a winch, skates or a spec lift rather than driven on. It changes the equipment sent, not your right to scrap the vehicle or the paperwork that follows. Tell us at the booking stage so the right vehicle turns up first time. The same goes for a car with seized brakes, no battery, flat or missing tyres, or one that has been sitting on a drive for six years.
There is one genuine catch worth being straight about, and it concerns the word free rather than the word possible. Under the End-of-Life Vehicles (Producer Responsibility) Regulations 2005, since 1 January 2007 a complete end-of-life vehicle with no or negative market value must be taken back free of charge from its last owner. That free take-back does not apply where the vehicle is missing essential components, in particular the engine, transmission, coachwork, wheels or catalytic converter where one was fitted when the vehicle was placed on the market, or where waste has been added to it. A stripped shell full of household rubbish is a different job from a complete car. Tell us what is actually there and you will get an accurate figure.
How the price is arrived at, and why a fixed national figure should worry you
A scrap vehicle's value is not a fixed number and no honest operator can publish one. Four things move it. Kerb weight, because the bulk of the value is ferrous metal sold by the tonne. Whether the catalytic converter is still fitted, because the non-ferrous content in a cat is worth a meaningful share of the whole vehicle and a stolen or removed cat takes that with it. The live scrap metal market, which moves week to week with global ferrous and non-ferrous prices. And whether any panels, wheels, glass or components have resale value as parts rather than as metal.
That is why you should treat a fixed price quoted sight-unseen with caution, particularly one advertised as a national flat rate. A figure produced before anyone knows whether the cat is present or the vehicle is complete is a figure that can be revised downward at the kerbside, which is exactly when you have least leverage. CityGrip Recovery quotes a fair price before collection, based on what you tell us about the vehicle, and the price you are given is the price paid.
Payment is by bank transfer for the reasons set out above. Expect to be asked for photo identification and proof of address, and expect the buyer to record the transaction. That is not bureaucracy for its own sake: section 11 of the Scrap Metal Dealers Act 2013 requires the dealer to verify your full name and address from a reliable and independent source, and sections 13 and 15 require records of the description, form, condition, weight and identifying marks of the metal, the date and time received, the registration of the vehicle that delivered it, your verified name and address, a copy of the identifying document and a copy of the cheque or transfer receipt, all kept for three years. An operator who does not ask for any of that is not keeping the records that make your disposal traceable.
Tax, insurance, private plates and the things that cost money if you get the order wrong
Sequence matters more than most people expect. If you have a private or retained registration on the vehicle, you must take it off before it is scrapped. It costs £80, and the vehicle must be registered with DVLA in the UK, able to move under its own power, of a type that needs an MOT or HGV test certificate, taxed or SORN continuously for the past five years and currently, and available for inspection. GOV.UK warns that you must have your V778 and new log book before you scrap or sell the vehicle, otherwise you lose the right to use the private number. Once a CoD is raised the record is closed permanently and the number is gone with it.
Vehicle tax is refunded automatically once DVLA is told, but only in whole months and only calculated from the date DVLA receives your information, not the date the vehicle was collected. That is another reason to notify the same day. The refund cheque goes to the name and address on the log book, any Direct Debit is cancelled automatically, and there is no refund of the 5% surcharge on some Direct Debit payments or the 10% surcharge on a single six-month payment.
Insurance is the reverse: cancel it once you hold the Certificate of Destruction, not before collection. A registered vehicle that is neither insured nor declared SORN falls under Continuous Insurance Enforcement, which carries a £100 fixed penalty, a court fine of up to £1,000, and the power to clamp, impound or destroy the vehicle. And be careful with SORN itself. A vehicle is only off the road if you do not keep or use it on a public road, for example in a garage, on a drive or on private land. A car waiting on a London street cannot be SORN'd, so it must stay taxed while it waits. DVLA's out of court settlement for keeping an untaxed vehicle is £30 plus one and a half times the outstanding tax, rising in court to £1,000 or five times the tax chargeable, and a clamped vehicle costs £100 to release, £200 if impounded, plus £21 a day storage. Waiting on a public road is the expensive option.
Vans, 4x4s and anything over 3,500kg
Vans and 4x4s are collected on the same free basis as cars, in any condition, but the paperwork diverges above a weight threshold and it is worth knowing which side of it your vehicle sits on. A Certificate of Destruction is only issued for cars, light vans up to 3,500kg and three-wheeled vehicles, excluding motor tricycles and scooters. Vehicles outside the End-of-Life Vehicles Regulations 2003, including heavy goods vehicles and anything over 3,500kg, plus tricycles and scooters, receive a Notification of Destruction instead and no destruction certificate is issued at all.
That is not a loophole and it is not a downgrade in service. A Notification of Destruction still closes the DVLA record; it simply does not produce a certificate document. If you are scrapping a Transit, a Sprinter, a Luton or a tipper, ask which applies to your specific vehicle and keep the evidence you are given, because your own DVLA notification is the record that protects you either way.
Practical van points: signwriting and vinyl wraps do not need removing, tools and stock do (anything left inside is treated as waste added to the vehicle, which affects the free take-back position), and a ply-lined van full of building waste is a disposal job rather than an end-of-life vehicle job. Strip it out and the collection is straightforward.
Written off in an accident? Scrapping and salvage are not the same thing
If the vehicle is being scrapped because it was damaged in a crash, the salvage category decides whether scrapping is even a choice. Category A means the vehicle must be crushed entirely, including all parts. Category B means the shell must be destroyed although some parts may be salvaged. DVLA states that seriously damaged vehicles in categories A and B will never be put back on the road. Categories S and N describe structurally and non-structurally damaged vehicles that can be repaired and re-registered, so a Category S or N car is not automatically a scrap car, and raising a CoD against one destroys an asset that still has road value.
This is the practical difference between scrapping and salvaging. Scrapping ends the vehicle: the CoD closes the record and the vehicle must be physically destroyed and cannot lawfully be sold on. Salvaging keeps a route back, either as a repairable vehicle or as parts sold on to keep other vehicles running. Do not let anyone raise a certificate against a repairable car simply because it is faster.
One more thing worth saying plainly, because it is the alternative some people are actually weighing up. Abandoning the vehicle is a criminal offence. Section 2 of the Refuse Disposal (Amenity) Act 1978 makes it an offence to abandon a motor vehicle without lawful authority on any land in the open air or on land forming part of a highway, punishable on summary conviction by a fine of up to £2,500 and, on a second or subsequent conviction, up to three months' imprisonment. A local authority may issue a £200 fixed penalty instead. A free collection that produces a certificate and a closed record is a better outcome than a fixed penalty and a car that is still legally yours.
Collection across London, the M25 and the Home Counties
CityGrip Recovery is based at 68 Ruckholt Road, Leyton, London E10 5NP, and collects scrap vehicles across all London postcodes, the M25 corridor, Essex and the Home Counties. Call or WhatsApp 07960 200253. Because the term 'London' collides with London, Ontario in search results and in map data, it is worth stating the geography plainly: this is Greater London and the surrounding counties inside and around the M25.
London collections come with constraints that rarely apply elsewhere, and telling us about them at booking is what gets the right vehicle sent first time. Narrow terraced streets with parking on both sides limit which recovery vehicle can turn and load. Controlled parking zones, permit bays and red routes affect where the truck can legally stop and for how long. Underground and multi-storey car parks have height restrictions that rule out some equipment entirely. Vehicles blocked in on estate parking, on grass verges or behind bollards need different handling. None of that stops a collection, it just changes the plan.
There is a licensing point specific to London that most operators never mention. The Scrap Metal Dealers Act 2013 creates two licence types. A site licence is issued by the local authority where the site sits and permits the holder to transport scrap to and from its sites from any local authority area. A mobile collector's licence only authorises collection within the issuing authority's area, and the Home Office's supplementary guidance is explicit that a separate licence would need to be obtained from each local authority in whose area the individual wished to collect. Greater London is 32 boroughs plus the City of London, which is 33 licensing authorities. Anyone claiming London-wide mobile collection under a single mobile collector's licence is describing something the guidance does not support. Separately, anyone transporting waste, including an end-of-life vehicle, must be registered with the Environment Agency as a waste carrier, and GOV.UK states you can get an unlimited fine if you do not register.
Scrap car FAQs
Is scrap car collection really free?
Yes. Collection is free across London, the M25 and the Home Counties. There is also a legal backstop: under the End-of-Life Vehicles (Producer Responsibility) Regulations 2005, since 1 January 2007 a complete end-of-life vehicle with no or negative market value must be taken back free of charge from its last owner. The one exception in those regulations is a vehicle missing essential components, in particular the engine, transmission, coachwork, wheels or catalytic converter where one was originally fitted, or a vehicle that has had waste added to it. Tell us what is actually on the vehicle when you call 07960 200253 and you will get an accurate answer.
Can I get cash for my scrap car in London?
No, and no lawful operator can offer it. Section 12 of the Scrap Metal Dealers Act 2013 makes it an offence in England and Wales for a scrap metal dealer to pay for scrap metal in cash. Payment must be by electronic transfer or by a non-transferable cheque so the transaction is traceable. The penalty is an unlimited fine, not the £5,000 figure many websites still quote, because the cap on level 5 fines was removed in England and Wales in March 2015. You do not commit an offence by accepting cash, but an operator offering it is working outside the licensing regime that produces your Certificate of Destruction. Payment here is by bank transfer.
Can I scrap my car without the V5C log book?
Yes. DVLA tells Authorised Treatment Facilities directly that they can still make a Certificate of Destruction declaration for a vehicle without the V5C, as long as the vehicle details were captured by a physical check of the vehicle before it was destroyed. Instead of the log book, a legitimate yard will ask for photo identification and a proof of address in your name and will want to be satisfied you are entitled to dispose of the vehicle. Without the yellow slip you notify DVLA in writing rather than online, giving the registration, make, model and the name and address of the Authorised Treatment Facility.
What is a Certificate of Destruction and who issues it?
A Certificate of Destruction is the document confirming a vehicle has been destroyed at an Authorised Treatment Facility. It is issued by the ATF itself, not by DVLA and not by the company that collected the vehicle. Regulation 27 of the End-of-Life Vehicles Regulations 2003 places a duty on the ATF to issue it to the last holder or owner, and regulation 28 forbids charging you for it. Once it is issued the DVLA record is closed permanently: no change of keeper and no replacement V5C can ever be recorded against that registration again, and DVLA says there is no legal provision to remove a CoD declaration once made.
How long does the Certificate of Destruction take to arrive?
Between 7 and 14 days. Most scrap websites say seven days, and that is inaccurate. The End-of-Life Vehicles Regulations 2003 set no time limit for issuing a certificate at all. The 7 to 14 day figure comes from DVLA's own terms and conditions for Authorised Treatment Facilities, which require the facility to ensure a certificate has been issued within a reasonable timescale of 7 to 14 days of making the decision to destroy the vehicle, a timeframe agreed with industry representatives. If yours arrives on day eleven, that is normal.
Do I have to tell DVLA myself, or is it done for me?
Both happen, and you should still do your part. The Authorised Treatment Facility notifies DVLA electronically through the Certificate of Destruction system. Separately, the registered keeper has a duty to tell DVLA that the vehicle has been taken to an ATF, and GOV.UK states you can be fined £1,000 if you do not. Use the 11-digit reference on the yellow V5C/3 slip to notify online on the day the vehicle is collected. It takes about two minutes and the confirmation is worth keeping until the certificate arrives.
What happens if I forget to tell DVLA I scrapped my car?
DVLA's published enforcement policy sets an out of court settlement of £55 for failing to notify a sale or transfer to a motor trader, insurer or dismantler, reduced to £35 if it is paid within 17 days. If the settlement goes unpaid the case can be taken to a magistrates' court where the maximum penalty is £1,000. Alongside the penalty, an open record means your road tax refund is delayed, because the refund is calculated from the date DVLA receives your information rather than the date the vehicle was collected.
Which part of the log book do I keep?
Keep the yellow slip headed 'sell, transfer or part-exchange your vehicle to the motor trade'. That is the V5C/3. On the older blue and green log books it is Section 9, and on the red version issued from 2012 onwards it is Section 4. Tear that section off and hand everything else to the Authorised Treatment Facility. You will not get the rest back: the ATF must write or stamp 'cancelled' in ink across the front of the V5C and keep it securely for twelve months from the date it notifies the scrapping, for DVLA audit, before shredding it.
Will you collect a car that does not start, has no wheels or has no keys?
Yes. Non-runners are collected as standard and vehicles are taken in any condition. No keys is a loading question rather than a legal one: the vehicle goes on with a winch, skates or a spec lift rather than being driven on. Missing wheels, seized brakes, a flat or missing battery and years of standing all just change the equipment sent, so mention them when you book so the right vehicle arrives first time. The only condition point that affects money rather than possibility is the free take-back rule, which applies to complete vehicles rather than stripped shells.
How much is my car worth as scrap?
It depends on four things and no honest operator can publish a fixed figure. Kerb weight matters most, because the bulk of the value is ferrous metal sold by the tonne. Whether the catalytic converter is still fitted matters a great deal, because the non-ferrous content is a meaningful share of the total. The live scrap metal market moves week to week. And any panels, wheels or components with resale value as parts add to it. Call 07960 200253 with the registration and the condition and you will be given a fair price quoted before collection, and that is the price paid.
Can I scrap a car that still has outstanding finance on it?
Not until the agreement is settled. On hire purchase or PCP the finance company remains the legal owner of the vehicle until the final payment, so it is not yours to dispose of. Contact the lender for a settlement figure and clear the agreement first. A legitimate Authorised Treatment Facility will run a check that flags an outstanding interest and will stop the job, which protects you as much as it protects them. If the vehicle is beyond repair and you cannot settle, speak to the finance company directly, because they deal with this situation regularly and may have their own process.
What happens to my private number plate?
You must take it off the vehicle before it is scrapped. It costs £80, and the vehicle must be registered with DVLA in the UK, able to move under its own power, of a type that needs an MOT or HGV test certificate, taxed or SORN continuously for the past five years and currently, and available for inspection. GOV.UK is explicit that you must have your V778 retention document and the new log book before you scrap or sell the vehicle, otherwise you lose the right to the number. Once a Certificate of Destruction is raised the record closes permanently and the number cannot be recovered.
Do I get my road tax back when I scrap my car?
Yes, automatically, once DVLA is told. The refund covers whole months of remaining tax only, and it is calculated from the date DVLA receives your information rather than the date the vehicle was collected, which is why notifying on collection day is worth money to you. The cheque is sent to the name and address on the log book and any Direct Debit is cancelled automatically. There is no refund of the 5% surcharge applied to some Direct Debit payments or the 10% surcharge on a single six-month payment.
When should I cancel the insurance?
Once you hold the Certificate of Destruction, not before collection. Under Continuous Insurance Enforcement, a registered vehicle that is neither insured nor declared SORN attracts a £100 fixed penalty, a court fine of up to £1,000, and can be clamped, impounded or destroyed. Keeping cover in place until the record is closed costs very little and removes that exposure entirely. If the vehicle is off the road on a drive or private land you can make a SORN, but a car waiting on a public street cannot be SORN'd and must stay taxed until it is collected.
Can you scrap vans and 4x4s as well as cars?
Yes, on the same free collection basis and in any condition. One paperwork difference applies above a weight threshold. A Certificate of Destruction is only issued for cars, light vans up to 3,500kg and three-wheeled vehicles, excluding motor tricycles and scooters. Heavy goods vehicles, anything over 3,500kg, and tricycles and scooters fall outside the End-of-Life Vehicles Regulations 2003 and receive a Notification of Destruction instead, with no certificate issued. The DVLA record is still closed either way. Empty tools, stock and any waste out of a van before collection, because waste added to a vehicle affects the free take-back position.
What actually happens to the car after it is collected?
It goes to a permitted Authorised Treatment Facility and is depolluted before anything else. Operators must remove fuel, oils, coolant, brake fluid and other fluids, the battery, the catalytic converter and explosive components such as airbags and seatbelt pretensioners. That is precisely why a vehicle cannot go straight to a shredder from your driveway. After depollution, reusable parts are recovered, and the remaining shell is shredded and separated into ferrous and non-ferrous metal streams for recycling. The Certificate of Destruction is issued off the back of that process.
How do I check a scrapyard or collector is genuine?
Use the official sources rather than the operator's own claims. GOV.UK runs a Find a vehicle scrapyard service covering England, and the Environment Agency publishes a public register of End of Life Vehicles Authorised Treatment Facilities on data.gov.uk. Ask to see the scrap metal dealer's licence, which every legitimate operator holds. Treat two things as warning signs: an offer to pay cash, which is unlawful for the dealer, and any 'DVLA approved' or 'government approved' badge, because DVLA's own terms permit a facility to say it participates in the Certificate of Destruction scheme but forbid it implying DVLA has endorsed or approved the organisation.
My car was written off in an accident. Is scrapping the right route?
It depends on the salvage category. Category A means the vehicle must be crushed entirely, including all parts, and Category B means the shell must be destroyed although some parts may be salvaged. DVLA confirms that Category A and B vehicles will never be put back on the road, so scrapping is the only route. Categories S and N describe structural and non-structural damage on vehicles that can lawfully be repaired and returned to the road, so those are not automatically scrap. Raising a Certificate of Destruction against a repairable car is irreversible, so establish the category before anything is destroyed.
Updated August 2026. Lines open 24 hours. Call 07960 200253.
Book a free scrap car collection across London and the M25
Call or WhatsApp 07960 200253 with your registration and condition for a fair price, quoted before collection. Cars, vans and 4x4s, running or not, taken to a licensed Authorised Treatment Facility with a Certificate of Destruction issued and the DVLA notified.