Scrapped car check
A scrap marker means the DVLA has been told the car was destroyed at an authorised treatment facility. If a car carrying one is sitting in front of you with a price on it, something is badly wrong — most often that you are looking at a different car wearing its identity.
Free check first — the Pro report is the upgrade on your results page. See a sample report.
What the scrap check shows
The destruction markers held against the registration, and the records that sit next to them.
- Scrapped marker and date
- Whether the registration has been notified as destroyed, and when.
- Certificate of Destruction
- Whether one was issued — the paperwork from an authorised treatment facility that ends the vehicle's life formally.
- The write-off record beside it
- Most scrapped cars were written off first, and the category explains how they got there.
- Export marker
- Checked at the same time, because 'gone' has two forms and they are recorded separately.
- The identity fields to verify
- VIN, engine number and colour as registered, so you can check the car in front of you against the record rather than against the seller.
How to read it
Scrap notifications can lag, and a very recent marker on a car that is genuinely still on the road is occasionally an administrative error — one the keeper can resolve with the DVLA.
But the common explanation is not an error. A live advert for a car recorded as destroyed usually means a cloned identity, and the right response is to stop, keep the advert, and report it rather than to ask the seller about it.
Where this comes from
The DVLA registration record's scrap and destruction markers, read through the provenance feed as part of the Pro check.
FAQ
Frequently asked questions
- Can a scrapped car legally be sold?
- Not once a Certificate of Destruction has been issued. That registration is finished, and the vehicle cannot be re-registered for road use.
- What is the difference between scrapped and written off?
- A write-off is an insurer's decision that repair is uneconomic — Category S and N cars are repaired and sold on routinely. A scrap notification is the end of the vehicle: it has been destroyed.
- What should I do if a car I am viewing shows as scrapped?
- Walk away. Keep the advert, the seller's details and the address, and report it to the police and to Action Fraud.
- Does a scrap marker ever get removed?
- Only where it was applied in error, and only by the DVLA on the keeper's application. It is not something a seller can simply explain away.