What every write-off category means

When an insurer decides a vehicle is a total loss, it categorises the salvage under the ABI Code of Practice for the Categorisation of Motorised Vehicle Salvage. The current code, in force from October 2017, uses four letters. A is scrap: crush the complete vehicle, no parts reused. B is break: crush the body structure after permitted undamaged parts are recovered. S is structurally damaged but repairable. N is non-structurally damaged but repairable.

GOV.UK puts the same split in a table: A and B cannot be repaired for the road; S and N can be used again if repaired to a roadworthy condition. The Department for Transport consumer guide calls A and B an actual loss and S and N a constructive loss, where the vehicle could be repaired but the cost would exceed the replacement value. That cost test explains why the insurer wrote it off. It is not how S is split from N. S versus N is about whether the damage reached the structure.

Insurers stopped assigning C and D in October 2017. Those old codes remain on vehicles already categorised. C is not another name for S, and D is not another name for N.

The ABI code says an appropriately qualified person decides whether the vehicle can be repaired safely using accepted industry standards. If it cannot, the choice is A or B, depending on whether any parts may be reused. If it can, the choice is S or N, depending on whether a defined structural part, or a structural high-voltage battery component, was damaged.

You do not pick the letter. The insurer does. If you keep an S or N vehicle, you buy it back from them after the payout. You then repair it to a roadworthy condition, tax it, insure it and, where required, MOT it. There is no separate government 'write-off repair certificate'.

GOV.UK says you can be fined £1,000 if you do not tell DVLA. Writing off and scrapping is treated like selling the vehicle to the insurance company. Online, you enter the insurer's name and postcode as trader details, the registration, and the 11 digit reference from the yellow motor-trade section of the V5C. Take a personalised number off first if you want to keep it. Destroy the yellow section when you have finished. The insurer will ask for the rest of the logbook.

You will get a letter confirming you are no longer the keeper, and a tax refund for any full months left. Direct Debit is cancelled automatically.

If you keep a category S vehicle, send the complete logbook to the insurer and apply for a free duplicate on form V62. DVLA records the category on the replacement. If you keep a category N vehicle, you can keep the existing V5C.

No. GOV.UK's MOT guidance is that a pass shows the items examined met the minimum standard on the day. It does not certify every repair, and it does not cover the engine, clutch or gearbox. Use the free MOT history for mileage, failures and advisories, then pay an independent engineer if you are buying the car.

There is no official resale discount percentage for S or N, and no official insurance premium increase. The Department for Transport says category S vehicles are often cheaper, cover can cost more, and not every insurer will automatically cover a previously written-off vehicle. Get a quote before you buy.

The keeper keeps driving an A or B vehicle because it still starts. Those identities cannot return to the road.

Someone buys an S car at auction, puts an MOT on it, and assumes the structure is sound. An MOT is not a structural survey.

The keeper retains N, never tells the next insurer, and a later claim is refused for non-disclosure.

A private plate is left on the vehicle until after the insurer takes it. GOV.UK says take the number off first.

Myth: N means cosmetic. It means the recorded damage was not structural under the ABI code. Steering, brakes and electrics can still sit in N.

Myth: C is old S. C was a cost-versus-value test. S is a structural test.

Myth: this site can check a registration. It cannot. Use a private history check, then DVLA and MOT history on GOV.UK.

The ABI salvage code is for motorised vehicle salvage, not only hatchbacks. A van, motorcycle, motorhome or company car can be A, B, S or N. The V5C rules are the same: S gets a free replacement V62 if retained, N can keep the existing document, A and B are destroyed as identities.

DVLA in Swansea still holds the registration record for Northern Ireland. Telling DVLA of a write-off, the £1,000 fine, and the tax refund of full unused months are the same published GOV.UK steps. An MOT in Northern Ireland is still not a repair certificate.

A hire car that is written off is the hire company's claim, not yours. You do not apply on V62 for that firm's V5C. A company car written off on the fleet still needs the registered keeper, usually the company, to notify DVLA if the insurer takes it.

Keep the insurer's category letter with the V5C. When you come to sell an S or N car, that letter plus the repair file is what a careful buyer will ask for. An MOT history printout is useful alongside it, not instead of it.