How to Scrap a Car in South Africa

To scrap a car in South Africa you deregister it with your registering authority. Who fills in which form depends on whether you are the car's owner, its title holder, or both. If you are both, it is one visit: take your ID, proof of ownership and the registration certificate, and complete the ADV form. According to the government's deregistration service page, the application is processed on the same day and the service is free, although penalties and arrears can be charged if you apply late.

The part most guides skip is the deadline. The regulations give you three months from the day the car became permanently unfit for the road, or was demolished, to tell the registering authority. This guide covers who qualifies, who signs what, and what happens to the car afterwards.

Can your car be deregistered?

The government lists four situations where you must apply to deregister a vehicle. The car has been declared permanently unfit to be on a public road, it has been stolen, it has been permanently demolished, or it has become exempt from registration.

The common case is a car that has been in a serious accident and is not worth repairing. That is a car that is "permanently unfit for use", in the regulations' wording. A car that has already been crushed or cut up is "permanently demolished", and that uses a different form (see below).

Owner or title holder: who does what

The registration certificate names two people: the owner (who uses the car) and the title holder (who holds legal title). They are often the same person. When they are not, for example when a finance company is still the title holder, regulation 55 of the National Road Traffic Regulations gives each of them a separate job:

• The owner must tell the title holder straight away, notify the registering authority on form CNV within three months, and hand in the registration certificate if they have it.
• The title holder must notify the registering authority within three months on form ADV (permanently unfit) or form ADV1 (permanently demolished), and hand in the registration certificate if the owner has not.
• For a demolished car, the title holder also submits either an affidavit with the vehicle's details and the reason, or a certificate of demolition saying where and when it was demolished and who operated the equipment.

Steps to deregister your car

If you are both the owner and the title holder, the government page sets out a single visit:

1. Go to your nearest registering authority.
2. Hand in your documents: a certified copy of your ID, a certified copy of proof of ownership (title holder), and the vehicle's registration certificate.
3. Complete the ADV form (Application for Deregistration of Vehicle). It is available at the registering authority or as a download from the eNaTIS website.
4. Bring anything extra they ask for. Supporting documents may be needed in some cases, and the office will tell you which.

Once your application is accepted, the registering authority issues a deregistration certificate. Keep it: it is your proof that the car is off the register.

How long it takes and what it costs

Government says the application is processed on the same day and that the service itself is free. Penalties and arrears can still be charged if the application is late, which is why the three-month window matters.

The regulations add a useful detail for owners. Once the registering authority acknowledges the owner's CNV notice, the owner no longer has to license the car from the first day of the following month. Until then, you are still liable to license it.

What if you just stop licensing it?

Some people leave a dead car in the yard and let the licence lapse. Under regulation 26A, a car that is not licensed within four years of the licence falling due is deregistered automatically.

Written-off cars and the salvage codes

If an insurer wrote the car off, check its status code first. The South African Insurance Association lists the codes in its salvage database:

Code	What it means	Allowed on the road?
Code 2	Used vehicle	Yes
Code 3	Rebuilt after significant damage	Yes, after it is rebuilt
Code 3A	Spare parts only	No
Code 4	Scrap, permanently demolished	No

A Code 3A car can still be worth something, because the parts on it are reusable even though the car can never go back on the road. If you want to know where those parts end up, our guide to Pretoria's scrap yards, suburb by suburb walks through the trade.

Selling the car for scrap or parts

If you would rather sell the car than take it apart yourself, the paperwork follows you. Under section 24 of the Second-Hand Goods Act, anyone selling a vehicle to a second-hand vehicle dealer must give their full name, physical address, original ID and proof of registration or deregistration. The dealer must record the VIN, chassis and engine numbers and keep copies for at least five years. A dealer who asks for none of this is not following the Act.

Our vehicles stripping page explains how that works. If the car can still be saved with a used part instead, start from your make on the car brands page. If you are curious how this differs from the way it works overseas, read how South African salvage compares with the US system.

In short

Deregister within three months of the car becoming unfit or being demolished. Take your certified ID, proof of ownership and the registration certificate, complete the ADV (or ADV1) form, and keep the deregistration certificate you are given. Letting the licence lapse does not make the arrears go away.