Terms and conditions

These terms apply when you sell a scrap, damaged or end-of-life vehicle to Motorspot. They are written to be read; if anything is unclear, ring us on 01709 522656 before you accept a price. Your statutory rights as a consumer are not affected by anything below.

1. Who we are

Motorspot Ltd (company number 08175030), formerly MLB Autospares Limited, registered in England and Wales with its registered office at Kilnhurst Road, Kilnhurst, Mexborough, South Yorkshire S64 5TL, buys the vehicle. Our yard in Mexborough is an Authorised Treatment Facility under Environment Agency permit BB3507XB, and we carry waste under registration CBDU237104. Your contract is with us: we quote the price, we pay it, and the vehicle is processed at our own yard. Collection is by our own drivers or, on longer runs, by an approved collection partner acting for us — the price, the checks and the paperwork are the same whichever truck arrives.

2. The price

The price is worked out from the vehicle details held against the registration you enter and the answers you give about its condition and location. It is valid until the date shown on your quote, and it is offered on the basis that what you have told us is accurate and complete.

Collection is included wherever we collect. A longer run from our yard is reflected in the price for your postcode, not charged separately, and nothing is added on the day.

If an obvious mistake has been made in producing a price — a vehicle record that is plainly wrong — we may correct it before the vehicle is collected. If the corrected price is lower, you can walk away at no cost.

3. What you confirm when you accept

By accepting a price you confirm that:

• you are the registered keeper of the vehicle, or are authorised by the registered keeper (or the keeper’s estate) to sell it;
• the vehicle is not stolen, is not the subject of an insurance claim that has not been settled, and has not been kept by an insurer;
• there is no outstanding finance on it, or you have told us about the finance before collection — any finance remains your responsibility and does not pass to us;
• your description of the vehicle is accurate: what is missing, what does not work, and any damage or modification you know about;
• you will remove your belongings, and transfer or retain any private registration, before the vehicle is collected.

4. Collection

When you book you tell us the day that suits you; we ring to confirm it and whether the driver will be with you in the morning or the afternoon. Most collections happen within a day or two. The vehicle must be somewhere a recovery truck can reach safely: on solid ground, with room to load, and within winch reach if it does not roll. Tell us when you book if it is in a garage, on a slope, or without wheels. We may move a collection where weather, access or circumstances beyond our control make it unsafe.

On the day the driver checks the registered keeper’s photo ID and proof of address (section 7), and checks the vehicle against your description, before loading it. If the vehicle is materially different from what you described — an engine, gearbox or catalytic converter missing, damage or parts you did not mention — the driver will explain a revised price before anything is loaded. You may decline it, and we may decline to take the vehicle.

Once the vehicle is loaded the sale is complete, and ownership and risk pass to us. Anything left in the vehicle after that point cannot be returned.

If you would rather bring the vehicle to our yard, ring first so the paperwork is ready. The same checks apply at the gate, and the vehicle must be taxed and insured for the journey, or come on a trailer.

5. Cancellation and wasted journeys

You may cancel at any time before the driver sets off, at no charge, by phone or email.

A wasted-journey charge may apply if the driver attends as arranged and the collection cannot go ahead for a reason on your side: the vehicle is not there or cannot be reached; nobody is present with the keeper’s ID; or the vehicle is materially not as described and you decline the revised price. The charge is £1 for each mile of the driver’s one-way journey from our yard, with a minimum of £30. It does not apply where we cancel or move the collection, or where the vehicle matches your description.

6. Payment

We pay by bank transfer only, to an account in the registered keeper’s name. We do not and cannot pay cash: the Scrap Metal Dealers Act 2013 makes cash payment for a scrap vehicle a criminal offence in England and Wales.

The transfer is sent once the vehicle has been checked in at our yard — the same day for collections made before 3pm, and the next working day for later ones. If you bring the vehicle to us, you are paid once it has been checked in, while you wait. The amount is the price on your quote, or the revised price you agreed with the driver, and nothing else comes off it.

7. Identification and paperwork

The Scrap Metal Dealers Act 2013 requires us to verify the identity and address of the person we buy from and to keep a record for three years. The driver will ask for photo ID (a driving licence or passport) in the registered keeper’s name and proof of address from the last three months, and will photograph them for our records. Collection cannot go ahead without them. An old address on the V5C is not a problem as long as your proof of address is current.

The V5C logbook is helpful but not essential. If you have it, hand it to the driver and keep the yellow “sell, transfer or part-exchange to the motor trade” section (V5C/3). Our Certificate of Destruction updates the DVLA record, but GOV.UK also asks you to tell the DVLA yourself that the vehicle has gone to an ATF — online with the 11-digit reference from the V5C, or by posting the yellow section — and doing it the same day starts your tax refund from that month. Until the DVLA has been told, you remain the registered keeper.

Where the vehicle is destroyed, we issue the Certificate of Destruction from our own DVLA login within seven days of it reaching the yard, and email you a copy. A car, light van or three-wheeled motor vehicle that is destroyed always gets one. Occasionally a vehicle we are asked to scrap is worth repairing rather than crushing, which the law allows an ATF to do; no certificate is issued then, because nothing has been destroyed, and the paperwork is a sale to the motor trade — we become the trade buyer, you tell the DVLA using the same online form or yellow section, and the DVLA writes to confirm you are no longer the keeper. If you want the vehicle destroyed whatever its condition, say so when you book and we will scrap it and issue the certificate.

Cancelling your insurance is your responsibility. Vehicle tax is refunded by the DVLA automatically, for full months remaining, once it has been told the vehicle has gone.

8. Private registrations

If you want to keep a personalised registration, transfer or retain it before collection. Once a vehicle has been destroyed the registration cannot be recovered, and we accept no liability for a registration lost this way.

9. If something goes wrong

Contact us at info@motorspot.co.uk, or on 01709 522656 (Mon–Fri 8am–5pm, Sat 8am–12pm). We reply within one working day and aim to resolve complaints within fourteen days.

10. Our liability

Nothing in these terms excludes or limits our liability for death or personal injury caused by our negligence, for fraud, or for anything else that cannot lawfully be excluded, and nothing affects your rights as a consumer. Otherwise, our liability in connection with a vehicle is limited to losses that were a foreseeable result of our breaking these terms or failing to use reasonable care, and to the agreed price of that vehicle.

11. Your information

How we handle your information, including the ID and proof of address we are required to keep, is set out in our privacy policy. Where an approved collection partner collects for us, it receives your name, phone number, the collection address and the vehicle details for that job only.

12. Changes and governing law

We may update these terms; the version in force is the one shown on this page when you accept a price, and its date is at the top. These terms are governed by the law of England and Wales, and the courts of England and Wales have jurisdiction.