Guide · updated 2026
Category A, B, S and N write-offs explained
If your insurer has written your car off, the category they assign decides what can legally happen to it next. Two of the four mean the car can never be driven again.
Category A — scrap only
The most severe. The entire vehicle must be crushed, including every part. Nothing can be salvaged from it, not even a wing mirror.
Category B — body shell destroyed
The shell must be crushed, but serviceable parts may be removed and reused first. A Category B vehicle can never return to the road.
Category S — structurally damaged, repairable
Structural damage — chassis, crumple zones, suspension mounts — but economically repairable. It can go back on the road once properly repaired, and the category stays on its record permanently.
Category N — non-structural, repairable
Damage that is not structural: electrics, cosmetics, and sometimes fairly serious mechanical faults. Repairable and road-legal again afterwards, with the marker on its history.
We take all four
Whatever category has been applied, tell us on the phone. It affects what we can legally do with the vehicle, so we would rather know at the start than find out when the paperwork does not match.
This page is general information, not legal advice. For the official position, check GOV.UK — and if something about your car does not fit what is written here, ring the yard and ask.