Auto salvage in Livingston

When an insurer writes a car off and you keep it, the settlement letter is rarely the end of its value. The car still has an engine, a gearbox, an interior and panels that were never touched. We price all of that, and we buy uncategorised crash damage and cars damaged by flood or fire as well.

Collection in Livingston is free and done with a recovery vehicle, so a car that cannot steer or roll is not a problem. Payment is by bank transfer. As a rule, the cars we buy go to a licensed Authorised Treatment Facility for parts recovery and recycling, and when a car is scrapped the ATF issues the Certificate of Destruction and notifies the DVLA.

Livingston is roughly 130 miles from our Fort William base and shares scheduled runs with Edinburgh and the rest of West Lothian. The date is agreed when you accept the price. Tell us if the car is in a garage court, a shared car park or on a narrow street, so we send the right truck. Industrial units are fine. Postcodes, districts and how collection runs in Livingston are on our local collection notes.

Is your car a write-off or just damaged?

The first question we ask about a damaged car is whether there has been an insurance claim. If there has, the insurer will have given it a category, and your settlement letter says which. We buy B, S and N cars that are yours to sell, although insurers usually let you keep only a Category S or N car. Keeping one comes at a cost: the insurer normally takes the car's salvage value off your payout, so set that figure against our price before you choose. A Category A car we take only for crushing. If you settled the damage privately or decided not to claim, there is no category at all, and the car is priced as accident damage, on what can still be recovered from it.

How to show us the damage

We price salvage cars from photos and a description, so a few minutes with your phone makes the quote more accurate. Photograph the car from each corner in daylight, then take close-ups of every damaged area. If the car still powers up, photograph the dashboard with the ignition on, so we can see the mileage and any warning lights. Add the interior, especially the airbags, and the engine bay if the bonnet opens. Tell us which parts you know are undamaged, such as the engine or the rear half of the car. With that, the car can be priced on what is recoverable rather than a guess, and the figure we agree is the figure paid.

Releasing a car from a garage or storage yard

If your insurer moved the car after the crash, find out where it is now and who holds it. Once you have agreed to keep the car after the claim, the storage site will usually want to hear from you before it lets the car go. Ask what paperwork they need and whether any fees are owed. Check the finance too: if the car is on hire purchase or PCP, the finance company owns it and normally receives the settlement first, and the car cannot be sold until the agreement is settled or the lender gives written permission. Pass the details to us with the reg, the category, any outstanding finance and the address in Livingston. The driver will expect to see the release reference or authority, and payment goes to an account in your name by bank transfer, not to the site.

Read our full guide to auto salvage, see how the WhatsApp quote works, or start a quote.