Let’s see if we can sort this out:

Motor vehicles can be written-off in a number of ways. But what does written-off mean?

Written off vehicles are vehicles deemed by the insurance companies to be too expensive or not financially viable to be repaired or too damaged to be deemed safe to repair. Usually if a part of the vehicles structural parts are damaged e.g back 1/4 panels, body rails, roof, sill panels or severe hail damage, just to name a few. The written-off vehicle register (WOVR) is designed to assist in combating the problem of rebirthed vehicles

NSW authorities say: “A vehicle is a total loss when the cost of the repairs plus its value as a damaged vehicle (its salvage value) is higher than the market value (of the vehicle). Written-off (cars) cannot be re-registered in NSW, except in limited circumstances. The vehicle can still be bought and sold, but only used for parts or scrap metal.”

This commonly means that the vehicle would be sold to auto dismantlers (recyclers) to be stripped of good parts for resale.

In NSW there is very limited vehicles the are listed as repairable write offs. This is when the vehicle is deemed uneconomical to repair in the eyes of the insurance company, but has no safety issues. NSW is the only state at this stage to have 90% or more that the vehicles are classed as a statutory write off. In recent months all of Australia have moved to stop statutory written off NSW vehicles banned from becoming re-registered in their states, thus making it more difficult to fool people from buying dud vehicles. These states have also moved to having a written off register (WOVR) thus stopping the illegal rebirthing of vehicles altogether. WOVR has now become a national written off vehicle identifier.

Whenever you are thinking of purchasing any vehicle other than a brand-new vehicle, you must (to be safe) first check on the PPSR government site to check if the vehicle is under higher purchase or has been written off, it only costs a couple of dollars for piece of mind. Here is the link –
https://www.ppsr.gov.au

It is good to note that a written off vehicle cannot be re-registered and needs to be taken off the road ASAP. A vehicle can be re-registered except under special circumstances and it would be wise to contact the RMS in NSW. If you are not in NSW, please check with your local roads & transport facility in your state to confirm what you would need to do to try and re-register a written off vehicle.

Written off vehicles only apply to vehicles younger than 15 years, older than 15 year they are deemed too old to repair anyway and you may find the insurance company will just not fix the vehicle.

Want to know more please see the below link for more information.

https://www.rms.nsw.gov.au/roads/registration/get-nsw-registration/written–off.html

Hope you found this helpful

The team at BBT Japparts