I would contact your insurer directly and ask.

If they have declared it a write off and you have accepted a payout, it is legally the property of the insurance company, and I know it is quite usual for an insurance company to ask for the V5 to be sent to them intact, and they will fill out the necessary sections and sign it on your behalf before sending it to DVLA, together with either a certificate of destruction or details of the purchaser of the salvage as appropriate to the category of write off.

You will then possibly need to write a letter to DVLA to inform them that the vehicle has been declared a total loss, and has been transferred to the insurer and that you have sent the documentation (V5c) to the insurance company.

If there was still any reclaimable VED on the vehicle, you will be able to reclaim that by filling in a form V14 and sending it to DVLA with the tax disc attached (assuming you have been able to take the disc out of the car). Only a private owner can reclaim unused VED, so neither your insurance company nor the salvage operator or repairer will be able to do so.

 

cheers, will try giving them a call but suspect i might have to wait until Monday

 

When my moms 75 was written off she just had to fill in the yellow trade section on behalf of copart salvage company using their address and sent it to dvla. Then just sent the rest of the V5 to the insurance company which I'm guessing would of been destroyed as it was Cat C.

 

cat c

i refused to send the V5 off to insurance as i wanted the ZS back to repair myself when they said it was going to be a uneconomic repair. i sent them a copy and when they paidout and i got the car back i had the V5 updated when i did the VIC test.
they only want the V5 to put a marker on as it was a cat c, the reason i didnt want them to have the V5 was i did want them to own the car with V5 incase it went for salvage.
i suppose different insurers in different ways, since i repaired the car and it having the VIC test it has gone through 3 MOT,s without a single advisory.
best thing is to talk to your insurer, hope you get it sorted.

 

If it has been paid out as a total loss, the write off category will get recorded on the DVLA records regardless of whether you send them the V5 or not. But, I can understand the reluctance to let them have the V5 in case you ended up losing the car altogether - I had a similar experience many years ago when the MG Metro I had back then got hit by a runaway Astra - insurance company wanted to write it off because they insisted it needed a new bodyshell; a bodyshop engineer was adamant that it could be easily repaired without a new shell. The engineer won the argument, and the insurance company paid out in lieu of repairs and the bodyshop repaired it within the amount of the payout.

If the insurer allows you to retain the car, and pays out a sum as 'payment in lieu of repairs', there is no write off, and nothing to be recorded.

It is perfectly normal practice for the insurer to ask for the V5 when they pay out and take ownership - it is effectively no different from selling your car to a dealer or part exchanging it for another one - the dealer will normally take the complete V5 and will take care of the transfer on your behalf (a practice borne out of many years experience of too many general public who either make a pigs ear of filling in the right section correctly, or don't bother to send their section off at all).