A guide to the last paperwork
Car Wreckers Brisbane is a guide to the end of a car’s life in Queensland, written and published by Dotto. It draws on the Queensland Government’s transport, fair trading and environment pages and on Brisbane City Council, and each page lists the sources it used at its foot.
Most of the rules here protect someone further down the line. Number plates stay the property of the State of Queensland, which is why they go back. A written-off car’s status is permanent, and it is recorded on the national Personal Property Securities Register. A battery crushed in a garbage truck can start a fire.
Before the car leaves your hands
Five checks before a car goes, each one taken from a tag on the rack.
- Has it been written off, and has anyone said so? An insurer or other notifier usually reports a write-off. If none has and the car is a total loss, Transport and Main Roads requires the owner to report it before selling or disposing of the car. Written-off vehicles in Queensland
- Which plates are going back? Standard plates are handed in with the cancellation; personalised or customised plates can be kept. Cancelling registration and returning plates
- Is the registration still current? A refund of the unused registration and CTP insurer’s premium is possible only while the registration is current and in your name when you ask to cancel.
- Does the buyer hold a licence? A motor dealer (wrecker) licence covers obtaining used vehicles to sell as parts, and the Office of Fair Trading’s register can be searched online for free. Selling a car to a recycler or wrecker
- Where are the oil and battery going? In Brisbane, Council’s resource recovery centres take lead acid car batteries and motor oil free on any day, within limits. Oil, fluids and batteries
Who keeps which rule
- Transport and Main Roads
- Registration and its cancellation, number plates, and the Written-off Vehicle Scheme.
- Office of Fair Trading
- Licences for the motor trade, wreckers among them, and the public register of licence holders.
- Brisbane City Council
- Household hazardous waste drop-off, and vehicles left unmanaged on its roads. Abandoned and unmanaged vehicles
- The state’s environment department
- The Department of the Environment, Tourism, Science and Innovation runs the Pollution Hotline for significant incidents, and the state sets the rules on illegal dumping.
Where this guide stops
These pages stay with a car that has reached its end. A car that changes hands to be driven on goes through a registration transfer instead, which Transport and Main Roads explains on its own pages. Queensland Government: registration transfer.