Valorcar

General Case

The owners/holders of an ELV should dispose of it at an authorised treatment facility, namely those belonging to the VALORCAR NETWORK. This disposal is free if the vehicle is complete and guarantees that it will be processed in an environmentally correct manner and the respective ownership registration and vehicle registration cancelled.

Therefore, upon disposal, the owner/holder of an ELV must:

Submit the vehicle’s original logbook and ownership registration document (or vehicle registration certificate);
Present their identification documents (Citizen’s Card or ID Card and Taxpayer’s Card);
Request the cancelation of the vehicle registration by filling form model 9 of the Institute for Mobility and Transport – IMT (that will be made available by the centre – this form can only be signed by the vehicle’s owner. In the case of companies, the signature must be notarized)

Next, the VALORCAR NETWORK centre identifies the ELV and verifies the corresponding documentation. If everything it correct, it issues the Certificate of Destruction (a legal document published in the Official Journal of the Portuguese Republic of 10th May 2014 – Decree no. 9276/2004) and immediately provides the original to the vehicle’s owner/holder (thus proving they delivered the vehicle at an authorized facility and have no further responsibilities).

Later, the VALORCAR NETWORK centre sends a copy of the Certificate of Destruction to the IMT, accompanied by the vehicle and owner documentation. As soon as it receives this documentation, the IMT cancels the vehicle registration and communicates this fact to the Vehicle Licensing Agency so that it also cancels the ownership registration.

IMPORTANT NOTES:

The cancellation of an ELV’s ownership and vehicle registration is only possible by submitting a Certificate of Destruction issued by an authorised treatment facility. This is the only way to cancel the payment of the Portuguese annual road tax (IUC). (If the vehicle is abandoned or delivered at a non-licensed centre, the registration holder must still pay the tax).
Certificates of Destruction are issued via a VALORCAR internal computer system containing the data of both vehicles and owners. This database is communicated to the National Data Protection Authority.

See the list of ELV (end-of-life vehicle) centres here

Saved vehicles

As a result of road accidents, some vehicles suffer damage that results in them being declared a “total loss” by insurance companies. In these situations, there are two possible courses of action for the damaged vehicles (also called “salvage vehicles”) according to current applicable legislation:

When technically and economically viable, they can be repaired and subject to a special type B inspection (according to the Road Code, salvage vehicles can only be deemed roadworthy if they pass this inspection);
When not repaired (or if they do not pass a special inspection after being repaired), they are considered ELVs, and must be sent to an authorised treatment facility.

Abandoned vehicles

Unfortunately, and though it is punishable by law, some vehicles are still abandoned on public roads in Portugal. (IMPORTANT NOTE: an owner that abandons a vehicle will not be able to cancel the ownership registration, so must continue to pay the Portuguese annual road tax (IUC).

Whenever an abandoned vehicle is detected, the competent municipal or police authorities send it to a authorised centre belonging to the VALORCAR NETWORK, with all costs incurred being the responsibility of the owner of the abandoned vehicle.

VALORCAR and the National Association of Portuguese Municipalities (ANMP) have worked closely together on this point and published the “Guide for the management of abandoned vehicles” (a document that compiles and systematizes the administrative procedures that municipalities must comply with to collect and transport abandoned vehicles) and a draft of the protocol. This protocol aims to strengthen the collaboration between VALORCAR and municipal councils and is intended, amongst other things:

To develop efficient channels for the transmission of information;
To realize awareness/training actions;
To ensure the VALORCAR NETWORK centres provide the correct management of ELVs in the possession of municipalities (ELVs abandoned or previously part of municipal fleets).

To date, VALORCAR has signed this protocol with over 90 municipalities.