[Vehicles] How to Deregister a Car Without Scrapping It: Documents and Steps — What If the Car Can't Be Found?

3-Line Summary

1. Even if you cannot scrap the vehicle because you no longer have it, you can apply for deregistration after obtaining recognition of loss (extinction). Deregistration through recognition of loss is not a mandatory duty but a deregistration that the owner can apply for, so the sooner you act, the less damage you will incur.
2. If you do not deregister the vehicle, automobile taxes and fines for failure to maintain mandatory insurance will continue to accrue. If there are seizures (attachments) on the vehicle, you must check the status of those seizures first.
3. For motorcycles, instead of deregistration, the process is handled via a Report of Termination of Use (within 15 days from the date the cause occurred).

Table of Contents

1. A demand notice for a truck handed over 5 years ago
2. Why junkyards will not accept it
3. Summary of cases for deregistration without scrapping
4. Documents required for applying for recognition of loss
5. When there are seizures and unpaid taxes
6. A story about license plates and keys
7. Changes after processing
8. Motorcycles are processed via termination of use
9. Things to check if you are in a similar situation

1. A demand notice for a truck handed over 5 years ago

I am an administrative agent (administrative scrivener) working in Songdo, Incheon. I would like to introduce an anecdote I encountered while working.

The client who entered my office was a female office worker in her late 20s. In her hands, she held a bundle of demand notices from the district office and the Korea Insurance Development Institute. They were automobile tax notices and notices of fines for failure to maintain mandatory insurance regarding a 2013 1-ton truck registered under her mother’s name.

The situation was as follows: Her mother used to sell vegetables, but she had to stop her business five years ago in the autumn due to a knee injury. Regarding the vehicle, the owner of a local junkyard said, “I’ll take it and handle everything for you,” and took it from the site; the mother remembers receiving a small amount of cash instead of a service fee. She never received a certificate of destruction or any deregistration documents. That junkyard moved two years later, and their phone number has since changed.

One might ask why she didn’t take action sooner if notices had been arriving. Her mother thought, “I handed the car over, so why am I being taxed?” and ignored them the first few times, and the mail went to her old address, so it went unnoticed by her for a while. This year, while organizing her address, the overdue mail arrived all at once, and her daughter saw it and visited my office.

The daughter’s first question was this: “Can I just go to a junkyard? But I don’t have the car.”

2. Why junkyards will not accept it

The structure of scrapping for deregistration is that the vehicle is taken to a junkyard (an automobile dismantling and recycling business), dismantled, and then the operator applies for deregistration on behalf of the owner. The vehicle must be physically present, and the certificate of destruction is issued by the operator who dismantled that specific vehicle.

In a case like this, where the vehicle has already been handed over to someone else and the whereabouts of the vehicle are unknown, this path is blocked. Even if you explain the circumstances to a junkyard, they cannot issue documents for a vehicle they did not dismantle. However, if you leave it as is, the vehicle remains “alive” under the mother’s name in the registration ledger, so automobile taxes will continue to be levied, and fines will accumulate for the period during which mandatory insurance was not maintained.

The deadlines must also be noted. In cases where deregistration is mandatory, such as when a request for scrapping has been made, the application must be filed within one month from the date the cause occurred, pursuant to Article 13 of the Automobile Management Act and Article 31 of the Automobile Registration Decree. On the other hand, in cases where the metropolitan/provincial governor recognizes the vehicle as lost (Article 31, Paragraph 5, Item 7 of the Automobile Registration Decree), it is a reason for which the owner “can apply” for deregistration according to the proviso of Article 13, Paragraph 1 of the Act. Therefore, in this case, the bigger problem was the accumulation of taxes and fines rather than the violation of the deadline. To prevent taxes and fines from increasing further, one must apply now, submitting a detailed explanation of the circumstances along with the application so that the relevant authorities can recognize the loss.

3. Summary of cases for deregistration without scrapping

Cases for applying for deregistration without scrapping must be viewed by category of cause.

This case falls under the third line. The reason for deregistration is not “scrapping” but “the vehicle cannot be found,” and in this case, deregistration occurs only when the owner submits an application and the relevant authority recognizes the fact of loss. Common types eligible for recognition of loss include processing by unlicensed junkyards, loss, total fire damage, long-term theft, or vehicles that were handed over in a state where even the owner does not know their whereabouts.

For export deregistration, since the fulfillment of the export must be reported separately within a specified period even after deregistration, the process does not end simply by submitting the documents.

4. Documents Used for the Application for Recognition of Loss

Recognition of loss is a procedure where the owner personally clarifies that “this vehicle no longer exists,” and the relevant authority determines whether that explanation is credible. Rather than documents fitting into a fixed template, the importance lies in how specifically you can present the circumstances.

The materials prepared for my client’s mother’s case were as follows:

1. Copy of the Vehicle Registration Certificate or Registration Ledger: Since we did not know where the registration certificate had gone five years ago, we wrote a reason for its loss.
2. Statement of Circumstances regarding the Loss: We wrote a chronological account of when, to whom, where, and under what conditions the vehicle was handed over.
3. Evidence Showing the Fact of Handover: There was no bank transfer record of receiving service fees at the time because it was paid in cash. Instead, we attached two text messages between the mother and the junkyard owner remaining on her mobile phone, along with a written confirmation from a neighboring merchant.
4. Evidence of Efforts to Locate the Other Party: We organized photos of visits to the former business address, call logs of attempts to call the changed phone number, and inquiry results regarding whether the business had been closed.
5. ID Card and Application Form (Attached Form of the Vehicle Registration Rules): If the owner does not submit it in person, a power of attorney is also required.

The part of the statement of circumstances that I focused on most was why the application was being made only now. I did not hide the fact that she initially thought “it was over once it was handed over,” and that the notices had been sent to her old address and were only discovered all at once during the address cleanup this year. This is because the first thing the authorities suspect is, “Why only now?”

5. When Seizures and Delinquencies are Involved

Upon reviewing the registration ledger, there were two seizures listed in the “Gap” section (the section recording ownership and encumbrances). One was a seizure for unpaid automobile taxes from the District Office, and the other was a seizure for unpaid fines. Since the vehicle was seized due to unpaid taxes and fines, it is easy to think that the registration cannot be canceled.

In principle, if a seizure exists, you can only cancel the registration after obtaining the consent of the seizure holder or by lifting the seizure first. However, even if a seizure is in place, if the vehicle meets the criteria set for having no liquidation value, you can apply for cancellation without consent. These criteria include age requirements, such as 11 years or more for passenger cars and 10 years or more for vans and trucks. Since the 2013 cargo truck met these criteria, I prepared to apply without obtaining separate consent forms from each seizure holder.

There is one point to note. Being exempt from consent does not mean the delinquent amounts disappear. Once the cancellation of registration is completed, future tax assessments will stop, but you must separately check and inquire with the taxing authorities regarding the methods for paying the already assessed automobile taxes and mandatory insurance fines. Once the timing of the cancellation was finalized, I also checked how the assessments for the period following that date would be handled.

If it had been a vehicle that did not meet the age requirement, the story would be different. In that case, one must check the delinquent amounts for each agency that has placed a seizure and follow the process of requesting the release of those seizures.

6. The Story of the License Plate and the Key

The day before the application, the client called the office. “They say we must return the two license plates, but my mother doesn’t know where the license plates are.”

In principle, the vehicle registration certificate and the license plates must be returned for the cancellation of registration. Since the vehicle is gone, there is a high possibility that the license plates are also missing. In such cases, you write the reason for being unable to return the license plates in the statement of circumstances and check whether the authority accepts that reason. While the lack of return documents does not prevent the application itself, a request for supplementation will be issued if the explanation of the reason is insufficient.

However, that evening, the daughter contacted me unexpectedly. She said that while searching through the drawers, her mother had found the truck key. A plastic ornament in the shape of a license plate was attached to the keychain, and the mother had proudly said, “Here are the license plates,” for quite a while. The daughter said it took her a long time to explain while holding back laughter because it wasn’t the actual license plate. The key was included in the statement of circumstances the next day with a single sentence: “The key is in possession, but the location of the vehicle is unknown.” It is important to record even these trivial facts exactly as they are. If they are hidden and revealed later, the credibility of the entire statement of circumstances will decrease.

7. What Changes After Processing

After the application was filed, there was one request for supplementation from the relevant agency while they were reviewing the statement of circumstances. They requested an additional inquiry into whether the junkyard business premises had been closed, and I submitted the supplementation within two days. A few weeks later, the deregistration was processed along with the recognition of loss (extinction). In this case, no separate notice of fines regarding the delay in deregistration was issued, but it cannot be assumed that all cases result in the same outcome.

Once the deregistration was completed, three things changed.

• Automobile tax imposition stops. Automobile taxes will not be issued for the period after deregistration.
• Fines for failure to maintain mandatory insurance do not accumulate further. Any portions already imposed must be checked and handled separately.
• The vehicle disappears from the registration certificate. This also reduces the risk of my mother’s name being continuously attached to accidents or violations caused by this vehicle.

My mother said, “I thought it was finished five years ago.” The core of this case was the fact that handing over the car and erasing the registration are two separate matters.

8. Motorcycles are processed via “Report of Disuse”

In the same house, there was one more 125cc scooter that my mother used for market deliveries. This one had not been started for five years and still had its license plate attached. According to Article 48 of the Automobile Management Act, motorcycles are subject to a “Report of Use” rather than “Automobile Registration”, so they are settled through a Report of Disuse rather than deregistration.

• Deadline: Within 15 days from the date the reason (scrapping, loss, disappearance, theft, etc.) occurs.
• Documents: Report of Disuse (form under the Enforcement Rule of the Automobile Management Act), Motorcycle Use Report Certificate, license plate.
• Where to report: The Si, Gun, or Gu (city, county, or district) having jurisdiction over the place of use.

Since the scooter was still in the warehouse, one method is to call a vehicle scrapping (dismantling) company to handle it. However, there is also the option to decide not to use it at all, return the license plate, and simply report the disuse. In this case, as my mother said, “I can’t send it away with my own hands,” we decided to return the license plate, report only the disuse, and leave the scooter in the warehouse. To use a motorcycle that has been reported as disused on the road again, a new report of use must be filed.

For motorcycles that lack a license plate due to theft or loss, reporting to the police is not enough; you must separately file a Report of Disuse with the competent authority to stop the accumulation of mandatory insurance fines.

9. Things to Check if You Are in a Similar Situation

If you are in a situation where you cannot scrap the vehicle, check the following in order:

1. First, obtain the registration certificate. The owner’s name, the number of seizures/mortgages, and the vehicle’s age will all be listed.
2. Write down the circumstances of how the vehicle disappeared in chronological order. The framework should include the date it was handed over, the other party, the consideration (payment), and records of attempts to contact them.
3. Distinguish whether the reason is export, accident/fire, or whereabouts unknown. The required documents and the party responsible for the application will vary depending on the reason.
4. If there are seizures, check if they meet the criteria based on the vehicle’s age. If they do not apply, check the unpaid amounts by each agency and request the release of the seizures first.
5. For motorcycles, file a Report of Disuse within 15 days instead of deregistration.

Requirements vary by case, so individual verification is necessary. For accurate legal provisions and interpretations, please check the National Law Information Center or the competent authority.

Services of the Administrative Agent Office

For cases where a vehicle cannot be found or scrapping documents cannot be obtained, Hwang Yunsang Administrative Agent Office provides services such as organizing the reasons for deregistration, drafting statements of circumstances for recognition of loss, checking registration certificates and seizures/unpaid taxes, and acting as an agent for preparing and submitting deregistration applications. We also handle the Report of Disuse for motorcycles and responses to requests for supplementation.

The date the car was handed over and the date the registration was erased may be different. As the gap between them grows, taxes and fines accumulate; therefore, if you have received a notice, checking from that date is the fastest way.

This has been reconstructed to aid understanding and is not related to any specific person or incident.