What to Do With Your License Plates When You Scrap Your Car in BC
Most checklists for scrapping a car in BC cover the big items: the bill of sale, notifying ICBC, sorting out any lien. The one thing that regularly gets left on the vehicle by accident is the license plate — and in British Columbia, that’s the one part of the car that legally isn’t the car’s to give away.
In BC, the Plate Belongs to You, Not the Vehicle
Unlike some jurisdictions where plates stay with a vehicle for its whole life, ICBC registers license plates to the owner. That’s why you’re able to move the same plate number from an old vehicle to a new one when you upgrade, and it’s also why a plate shouldn’t just ride away on a car that’s headed for the scrapyard. When you stop owning the vehicle — whether it’s sold, written off, or scrapped — the plate is still yours to deal with.
Take the Plates Off Before the Tow Truck Leaves
The practical step is simple: remove your plates before pickup, the same way you’d take your garage door opener out of the car. If you’re scheduling a pickup with us, there’s no need to leave them on — we’re there for the vehicle, not the plate, and having them off ahead of time saves a step on pickup day.
Cancelling Insurance and What Happens to the Plate
Once you no longer own the vehicle, the next call is to your Autoplan broker to cancel the insurance tied to those plates. ICBC’s own guidance on cancelling insurance is to bring your license plates in when you cancel, and that timing matters financially: the sooner you cancel, the more of any unused premium you may be eligible to get back. Dragging it out because the car’s already gone doesn’t help you — it just leaves money on the table.
Keeping the Same Plate for Your Next Vehicle
If you’re planning to replace the car you’re scrapping, ask your broker before you cancel anything. BC’s plate-to-owner system is what makes it possible to carry a plate number over to a replacement vehicle in many cases, rather than being issued a brand new one. It’s worth a two-minute conversation with your broker at the same appointment where you’re dealing with the scrapped vehicle’s insurance, rather than assuming you’ll automatically get a fresh plate on the next car.
Don’t Just Toss Them or Leave Them on the Car
Plates that get left on a scrapped vehicle or thrown out with the rest of the junk are a real, if low-odds, fraud risk — a valid-looking plate in the wrong hands can end up on an uninsured vehicle before anyone notices it’s not accounted for. Returning them to your Autoplan broker when you cancel closes that loop properly, and it takes the same five minutes as the rest of the cancellation paperwork.
The Short Version
Pull the plates before the tow truck takes the car, then bring them to your Autoplan broker when you cancel the insurance — sooner rather than later if you want the biggest refund on what’s left of your premium. If another vehicle is coming, ask about keeping the same plate number before you finalize anything.
Related reading: Do I Need to Notify ICBC When I Scrap My Car? and What Paperwork Do You Need to Scrap a Car in BC? cover the rest of the admin side of the process.