Why the address matters before the car leaves
If the car is ready to go but the logbook still shows an old Halifax address, pause for a moment and check the keeper details. A wrong address does not usually change the fact that the vehicle needs a proper disposal route, but it can make the DVLA side harder to follow later.
That matters most when the car has been sat on a drive after a move, parked at a family property, or kept in a garage while paperwork got left behind. The vehicle may be simple enough to collect, but the record still needs to point to the right keeper history.
What to check on the V5C
Start with the name and address on the V5C, then compare it with where the car is actually being handled from now. If the old address is only a past keeper detail and the vehicle is still in the right hands, do not guess your way through the form. Work from the current paperwork and make sure the disposal step is recorded cleanly.
If you are keeping a private plate, deal with that before the car goes for scrap. GOV.UK says the usual route is to sort private plate plans first if needed, then take the vehicle to an authorised treatment facility, give the V5C to the ATF, keep the yellow motor trade section, and tell DVLA.
That order is useful because a messy logbook often becomes a messy handover. A car on a steep driveway, in a Calderdale yard, or behind a locked gate can still be dealt with properly, but the paperwork should not be left until after the pickup.
If the address is no longer current
If the keeper address on the logbook is out of date, do what you can to bring the record back into line before disposal. The aim is not to create extra admin. It is to make sure the vehicle can be traced and the right keeper action is clear.
For a car that is going to an ATF, the old address should not be treated as a reason to ignore the DVLA step. The important point is that the vehicle is scrapped at the proper facility and the keeper notification follows. If the vehicle is being taken off the road instead, SORN is the off-road route, including when the car is kept on private land, in a garage, or on a drive.
If the car is already sold, transferred, written off, scrapped, stolen, exported, or made tax-exempt, vehicle tax is cancelled by telling DVLA. The refund, if one is due, is for full remaining months and is worked out from the date DVLA gets the information.
What to keep after disposal
Keep the bits that prove what happened. That usually means your own note of the date, the vehicle details, and any disposal record or receipt you are given. If the car goes through an ATF route, that helps keep the environmental handling and paperwork trail clearer.
Do not rely on memory if the keeper address was old or the car changed hands through a family member. A proper record is useful if you later need to check when the vehicle left your care, whether tax should have stopped, or whether a SORN was used instead.
If a Certificate of Destruction is issued, file it safely with the rest of the vehicle papers. It is the sort of document that is easy to lose and annoying to replace mentally later, especially when the address on the logbook was already behind the real situation.
A clean finish is usually the simplest one
The best approach is plain and early: check the address, keep the paperwork current, and use the right disposal route. For a Halifax owner, that usually means looking at the V5C before the pickup window opens, not after the car is already gone.
If the logbook address is wrong, do not let that delay the main job. Get the vehicle details lined up, pass the car through the proper scrap route if that is where it is going, and make the DVLA notification part of the same clean finish.