Branding a Motor Vehicle

Branding, or classification, of a motor vehicle is required where the vehicle has been deemed a “total loss”.  A total loss is defined as a situation where the cost of repairing the vehicle, plus its salvage value, exceed the value of the motor vehicle just before an accident.  Insurers or repairers who deal with irreparable or total loss motor vehicles are required to report this to the Ministry of Transportation.  The vehicle may be re-licenced as a “rebuilt” motor vehicle, if it has been branded as “salvage”, but not one that has been branded as “irreparable”.  This requirement is relatively recent, so an older vehicle may have been rebuilt without any branding noted on the Used Vehicle Information Package.  Be careful if the vehicle history shows that at some point an insurance company owned the vehicle.  This probably means that the vehicle was, at some point, considered by the insurance company to have been a total loss.