Reporting an abandoned car
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Discussion

Bucsky

Original Poster:

33 posts

113 months

Friday 8th December 2017
quotequote all
A car appeared on a shared parking area outside our house about 3 weeks ago and hasn't moved since. It's got at least 1 flat tyre and in a pretty poor state. Checked its reg and it has no tax or MOT. Does anyone know the process for reporting this? Is it a council issue?

Cudd Wudd

1,118 posts

155 months

Friday 8th December 2017
quotequote all
Never had to myself, but this link should help - enter your postcode and hopefully the answer appears:

https://www.gov.uk/report-abandoned-vehicle

Bucsky

Original Poster:

33 posts

113 months

Friday 8th December 2017
quotequote all
Cheers, just found the local council's page that had a form to fill in. Needs to meet criteria such as damaged bodywork, flat tyres, rubbish all around it, smashed windows etc.

Submitted it so will see what happens. Does anyone know whether they actually take any notice of these and send someone out?

lucido grigio

44,044 posts

193 months

Friday 8th December 2017
quotequote all
Depends on the council but if it somehow ended up parked badly in the street ,it will get removed quicker.....whistle

HantsRat

2,409 posts

138 months

Friday 8th December 2017
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If it's private shared parking then usually down to the land owner to sort out. If council owned then they will sort out.

The Mad Monk

11,506 posts

147 months

Friday 8th December 2017
quotequote all
Bucsky said:
A car appeared on a shared parking area outside our house about 3 weeks ago and hasn't moved since. It's got at least 1 flat tyre and in a pretty poor state. Checked its reg and it has no tax or MOT. Does anyone know the process for reporting this? Is it a council issue?
Hmmm. Tricky one.

Could you ask on the internet?

Bucsky

Original Poster:

33 posts

113 months

Friday 8th December 2017
quotequote all
The Mad Monk said:
Hmmm. Tricky one.

Could you ask on the internet?
See first post ^

coopedup

3,742 posts

169 months

Friday 8th December 2017
quotequote all
Bucsky said:
The Mad Monk said:
Hmmm. Tricky one.

Could you ask on the internet?
See first post ^
Where's that parrot??

shakotan

10,862 posts

226 months

Friday 8th December 2017
quotequote all
Is the shared parking area classed as a public road, or private property?

If it's a public road, report it to the DVLA for being untaxed, and they'll clamp it, and ultimately remove it.

https://www.gov.uk/report-untaxed-vehicle

Mandalore

5,457 posts

143 months

Friday 8th December 2017
quotequote all
coopedup said:
Bucsky said:
The Mad Monk said:
Hmmm. Tricky one.

Could you ask on the internet?
See first post ^
Where's that parrot??
Probably locked in a car somewhere.

Bucsky

Original Poster:

33 posts

113 months

Friday 8th December 2017
quotequote all
shakotan said:
Is the shared parking area classed as a public road, or private property?

If it's a public road, report it to the DVLA for being untaxed, and they'll clamp it, and ultimately remove it.

https://www.gov.uk/report-untaxed-vehicle
Yeah it's a public road. It's all been reported now for both being presumably abandoned and for having no tax, so I'll see who turns up first to deal with it.

Adrian E

3,366 posts

206 months

Friday 8th December 2017
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If our area is anything to go by, neither will bother.....in our case the council did come and take a look, then decreed it wasn't abandoned. Parked on public road, no tax, no insurance, but still MOTd. Hasn't moved in months. Will probably be February, when the MOT expires, before they'll do anything meaningful. DVLA contractors can't be arsed to travel as we're equidistant between 2 nearest depots and travel cost exceeds their fee, so we're told.

jesusbuiltmycar

5,132 posts

284 months

Friday 8th December 2017
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When you report it don't forget to mention that children have been seen "playing" with it, that way the council will move it sooner!

CAPP0

20,881 posts

233 months

Friday 8th December 2017
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Bucsky said:
A car appeared on a shared parking area outside our house about 3 weeks ago and hasn't moved since. It's got at least 1 flat tyre and in a pretty poor state. Checked its reg and it has no tax or MOT. Does anyone know the process for reporting this? Is it a council issue?
The best way to work out what to do with it is to use the PH search function and check what the suggestions were in all the other 7,349 threads asking the same question in the past 3 days.

(Yes, the above does make me look like a smartass, which I wasn't trying to be, but honestly, this or a very similar question is asked several times every week. It would be much easier use to have a sticky at the top of SP&L addressing this).

Bucsky

Original Poster:

33 posts

113 months

Friday 8th December 2017
quotequote all
CAPP0 said:
The best way to work out what to do with it is to use the PH search function and check what the suggestions were in all the other 7,349 threads asking the same question in the past 3 days.

(Yes, the above does make me look like a smartass, which I wasn't trying to be, but honestly, this or a very similar question is asked several times every week. It would be much easier use to have a sticky at the top of SP&L addressing this).
Cheers for waiting until the 14th reply to post this. Funny the majority of the people have provided meaningful answers and advice despite it being asked '7,349' times in the last 3 days.

4rephill

5,168 posts

208 months

Friday 8th December 2017
quotequote all
Bucsky said:
Yeah it's a public road. It's all been reported now for both being presumably abandoned and for having no tax, so I'll see who turns up first to deal with it.
Hmmm...... Is it classified as a "public road"? - Or is it classified as a "public place"? scratchchin

We have an off-road parking area for residents outside our houses, which according to the insurance companies, is classified as a public place as there is no barrier or gate to prevent public access, but there's no way it would be classified as a public road (Pretty much the same as a supermarket car park - It's a public place, but it's not a public road).

If someone abandoned a car in our parking area, I can't see the council dealing with it - I'm pretty sure they'd say it was private land.

Bucsky

Original Poster:

33 posts

113 months

Friday 8th December 2017
quotequote all
4rephill said:
Hmmm...... Is it classified as a "public road"? - Or is it classified as a "public place"? scratchchin

We have an off-road parking area for residents outside our houses, which according to the insurance companies, is classified as a public place as there is no barrier or gate to prevent public access, but there's no way it would be classified as a public road (Pretty much the same as a supermarket car park - It's a public place, but it's not a public road).

If someone abandoned a car in our parking area, I can't see the council dealing with it - I'm pretty sure they'd say it was private land.
I'm not sure it will matter too much in this case, on the council website it says:

We have a duty under Section 3 of the Refuse Disposal (Amenity) Act 1978, to remove a vehicle which is abandoned in the borough, on any land in the open air, or on any other land forming part of a highway. Under this act, abandoning a vehicle is a criminal offence, carrying a maximum penalty or a fine of £2,500 or three months' imprisonment or both.

Looks as though they don't really care where a car has been abandoned.

4rephill

5,168 posts

208 months

Friday 8th December 2017
quotequote all
Bucsky said:
I'm not sure it will matter too much in this case, on the council website it says:

We have a duty under Section 3 of the Refuse Disposal (Amenity) Act 1978, to remove a vehicle which is abandoned in the borough, on any land in the open air, or on any other land forming part of a highway. Under this act, abandoning a vehicle is a criminal offence, carrying a maximum penalty or a fine of £2,500 or three months' imprisonment or both.

Looks as though they don't really care where a car has been abandoned.
What council's put on their websites and what they actually do, aren't always the same.

There was an article in our local paper last week about an abandon Citroen in a city street that had been there for several months. The car had no MOT, tax or insurance, the tyres were all flat, and vandals had smashed the side and rear windows.

Residents had complained to the city council asking for it to be removed, only to be told: "It's not our responsibility - It's for the DVLA to deal with untaxed cars"

One resident said that they'd informed the council that the car wasn't simply untaxed, it was definitely abandoned and was now a complete wreck, and the reply they got was: "We have informed the DVLA - It's for them to take action"!

It will be interesting to see the outcome of your situation for future reference, as abandoned cars seems to be becoming more and more frequent - Please keep us updated smile

Bucsky

Original Poster:

33 posts

113 months

Friday 8th December 2017
quotequote all
4rephill said:
What council's put on their websites and what they actually do, aren't always the same.

There was an article in our local paper last week about an abandon Citroen in a city street that had been there for several months. The car had no MOT, tax or insurance, the tyres were all flat, and vandals had smashed the side and rear windows.

Residents had complained to the city council asking for it to be removed, only to be told: "It's not our responsibility - It's for the DVLA to deal with untaxed cars"

One resident said that they'd informed the council that the car wasn't simply untaxed, it was definitely abandoned and was now a complete wreck, and the reply they got was: "We have informed the DVLA - It's for them to take action"!

It will be interesting to see the outcome of your situation for future reference, as abandoned cars seems to be becoming more and more frequent - Please keep us updated smile
Will do, like I said it's been reported as abandoned to the council, and also to the DVLA for no tax, so we'll see who (if anyone) does anything first.