Missing wheel, sort of dumped but T,T & I

[john2443]

This has come up on local FB group, there's a crappy looking pickup that a wheel has fallen off, you can see the mark on the road where it's been driven to the side of the road to park.

AskMID says it's insured, DVLA says it's MOT and taxed til May 2022.

Locals are saying it should be reported as abandoned and someone (council? police? DVLA?) should tow it away.

I can't see any of them doing much seeing that it's taxed, tested and insured, but it is illegal to leave it parked there with a wheel missing, it's not road worthy is the only 'crime'

Doesn't bother me as it's not near my house, in fact it's not in front of anyone's house, there are bushes next to the pavement it's by, houses the other side of the road.

[Dark Star]

Will depend upon how long it has been there?
Clearly not in road worthy condition. 😀
Could be the start of a PH project car to make a Del Boy three wheeler.
I would say give the owner a chance to recover it.
If it is still there after a couple of weeks it could well be a stolen vehicle that some low life has stolen and damaged it before dumping it.

[dibblecorse]

Its a broken down vehicle and would be treated as such by the authorities, until its either untaxed or uninsured no one is going to get involved, the owner is probably trying to work out how to sort it.

[Pica-Pica]

Council websites usually have a webpage for reporting abandoned vehicles. I reported one a few years ago, on street, no tax or MOT (but looked OK-ish). It went a day or two after that - to where I do not know.

[4rephill]

john2443 said:

This has come up on local FB group, there's a crappy looking pickup that a wheel has fallen off, you can see the mark on the road where it's been driven to the side of the road to park.

AskMID says it's insured, DVLA says it's MOT and taxed til May 2022.

Locals are saying it should be reported as abandoned and someone (council? police? DVLA?) should tow it away.

I can't see any of them doing much seeing that it's taxed, tested and insured, but it is illegal to leave it parked there with a wheel missing, it's not road worthy is the only 'crime'

Doesn't bother me as it's not near my house, in fact it's not in front of anyone's house, there are bushes next to the pavement it's by, houses the other side of the road.

Has it been reported by any of the locals?

If so, have the authorities been in contact with the owner to find out if it has been abandoned, or if it is simply damaged, and the owner is trying to arrange for it to be recovered?

Are the locals also demanding that the driver be charged with driving an un-roadworthy vehicle, from the moment that the wheel came off it?

TBH, the description of it being: "a crappy looking pickup" speaks loads to me - I wonder if the same fuss would be made had it been an immaculately clean, tidy looking Range Rover with a wheel missing?

It's not roadworthy? - If the only thing wrong with it was worn out tyres, a large crack in the windscreen in the swept area, or a smashed headlight (all of which would make it un-roadworthy), would they also be calling for it to be towed away?

It's taxed, MOT'd, insured, and has obviously suffered a major mechanical failure out the blue - Someone hasn't simply come along late at night with an untaxed, uninsured car with no MOT, removed the registration plates, and just dumped it there.

The whole thing smells very "Chipping Norton" to me! - "How dare you drive such a crappy looking pickup truck in our area, and have the audacity to break down!"

[Aretnap]

It's an offence to abandon a vehicle - and the council has the responsibility for removing them, and sending the bill to the owner.

https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1978/3/sectio...

The law doesn't set out a precise definition of what constitutes an abandoned vehicle - it's a question of fact to be decided taking into account all the circumstances.

Obviously if a vehicle has broken down and it's taken a couple of days to get a tow-truck it hasn't been abandoned, but if it's been there for weeks or months and the owner is sort of vaguely planning to get it towed to a garage one day but hasn't done anything concrete to arrange it then it might reasonably be treated as having been abandoned.

The fact that it is taxed and insured supports the argument that it is not abandoned, but isn't conclusive in itself - if you dump a vehicle in a field and just let the tax and insurance run out you have still abandoned it. OTOH if the cash strapped council is looking for an excuse not to treat it as abandoned so they don't have to deal with it, the fact that it's taxed and insured gives them a convenient reason...