Dumped car in private road

obi_waynne

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There is a car that has been dumped outside a friends house on a private road. The tax expired in 2007 and the car looks like it has been there for years.

The police are not interested as it is on private ground.

What does he have to do to get the car which is becomming an eyesore removed?
 
Mercedes 500 automatic - quite big, leather interior on a W plate. How would my friend stand just towing a car away?

I was thinking that he could get a car clamper in to clamp it, tow it and then charge the owner but again I'm not sure of the legalities of doing this.
 
Ah automatic, can't tow them in park can you? Well as it's owned by someone else technically it's theft, but you'd only want to move it round the corner out of the way eh :lol:

Isn't there some sort of procedure for claiming abandoned cars like this?
 
Perhaps the owner of the private road has power here. I really don't know, I would assume that if notice is given to the owner and a reasonable period of time passes something could be done.

Anyone with legal experience or suggestions will be gratefully recieved.
 
If think the council and send a letter/put a notice on it to say something along the lines of "if it's not collected in so many days it's going to be crushed". However, it's on a private road so I don't know...

I think if it's on public land you can send a letter to the DVLA, then they'll send a letter to the owner and if it's not replied to within a time period they will send you a new V5 in your name. Not 100% on that but I'm sure I remember someone telling me about it recently.

HDi is good with this sort of stuff.
 
The responsibility for removing an abandoned vehicle ultimately lies with the local council.

The problem is that the procedures for dealing with this vary hugely from one council to another. Some will only take instruction from the land owner, others will only accept it from the police themselves.

Generally the police will need to become involved, even if only to run reg/owner checks and see whether it's ever been involved in a crime.

If possible (it often isn't) then contact the landlord or his agent and ask that they become involved.

Can you demonstrate that the car is a safety hazard? If so then the police will be a lot more willing to co-operate.

If both these actions are to no avail then my personal suggestion is to contact the local Environmental Health Department.
 
had this sort of thing at work had a car dumped in a drive way going to the body shop next door
rang the police and they said if we touch it or try to move it we can get done

we was just about to push it out onto the road so then it would come some one elses problem as its a main road
but had a chat with afew mates in the council and they managed to get it taken away the next day
 
Ah a Mercedes 500 automatic on a W plate, thats where I left it! Stupid me. LOL.

If its not gone in a few weeks, have a chatt with the local scrappy. It is some weight so will be worth money. Tell the scrappy to ''get rid of it'' and he doesn't have to pay you a penny. Im sure they will do it. A W plate Merc has nothing on it to identify it so long as you have a half oil barrell, a box of matches, some petrol and a grinder. Oh, and a good scrappy.

Before you know it, it will be a Coke can in China!
 
Ah a Mercedes 500 automatic on a W plate, thats where I left it! Stupid me. LOL.

If its not gone in a few weeks, have a chatt with the local scrappy. It is some weight so will be worth money. Tell the scrappy to ''get rid of it'' and he doesn't have to pay you a penny. Im sure they will do it. A W plate Merc has nothing on it to identify it so long as you have a half oil barrell, a box of matches, some petrol and a grinder. Oh, and a good scrappy.

Before you know it, it will be a Coke can in China!

sounds good - we are exporting scrap in containers from the UK - current price is about GBP195/metric ton. should be able to get a few pennies for this.
failing that, similar to bbjs suggestion - how about making a small bonfire next to it that just happens to get out of control.
 
As you are in England get the owner or the land to put up a big sign stating that unauthorised parked cars will be clamped. clamp it and get it taken away by a scrappy
 
Interesting!
I am definitely no expert on this (as well as other matters:lol:
So I typed " what to do about vehicles left on private ground" into google.
I dont know how to put links in here (yet) so this as well as some other material gleaned from Net has not been loaded and some are much too long to rewrite
The search came up with:
www.dorsetforyou.com/abandonedvehicles and gives advise for that area at least. Could be a good starting place to go forward from??
There is a car that has been dumped outside a friends house on a private road. The tax expired in 2007 and the car looks like it has been there for years.

The police are not interested as it is on private ground.

What does he have to do to get the car which is becomming an eyesore removed?
 
this happened to a friend of mine a couple of years back and he tried everything to get rid of it so he took the law into his own hands by torching it. the fire brigade came out to put out flames, and then the council paid to tow it away because nobody claimed for the car once it went into a police report. saying this he only told me and his dad he done this tho..... and the car did sit there for 3 years.it wiz a old pug 205. thats not my answer tho to your mates problem.
 
It's still there, over a year on. No one wants to do anything about this and it's driving him nuts.
 
Right. Smash the window, let the hand brake off, connect it to a landy and tow it onto a road. Then leave it. Either a pikey will spot it cut it up for scrap and weigh it in, or the police will see it, and remove it.

Or, he will have to pay to get it removed.
 
It's still there, over a year on. No one wants to do anything about this and it's driving him nuts.

Blimey! if this was around my area, then 48 hours later would have seen a couple of slippery looking characters with a pitbull on the back seat and a tow bar, remove the offending vehicle free of charge ;)
 
Counsel would sort it out wouldn't they? Although we've been trying to move a group of travellers on who have taken over a picnic area not far from us for 2 years and they're still there so no one uses that area now:sad2:

On private land, council won't be interested. Down to land owner. Police won't be interested as no crime is being committed or been reported by land owner.
 
we was just about to push it out onto the road so then it would come some one elses problem as its a main road

Lucky you didn't do this as you could have landed yourself in trouble (if seen) by depositing an untaxed vehicle on a maintainable highway.
 
Lucky you didn't do this as you could have landed yourself in trouble (if seen) by depositing an untaxed vehicle on a maintainable highway.

Playground rules mate

Why should you be out of pocket? We pay enough in taxes, so pushing it to one side in the cover of darkness aint going to hurt anyone.
 
Playground rules mate

Why should you be out of pocket? We pay enough in taxes, so pushing it to one side in the cover of darkness aint going to hurt anyone.

Unless someone drives into it. I'm only stating the law, it's up to you whether you obey it :)

Taxes are not there to remove items from private land. It's down to the land owner to attempt to find the owner and get it removed. If, after making a reasonable attempt to find the owner (with documentary evidence to back it up) the land owner would be within his rights to dispose of the item in a legal manner (I would suggest placing a notice on the vehicle stating when it will be removed if not claimed by a certain date, with a contact number and taking a photo of notice on car), which isn't pushing on to someone elses land, be it private or maintainable highway.
 
Mostly as above

Private land means no body will be interested it isnt committing an offence.

Removing it ? well it will be theft if the owner catches whoever moves it.

What can be done .....(legally)

You could check with the police to see if it has been stolen or do a status check on the dvla website.
Under certain circumstabces it is possible to trace the owner from mthe dvla i ...for example if a vehicle has unpaid private parking fines or has been in accident an driven off
It is also possible to just apply for the log book . The DVLA contact the last registered keeper and if he doesnt reply they will send you the logbook (eventually)
 
Why not do what the council does?
Put a notice on windscreen stating if not moved witin a certain time period the car will be removed.
Then through the DVLA get the owner details and send them the bill.
 
I don't think the DVLA will release registered owner details to the general public. Well, they didn't let us at the County Council Highways Department have owner details and I don't think the regs have changed.
 
applying for the logbook costs money, i did this a little while ago, well about a year ago. send off the form, wait for logbook. however, if the current registered keeper responds and says "errmm no, what the h*ll do you think you are doing?" i think it is possible to get done for attempted fraud or something...

my advice would be to phone the DVLA and say that the car has been left for X amount of time, and you would like to start the ball rolling to get it removed. don't mention private land to start with... and if questioned later on, just say you didn't think it would make a difference.

sometimes playing dumb can get you a long way...
 
The dvla will issue the keeper if requested as drivers details if these are required for/by

1 A private company who needs the details because of private parking fines that are due

2 An individual who has has an accident and the other driver has driven off but you have the reg no.

3 as 2 but when the driver doesnt drive off but gives wrong details or refuses to give his insurance details

There is a special form to fill in

I know 1 is right as know people who have been caught this way . After all if this wasnt right people could just refuse to give their name in a sainsburys (or similar) car park and if clamped could just cut the thing off.

And I had to do this for 3 a while back so found out this info about 2 at the same time.

But it cannott be done over the phone the right form must be filled in.
 
That gives me an idea Sleeper, if the landowner introduced parking restrictions and clamping this might work. Is it possible to do it after the car has been parked there? I still don't really know who the landowner is as it is a private estate but I'm guessing there must be a committee that runs it or something like that.
 
As always read between the lines :lol:. The dvla dont know the difference do they
I mean who is to say for example it wasnt in an accident or committed a parking offence before it got there.
The whole point is the car has gone thats and why they are giving out the last owners details.
Where the car is now is irrelevant (cos nobody cares about that ) but what you get is the last keepers details.
The dvla give you those details but they are never going to check if you followed it up or not.
And the "registered keeper" will just wonder how his name got traced.
 
Wouldn't you need a licence to clamp though?
But you wouldnt (i imagine) be going to clamp it .
I would only want the owners name to contact him direct saying his car is on your land
If he doesnt reply you would then be entitled to dispose of it.
 

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