I am sure some of you have been in the same situation, so just wanting to see if I am correct with what I think....
colleague had a crash with another car, his (my colleagues) fault & car insured TPO
although no-one injured, police got involved & 'kindly' arranged for car to be towed away
now it is in some garages' yard, £150-odd fee for removal plus £12/day storage
need to get shot of the car ASAP as don't want to incur any extra charges than the frankly horrendous charges so far.
Need to get access to the car to retrieve personal effects, e.g. umbrella & suchlike
once done, the car can then be scrapped.
Is it perfectly reasonable for the garage to allow access to the car whilst it is in their possession ?
cheers,
Stu
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My late Father was unfortunately in this same position about 25 years ago, but he had been involved in an accident that wasn't his fault. It's a very long story.
In his case the main problem was trying to get the remains of his car inspected by an insurance assessor so that they could then be declared as a write-off and scrapped, thus saving any more in storage costs.
I myself was allowed to go to the yard in which his car was being stored and remove my Father's personal possessions from the vehicle, with the premission of the owners of the yard. This I did, but I only took personal possessions. I didn't even try to take any parts of the car even though, for example, I knew for a fact that the battery was only two weeks old! If I had have tried then I'm quite sure I would have been thrown out of the yard without anything!
I would think that whether you were allowed to do this after an accident would very much depend on the yard itself. Some would probably say "Yes" and some would probably say "No". I myself would say that it was perfectly reasonable to allow access to remove personal possessions, but that's only my own opinion.
Not wishing to suggest anything untoward on the part of your unfortunate colleague but you must consider that one of the storage yards primary concerns in this case will be the posibility, however remote, of not being paid for the storage/recovery. In the case of an accident where insurance cover is only TPFT then the insurance company will not pay for this, or, at least, they wouldn't when my Father was involved all those years ago. I don't know whether the situation is any different today.
I hope this may possibly help.
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Your friend is perfectly entitled to get access to his personal property. If he has any problems, contact the Officer who arranged recovery to organise access.
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Thanks Galaxy
It turns out that the garage will allow access to the car and have agreed to give my colleague £50 for it as scrap (it's an 10yr old Saxo) so I suggested that the V5 is excavated tonight and that tomorrow we go up to retrieve the various personal effects and get the garage to fill in the yellow bit of the V5 and then the car is then the garages', they can deduct the £50 from the storage & recovery fees, the rest can be settled tomorrow.
cheers
Stu
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Don't forget to take things like mats/radio if your friend has put good ones in. Someone at a scrap yard once told me how they found it surprising how often 'extras' were left in the car. Mine, sadly, had just been filled to the brim with £62 of petrol and that I couldn't remove.
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Oh yes, ICE equipment is most definately "personal effects" as is the tax disc.
cheers
Stu
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Oh yes ICE equipment is most definately "personal effects"
That would depend on whether it's the factory fit ICE, or stuff you've since fitted. And even if you do reclaim the stuff you've since fitted, you're supposed to put the standard ICE back in.
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