Hi,
In our village the parish council owns various bits of land and on some of these we allow residents to park.
One resident has left an untaxed, unmot'ed mini (and it isnt going to get an mot in the state its in) on this land. Now parking is in short supply, and we have told the resident to remove this vehicle because we do not want scrap vehicles on our land.
Basically they are ignoring us.
We put a note on the vehicle telling them to remove it within 14 days or we would take action to have it removed.
Their response is that if we have it taken away it then it would be theft.
What can we do? Drag it onto the road and call DVLA? What organisations are empowered to remove a vehicle?
thanks
AC
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If it's a private land, DVLA won't care.
The owner of the car doesn't seem to behave very nicely and so I guess you'll have tough time.
Theoretically, you need to bring a case of trespassing against him.
Or if you want to be a bit cheeky, you can push the car to a yellow line and then ring the council.
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Here's one LA with initiative: tinyurl.co.uk/cg0v
And one way to get the wheels in motion. Report vehicle and its owner: tinyurl.co.uk/ig31
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For a start, just report it to the DVLA. You can do it online (doesn't cost you anything!) and you can do it anonymously. The DVLA can decide whether where it's parked makes it acceptable to be untaxed etc. tinyurl.com/227m9y
If you get nowhere this way, then you can proceed in other directions.
Could you report the car as being an abandoned vehicle? tinyurl.com/6hwho6
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if it's on private land and you've given the owner sufficient notice of your intent, then you can have someone tow it away and send the tow bill to the owner
there is no element of theft involved in that
probably a good idea to seek solicitor's advice though and deal with it like that, the owner can be given that bill as well
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if it's on private land
Adverse Camber should be note that in matters to do with highways, vehicles, insurance and road-tax, "private" land can be "public" in certain definitions.
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Clearly the owner is a belligerent wotsit. Send him a different notice saying if he continues to leave the vehicle in that area there then you will consider it storage rather than parking as the vehicle isn't taxed or roadworthy and charge him £20 a day. Add a clause that says continuing to park here after X date (around 14 days in the future) will constitute acceptance of the contract and you want 2 weeks charges up front from that date and to be paid weekly thereafter and to be notified two weeks in advance of termination on a charge due date. Add if he fails to pay the vehicle will be disposed of and costs claimed from him. Money gained from disposal will be used to offset his outstanding charges. If the remaining charges aren't forthcoming then you will sue him for it (easy from moneyclaim online). If you then write that into whatever agreement there is that allows residents to park FOC then he can't claim discrimination or unfair treatment as you'd do the same for any parked up untaxed/unroadworthy/uninsured vehicle.
Check whether the vehicle is insured (unlikely) so if he moves it off that land onto a public road then make sure you inform the police and the DVLA.
I am sure a legal expert will be on here shortly to make sure they aren't any legal avenues to this left uncovered....
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If the land belongs to the parish council, it's presumably publicly owned, like roads or any other public place. If people have rights of access, e.g. you allow parking & people can walk, ride,drive over it , it may well be 'public highway' - so, not 'SORNable'.
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The council allows residents to park cars on bits of land. One of the residents has parked his car on one of these bits of land.
Is the owner of the mini allowed to park a car on this peice of land?
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Wasnt there some thing about scrap cars being taken off driveways a while back? And didnt I read about a road legal car being towed because it was a fire risk - window was open I believe - could this be a fire risk?
You could of course be really naughty and suggest to the teenage element that the car would make a great bonfire project :-)
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I have had this exact same problem although I did'nt know where the owner lived. I contacted the Old Bill (not 999) who informed me as it was on private land and a civil matter there was'nt really much they were oblidged to do. The council also were'nt interested either. However the police did inform me that I was within my rights to leave a message on the window of the car with a time and date, informing the owner that if they did not move the car themselves within 48 hours I would be within my rights to move it myself. They also told me I needed to write that I had informed the police and they were aware that I was going to do this. The police gave me a a reference number should it come back to me. Provided you don't damage the car there is NOTHING illegal about it. If you do damage the car they may be able to sue you (or throw a brick through your window if they're not nice charaters LOL). To the police's credit the next day tthey came out and took a look at the car and phoned up the registered keeper and suggested they ought to move it. The car was moved the next day.
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Not clear cut unfortunately
1. As Moonshine states if the land is open to the public and Council allow free use and no signs restricting them that park could be classed as a 'public place' and as such the vehicle will require Insurance under the Road Traffic Act. Test Certificate not required as it is doubtful it is a 'road'. Only if the land is classed as a road repairable at public expense then Excise needed. What stated doubtful.
2. There is legislation to cater for abandoned vehicle and parts on any land in the open air which gives Councils power to remove:
www.tinyurl.com/69en9b Section 10 Cleaner Neighbourhood and Envireoment Act 2005, and
www.tinyurl.com/65tqv5 - Refuse Disposal (Amenity) Act 1978 - section 3.
But the question is how does one define 'abandon'.?
If not abandoned then a 'nuisance' ?
Local planning authorities have the power to serve notice in cases where there are activities detrimental to the amenity of the area. However, this is a lengthy process and is not often used.
Town & Country Planning Act s.215
As most Councils have a Solicitor it would seem prudent to refer the matter to them to see what arm of the law can be used to effect removal.
dvd
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When I lived in Liverpool any abandonned car would be stripped and torched.. making it unsafe..
(abandonned defined in Liverpool terms as parked)
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If council tax is being paid then the council has responsibilities and should act within the framework of the Refuse Disposal Act 1978 and bring themselves into line with other councils. Some councils require a fee.
The lack of a current road tax shows that the vehicle had been truly abandoned. The police will not act because the vehicle had been abandoned on a private land but they might visit the owner and recommend he takes action.
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As cars in this state have quite a high scrap value now, I'm surprised it hasn't been removed already by the .......... (ask Martin Brundle).
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Call the Council and speak to abandoned vehicles section - I did and got a 7.5 tonner removed in less than a day. Who cares if it's abandoned or not, act ignorant and say it is!
You could also try this:
www.opsi.gov.uk/si/si2004/20040370.htm
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Thanks guys, I knew I would come back to some good suggestions.
I'll follow up various of those links. To explain a little more about why we are bothering about a resident using a parking space - we have a number of properties on the village green with no vehicular access and this space is made available to those residents for parking. I don't think it would fall into the definition of being 'public' and certainly isnt a road. The area isnt big enough to allow everyone to park on it, so an unused abandoned vehicle is a bit of a pain. The resident in question has another vehicle which also is parked in the car park, and I've also now been told that the vehicle in question actually belongs to a relative of the resident who is currently not even in the UK. It seems to me that a facility which is made available (and they know that it isnt a right) to the residents is being abused.
I'll see what we can do.
thanks again
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You should ring DVLA and ask. Has it got a SORN in force?
Every vehicle registered in the United Kingdom (UK) must be taxed if used or kept on a public road. If the vehicle is kept off-road it must either be taxed or have a SORN (Statutory Off Road Notification) in force. If not it could be wheel clamped or removed.
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Maybe the parish council should change its "rules" over what is allowed to be parked; and inform everybody who has such access, with a timescale to make alternative arrangements (14 days seems to be the idea), so that its clearly above board, fair to all, and will stop any future occurences ?
Just moving 1 vehicle may bring out the worst in him and another vehicle appear shortly after ?
To clarify, advise all, that any car parked there must be road legeal etc ? Doing this after removal of his car and not before may open another can of worms thats costly to sort out !
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Many years ago, the company I worked for had an overspill carpark 300 yds from the office.
A person often parked at the narrow entrance.
Over the weeks this became more and more annoying.
Solution - we pushed it onto a yellow line about 3 yds away, ticketed. Repeated 2/3 times and the problem went away!!
Now if your abandoned car just moved "by itself" overnight onto the road.............
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Dont resort to individualisation like that in an area where you want to live happily with the neighboours; even if they are not your best friends etc.
Live and let live is a much better idea.
But, in such a place as an overspill carpark I would be quite willing to lend a hand !
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Hopefully the OP's problem has been sorted - a year on.....
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Indeed this did eventually get sorted. The County and District councils were not interested in doing anything to help us. The Police advised us that we should not remove it ourselves.
We eventually found a local policeman who was prepared to assist - He decided that since the vehicle was on land which he considered 'public' then it ought to have insurance. He spoke to the owner and both derelict cars (Yes, in the meantime they also acquired another derelict) were removed. The owner moved out (rented property) shortly afterwards. Previous attempts to get our local PCSO to help us had been fruitless.
I'll add that there were some other legal issues around this that I don't want to go into in public which prevented us from taking some of the action that we would have liked to.
Edited by adverse camber on 30/12/2009 at 11:26
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yes unfortunately using the wicker man to get rid of undesireables isnt legal in this country anymore
..........shame sometimes as i would love to have gone to some lynches
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...Indeed this did eventually get sorted...
adverse camber,
Pleased to hear that going about things the right way can still work, even if it takes a while.
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i was about to say the OP was 15 months old but ive been beaten to it, how do i cancel my post ? ive tried using the edit feature but it re appeared, so this is another edit explaining it
Edited by zookeeper on 30/12/2009 at 15:17
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how do i cancel my post ?
You can't - just edit it to be blank, or put an apology for mis-posting or something along those lines.
The mods can though, so you could trying asking them nicely. However I think if other people have replied to your post it would mean those have to be deleted as well, so they might say no.
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