Adandoned Land Rover

How about pushing it into the sea then claiming it as flotsum or jetsum, not sure which. Or erecting a small fence round it, waiting 10 years and a day then claiming it as your own property. Sorry, not much help. I've noticed loads of abandoned cars in Essex recently. Not the usual wrecks either. I think the new SORN fines and general tighening up might be causing it. You could try entering the Reg number on the RAC website to find out if they have any record of it, and if it has changed hands recently. Although the site is not perfect it might give some clues. If it is not registered with DVLA, there is little chance of anyone claiming it back if you assume ownership. DavidM

Doesn't it then become the property of the Receiver of Wrecks, but you can claim the full value of the vehicle in salvage fees from the current owner?

People are still gonna get the fines if the car has been registered to them at any point recently, which the majority of them must have been!

Scrap cars are actually worth a few quid round here now. For a while you got nothing or almost nothing for them when you took them to the scrappy. Apparently one of the local scrap yards is even paying for ones that they pick up from your house - Which never used to happen!

As for trying to claim an abandoned car, you could try contacting the DVLA (or atleast read the website to see if theysay anything about it).

is the sticker on it from? - the council or the police?. Does thathave any contact details on it - You could try contacting them andfind out what you should do.

Not a lot of help are they mate

Hi,

Major problems on this one. The last registered owner at DVLA is the legal owner. If you tried to claim it, or even send off for the log book, technically if you do not have the permission of the owner you could be charged with theft or taking and driving away. If you traced the legal owner and he gave you the vehicle that would be different. However, make sure you SORN it or get it taxed.

Do not get any daft ideas about just taking it as it looks abandoned, the guy could be in hospital. You will end up with a criminal record.

Yours

Andrew

We did this YEARS ago, so it may have changed.

The council use a independant company to collect and dispose of the vehicle, if you call the company, they will tell you who it is, and then you can buy it off them for pennies.

If you try to take it now, it is technically theft.

But things may have changed, we saw and bought 3 abandoned vehicles from the councils contractors back in the 80's, inc a Renault 5 Gordini, which a mate was VERY pleased to buy for £25, even if it did have a big ding in the side

Registered keeper with DVLA is not in any way related to ownership. Most company cars on the road are owned by contract hire companies such as Lex et al, the registered keeper will usually be the guy driving it.

The owner is the guy who paid for it, which has nothing to do with DVLA. I am registered keeper for more cars than I actually own.

Tim,

Yes, but if he takes the motor, and the original owner turns up, he could be in a bit of crappola... It's better to call the council BEFORE it's towed, and see who the contractor is, because when I was into reclaiming old motors, the council handed the motor to thier contractor, and claimed the expenses back off central Gov't..

Like I said in my other post, it MAY have all changed, but tread carefully.

"cutlea01" wrote in message news: snipped-for-privacy@posting.google.com...

You don't live in Lancaster do you? Exactly the same thing happened to me two years ago. A student appeared to abandon a 1976 S3 88 petrol which I cycled passed every day for 9 months taking the kids to nursery school. I posted letters through the side windows, knocked on all the local doors, asked at the students union etc etc. No joy. When the tax ran out, the council slapped an 'order to remove in 3 weeks' notice on it. I waited. I knew the local scrappie had the contract to remove and the police very tersely advised me to do nothing and not attempt to enter or remove the vehicle. They firmly refused to give me the details of the registered keeper from their computer. I rang the scrappie and he said that if I wanted it I could agree a figure with him at the yard and leave it there until my reg doc had come through. The local authority is empowered to remove and take ownership of things like vehicles etc. if they present a health hazard through leaking fluids, fire etc. Once they have passed it on to the authorised remover for disposal it's basically up to him. He charges the local authority (handsomely I assume) to remove the vehicle. To conclude this tale, two days before the deadline the vehicle mysteriously disappeared overnight. Whether the owner trailered it away or started it or a more daring prospective owner nicked it I never found out. It must have cheesed off the spider population within though. Ten months later I bought a much nicer S2a 88 petrol which I'm very attached to.

There were some very good details of procedure on the DVLA website plus a lot of notes on empowerment from local authority minutes and guidelines, especially from local authorities responsible for exciting and large council estates. Run a google search with words like 'vehicle, abandonned, dumped, keeper' etc and see what you get.

Eddy

On or around Thu, 6 May 2004 22:31:29 +0100, "Andrew Renshaw" enlightened us thusly:

while in general what you say is true, that bit's wrong. DVLA maintains a list of vehicle *keepers*, and the keeper is not necessarily the owner, or such is my understanding of it.

I tried looking it up on the RAC site, no date of registration, just 1 Jan 0001, and I know it's not that old! Last change of registered keeper was 5 years ago. DVLA have a form (V888 I think) to request current registered keeper's details, but you've got to send off for it, fill it in, send it back with a cheque for £2.50 and need to stipulate good reason for requesting these details. I'd fill one in and give it a go, but the car will of gone before I get the details back (assuming they release them to me), as the council is quite fast round there at removing unlicenced cars. I'll give the council a ring and see what gives though. It would be a pity to see the car crushed, it looks far too good for that, but then I've not seen what the chassis is like......

Alan C.

Alan,

If you happen to "bump into it" and therefore need reasonably to contact the owner the police will help with contact information I understand. "sorry officer I reversed into it - oops"

Andrew Mawson

Contact the department at the local Highways/waste department that deal with this sort of stuff.

Once the notice has in effect been served FULLY the council may dispose of the vehicle as they wish. Ownership is then legally down to the Council.

If you wish to register the vehicle as yours legally after this (once you have done the proper thing via the council) then I understand the DVLA are now charging for log books issue when you don't have the old V5.

I've purchased around 5 or so vehicles which had been through the process and sat in a council yard for a month prior to being released. Each vehicle cost a nominal write off fee of £23.50 which is the cost of the recovery to the council.

2 Ford sierra estates, 2 VW Beetles and a Citroen C15 Van which I swapped eventually for Percy :-)

This was a few years back (I had hair!). If the last chat I had was remembered correctly it's around £105 or was it £140 now. Add to that your DVLA registration , new set of locks, MOT and what ever else may be required to get road going.

The majority of the vehicles needed alot of work to get them going again..I've retired from that malarky now.

Lee D

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Just a little hobby site about Landies :-) ________________________________

I've talked to the local council department that deals with environmental crime (covers dumped cars), and DVLA. Both were very informative, but the upshot is the council won't get involved in selling off the recovered cars (too much hassle and paperwork), they simply have them crushed, whatever the condition. If the car is deemed no value, it is removed within 24 hours, if some value then they have to attempt to contact the last registered keeper and give them 7 days to move the car, otherwise it gets crushed. This is how the law was changed recently to deal with the problem of dumped cars. In either case, the car become the legal property of the council. In speaking with DVLA, I have been told to complete a V62, application for a V5 (log book), the DVLA will write to the last recorded keeper, and he (she) has a legal obligation to write back and confirm if the vehicle has been sold/transferred etc. If nothing is heard back within 14 days, the new V5 is issued in the applicants name, and ownership will legally pass across. I guess it could get complicated, for instance the registered keeper is out the country etc for more than the 14 days, but lets see what happens. The council told me to move the vehicle off the road (I'll put it on my parents drive, 10 yards from it's present position) and await the outcome from DVLA. Should the real owner turn up ranting about why the car was moved in the mean-time, I'll be totally above board and explain what I've done, and should he want the vehicle, to take it, otherwise I'll make an offer. Still, it's not a perfect solution, but at least it's one where I'll not get a criminal record for talking and driving away.

Alan C