Police towed our car from outside our house - now we have to pay?

somech

first post op was out got home @2;30am
police would have knocked on door but NO ONE WAS IN, hence the reason the car was towed away to prevent further damage.
cant comment on the crash victim as do not know full story.
how is it a con should the car be left there so scrote can nick it or set light to it.
9/10 times the insurance company pays the bill and in past experience they pay all recovery fees.
like i said all charges are set by the police and are approved by the goverment.

paulofessex

thescouselander wrote: »

Its a disgrace that the police should be punishing crime victims - they are no better than the criminals.

There was story in our local paper recently where the police found a guys motorbike that had been stolen, recovered it and now the victim is being asked to pay £200+ to get it back. He wasn't even contacted at the time they found it to establish if he himself could arrange recovery, which is something they used to do in days gone by.

So yet again a case of the victim being punished. Those who stole it was not caught, and even if they were, no doubt 100 hours community service would have been given.

I think it is up to us the law abiding citizens of this country to try and make a stand against this type of issue....where does one start though

maninthestreet

It was towed for one of the following reasons:

"the vehicle had either been causing an obstruction or danger, or had been abandoned."

None of these reasons seems to apply here.

rev_henry

maninthestreet wrote: »

It was towed for one of the following reasons:

"the vehicle had either been causing an obstruction or danger, or had been abandoned."

None of these reasons seems to apply here.

That's what I thought. As it wasn't any of those things they had no right to tow it. You could have a legal case there. Speak to a solicitor maybe?

DirectDebacle

maninthestreet wrote: »

It was towed for one of the following reasons:

"the vehicle had either been causing an obstruction or danger, or had been abandoned."

None of these reasons seems to apply here.

I can fully understand the O.Ps annoyance but it isn't quite as simple as you state.

The police have a duty to protect property and they will state that is what they were doing. An attempted theft had occurred and the vehicle was insecure. They were unable to contact the owner. They were faced with a choice of leaving an officer to stand guard over it until the owner could be contacted or removing it to a place of safety. They chose the latter.

Also they would be wanting to cover their own backs. If they had left the vehicle where it was, insecure and unprotected then it could have been stolen, used in crime, caused a fatal accident etc. The police would then have to answer some difficult questions as to why they left an insecure vehicle in situ.

Under similar circumstances if a shop window was put in the police would call out a boarding up service if they couldn't contact the keyholder. They would remain at the premises until the boarding up service arrived and their bill would be paid by the shopkeeper (or their insurers)

Many years ago a bobby on the beat may have remained with the vehicle but those days have long gone.

vaio

We’ve got an old car in our works car park. If I take it to the scrapyard I’ll get £30 more than if they come and fetch it with their recovery truck. Maybe the police should start using scrapyards for recovery.

More likely is that to get on the police list you have to have the equipment to recover anything from anywhere. Picking one up like the OP is easy. Getting one out of a ditch less so, getting one that’s upside down in a field the other side of the ditch even less so. I expect they only have one price for recovering a car so the easy ones like the OP cross subsidise the hard ones.

DCodd

I may be missing the point here, but if your car is insured Fully Comp or Fire & Theft then you can claim back the costs of the repair and the tow and storage as it was an attempted theft. contact your insurance company.

tomstickland

Same thing happened to me. My car was broken into but there was no way that they were going to be able to drive it (precaution I took). It was towed away because they left it with a bent door. I had to pay £130 to get it back. Victim of crime.

I do believe that someone is onto a nice little earner with this.

vaio

DCodd wrote: »

I may be missing the point here, but if your car is insured Fully Comp or Fire & Theft then you can claim back the costs of the repair and the tow and storage as it was an attempted theft. contact your insurance company.

Correct, the insurance company will pay but it's more of a loan which you then repay with at least 100% interest via increased premiums and reduced NCB

somech

i will look at this from a recovery agent point (which i did for 5 years)
to operate on the police scheme
you must be iso 900 whatever it is
pas 43 compliant
all vehicles must have an mot (recovery trucks are exempt from this)
insurance (around £5-10k per year)
have enough vehicles to be able to remove 6 cars from an accident scene
have a fully equppied accident unit (crane)
be able to safely and legally move 3.5 ton vehicles (so !!!!! transits ar out)
have annual equipment safety test on all vehicles (any defects vehicle off road)
proved an udercover safe srorage area with 24hr access
have a forensics bay
also if cars are recovered under pace (police and criminal evidence act) then these are FREE NO CHARGE TO ANYONE
store vehicles used in fatal accidants often for 12months+ for £200
not every car recovered is paid for a large majority arent
risk having your trucks damaged by local scumbags who dont understand.
then theres the amount the breakdown clubs pay
aa rac green flag all pay in the region of £30 per call out makes no odds if its 3pm or 3am its still the same.and they insist that the vehicles arent old sh#tters anymore
it would be great if the goverment paid but they wont.