Council destroyed my car full of belongings

mummyplus3

Hi,

Wondering if anyone can let me know my rights in this!

My car was reported as abandoned outside my old house?!
We then moved and moved the car onto a private parking space off the road.

A couple of weeks after moving in my car went missing so we rung the police and reported it stolen (we didnt know the council had it or it had been reported as abandoned at this point)

A couple of days later we got a call from the police and told the council had it.


A few phonecalls back and forth trying to sort out the return of the car and we got a phonecall this morning from the council saying that they had destroyed the car!!

Spoke to the woman who was dealing with me about it and she is mortified, tried to ring the people to stop the car being destroyed but its too late. They've already done it.

The car was locked and full of belongings because we'd just downsized house which are now all detroyed too.

What on earth do I do now?!

There was £100's of stuff in the car plus lots of things you can't put a price on...

(stuff in the car was packed to go into storage which is why its in there)

Oh and the car was taken from my marked off road parking space next to the house, not from where it was originally reported abandoned so it obviously wasnt abanadoned in the first place!!

It's been a major c*ck-up from start to finish and i've just lost about £1500

I am so :mad:

Olokia

This might help you but it is the DVLA not the council http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?257527-DVLA-lost-case-in-small-claims-for-crushing-car

My other thought is that I thought cars had to be stripped of valuable metals before being crushed. Maybe they have your belongings somewhere

Maybe the last post might help slightly as well http://forums.pepipoo.com/index.php?showtopic=1865

shaun_from_Africa

Do you have any legal cover with your car insurance?
If so, you should give your insurers a call and see if they could recommend a solicitor who could give you advice on this.

mummyplus3

The people destroying the car who I spoke too this morning said that they have skipped some of the stuff and done some process to the car wher they suck everything out of it?! He also said that the stuff will be contaminated now so we cant have it back.

All my little girls toys and photo's etc are in there

Techhead_2

I'm a bit confused. You say the car was reported as abandoned but you then moved and left the car in an off-road parking space. It dissappeared so you called the police and discovered it was abandoned. You can't understand why as it was in a marked road parking space.

There are two apparent contradictions there, when was it reported abandoned and was it on or off road?

I'm sure its just the way you've written it but it makes it difficult to offer advice unless you are clear.

peachyprice

What have your insurance company said?

scheming_gypsy

Techhead wrote: »

I'm a bit confused. You say the car was reported as abandoned but you then moved and left the car in an off-road parking space. It dissappeared so you called the police and discovered it was abandoned. You can't understand why as it was in a marked road parking space.

There are two apparent contradictions there, when was it reported abandoned and was it on or off road?

I'm sure its just the way you've written it but it makes it difficult to offer advice unless you are clear.

It was parked outside their old house and reported abandoned
They then moved house and took their car with them and parked it next to their house
car was removed from the second location and not the location it was reported as abandoned.. .

that's how i read it

mummyplus3

Techhead wrote: »

I'm a bit confused. You say the car was reported as abandoned but you then moved and left the car in an off-road parking space. It dissappeared so you called the police and discovered it was abandoned. You can't understand why as it was in a marked road parking space.

There are two apparent contradictions there, when was it reported abandoned and was it on or off road?

I'm sure its just the way you've written it but it makes it difficult to offer advice unless you are clear.

The council said it was reported as abandoned on the road at my old property which had on road parking. We have moved house recently and moved the car onto an off road marked parking space which is where the car was taken from.

I don't have legal cover on my car insurance its only 3rd party F&T although I am going to ring them shortly to cancel the insurance lol! :rotfl:

Idiophreak

Surely they have to put some of that "police aware" tape or something on it for a while before they take it?

Surely they have to hold onto the thing and try and trace the owner before they go ahead and crush it?

Quite unbelievable, in the worst possible way!

Idiophreak

mummyplus3 wrote: »

I don't have legal cover on my car insurance its only 3rd party F&T although I am going to ring them shortly to cancel the insurance lol! :rotfl:

I'd call them anyway. Council or not, these people have come onto your property and stolen your car - and subsequently destroyed it.

Olokia

Maybe if you post on one of the two links that I gave you someone might be able to help recover some of the money you lost as they are used to dealing with this.