Council destroyed my car full of belongings

3v3

bosseyed wrote: »

...
11) Lady at the council who has been keeping the crushers at bay pops off on holibobs. ...

:rotfl::rotfl::rotfl:
Blast! Got coffee over my keyboard now!

sarahg1969

The whole tax/MOT thing is a red herring. The vehicle was removed by the council from private land after being reported abandoned elsewhere, not by the DVLA for being untaxed. While they do take an interest in abandoned vehicles if they are untaxed, the fact is that the vehicle was being stored and shouldn't have been crushed.

DVardysShadow

sarahg1969 wrote: »

The whole tax/MOT thing is a red herring. The vehicle was removed by the council from private land after being reported abandoned elsewhere, not by the DVLA for being untaxed. While they do take an interest in abandoned vehicles if they are untaxed, the fact is that the vehicle was being stored and shouldn't have been crushed.

Agree. And the issue about tax was in process with DVLA.

mummyplus3

bosseyed wrote: »

Ok, so I'm not yet disputing this but I'm just going to run through it as I can't get my head around it:

1) Car is parked outside your old house - on the road. You've packed it full of important posessions for whatever reason.

2) Car is reported as abandoned by some scallywag. How long had it been parked there full of important stuff?

3) You move the car.

4) Car is now parked on an off road space at your new house. Still full of important posessions.

5) The council somehow know the car is now located at your new house, pop along and take it, despite it clearly not being abandoned having moved from its original location and now being parked in a private space outside a house.

6) You find car gone. You ring police.

7) Police ring you to say the council have it

8) You ring the council and say "Oi, why have you got my car"

9) Council offer to tow it back to you as its not taxed, you say "No way gringo! I ain't payin' for that foool"

10) Council keep car. For some reason still full of valuable posessions which no one seems to want to collect.

11) Lady at the council who has been keeping the crushers at bay pops off on holibobs.

12) Council crush car in her absence

13) Council phone to say 'Hello there! We've squashed your car and also everything inside it, ciao"

Is that right? I think its the point where the council rock up and run off with your car from outside your new house I can't grasp.

:rotfl: thanks for that it really made me chuckle. Yes thats right, I cant understand why they took it from my new house either the bloke in the tow truck has driven round the base (old RAF camp) looking for the car.

Im not allowed on site to collect my belongings from inside the car which is why they are still there.

Spoken to the woman again, she is speaking to her manager this afternoon, She didnt get the messages I'd left whilst on holiday so when the car was authorised to be destroyed yesterday she didn't know untill this morning and rung us to check.

She's been lovely and apologietic about it but it still doesnt change the fact that whether it was taxed or not which is a DVLA issue the car was not where it had been reported abandoned, so the tow truck obviously drove round looking for the car. It was off the road in a clearly marked and numbered parking space. The council knew it was my car within 24 hours and was in touch with me sorting out its return and now it has been destroyed.

bosseyed

I just can't imagine the council roaming the streets, reg number in hand, hunting your car down.

If they trundle out with a tow truck to collect an 'abandoned' car, and lo! it hath vanished from the location where its supposed to be, its either a sentient car capable of independant thought, or, crazy as it sounds - its not abandoned and the owner (or a scallywag) has moved it.

I just don't see the council, when confronted with a vacant space where the abandoned car is supposed to be, setting off on a mission (perhaps cocking council issue shotguns first, popping some vaiator shades on and tucking a tootpick in the corner of their council mouths - just under their council moustaches) to hunt down a vehicle that basic common sense would tell them is not abandoned.

The chances of them then stumbling upon the car, parked on private land, and then high fiving each other in the tow truck (maybe they even went Yeeeehaaaaaa too - did you hear anyone going yeeeehaaaaa followed by a load of mechanical noises, such as a tow truck might make when loading a car?) before making off with the vehicle that obviously cannot be abandoned.

I can't get my tiny mind around it. Surely no council in the land is so proactive?

mummyplus3

Nope, I kid you not I have a letter and confirmation from said council that the car was reported as abandoned outside my old property and has been reported as taken from outside that property when actually taken from my parking space, to prove it the tow driver kindly left us a Skate they used in my parking space.

k3lvc

So little Johnny Scrotepants and his mates 'acquire' a car. No registered keeper, no tax/mot and leave it parked on road after they've used it. Council set out to collect it as abandoned but Johnny and his mates have been out on the lash that evening and decide to move it. Council collecter either

a) has nothing better to do than treat this as Mission Impossible and fight to the death to complete his task
b) spots it out of the corner of his eye - car matches but location must have been reported wrong
c) has inside information (either personally acquired or via a 'concerned neighbour') re the new location of the car

How do the council know at the point of collection that any of the above is not happening

Idiophreak

pinkshoes wrote: »

Saying that, as it had no tax at the time, they quite rightfully thought it had been abandoned,

Thought it had been abandoned? It was parked on someone's drive!!

bosseyed wrote: »

1) Car is parked outside your old house - on the road. You've packed it full of important posessions for whatever reason.

2) Car is reported as abandoned by some scallywag. How long had it been parked there full of important stuff?

3) You move the car.

4) Car is now parked on an off road space at your new house. Still full of important posessions.

I thought OP said that the car only became full of the possessions when they moved / downsized?

mummyplus3

Yes when we moved we packed it full of boxes and toys etc.. to put into storage whilst we live in this house as its very small. We were going to rent a garage from the council and pop the car inside with the stuff in. cheaper than a big box storage or something.

Oh and the new house is in a little cul-de sac about a 5 minute walk from the old house on the same RAF camp. Sorry it seemed obvious to me but probably not so to everyone else when I say the person drove round looking for it!

3v3

Idiophreak wrote: »

Thought it had been abandoned? It was parked on someone's drive!
...
I thought OP said that the car only became full of the possessions when they moved / downsized?

The OP also said this 3 days ago

mummyplus3 wrote: »

... I'm giving up my car when I move house and will be relying on public transport so I will be buying one soon. Haven't seen one i've fallen for yet though but the search continues .. (oh and i'm 22)

And this last week

mummyplus3 wrote: »

I ripped the letter up in a stress ive probably still got it though, I will speak to them in the morning. I don't know why they wont let us fence off the grass its a right pain but the the HA said that the people that own the estate wont let us.

Luckily we are moving soon, we took the HA as it was really tempoary so I'll try and just ignore it untill we move.

No wonder its confusing!!!