Abandoned car in residents car park

fionajbanana

About 3.5 weeks ago, a car with no car tax disc parked in a resident's allocated bay. The owner of the flat and the allocated bay does not have a car and lives alone. Two thirds of the parking bays are not allocated to a property, but only residents and visitors of y-z road can park in them. The other third of spaces are for specific properties - including mine. I have spoken to most of the residents and they don't know who the car belongs to. They said that the few I hadn't had chance to speak to don't know about the car's owners or where they live.

The car has not moved since then.

I know the police and DVLA are only interested in abandoned cars on public roads.

Shall I contact the housing association which owns the block of properties and car park about the car?

WTFH

Is the parking bay on private land or public?
If it's public, then phone the police.
If it's on private, then phone the owner of the land.

fivetide

Let the management agency know and report it to the council as abandoned.

I had this the key thing is SORN only applies if you have the landowners permission which this person doesn't have. Beyond that it was seen as a public space (even if unadopted) so the RTA applied.
Council recovered it as abandoned after writing to the registered keeper.

Aretnap

SORN is a red herring. It doesn't come under the Road Traffic Act but under the Vehicle Excise and Registration Act, and it's simply a declaration that you won't be using the car on a public road. If you make a SORN but use the car on a public road the offence you commit is that of using an unlicensed (ie untaxed) vehicle, and that only applies on a road maintained at public expense (nothing to do with public access as in the Road Traffic Act).

The power to deal with abandoned vehicles generally comes from other laws - specifically the Refuse Disposal (Amenity) Act 1978 which requires councils to remove abandoned vehicles from "any land in the open air" provided (a) the landowner doesn't object to the removal and (b) it would not be unreasonably difficult or expensive to remove it (is the car park entrance big enough to get a tow truck into?).

So it's the council you want to contact - they should have a page on their website (like this one) telling you how to report an abandoned vehicle.

Rover_Driver

fivetide wrote: »

.

I had this the key thing is SORN only applies if you have the landowners permission which this person doesn't have.

A SORN declaration has nothing to do with the owner of the land, it is only that if the vehicle is not used or kept on a public road (a road maintainable at public expense), a SORN declaration can be made in place of vehicle licence.

fivetide

We managed it as I said.

Telford has a nice page on removing SORN cars from 'private' land:

Vehicles that have SORN declarations are not removed from Private Land unless the council is requested to do so by the land owner. This means that vehicles with SORN are permitted on private land only with the landowners permission.

http://www.telford.gov.uk/faqs/200001/abandoned_vehicles/answer/876/statutory_off_road_notification_sorn_for_vehicles_that_are_not_being_taxed_and_are_kept_off_the_road_on_private_drives

Usually with flats the parking is shared ownership so the vehicle owner needs everyone's permission to park the car there. Therefore, if you do not give permission you can ask the council to have it lifted.

This is a lot cheaper than getting the management agency to do it as they appoint a contractor and bill you back.

The above is how I tackled the problem.

Joe_Horner

Get a small tupperware box and some grey plasticine.

Put plasticine in box, tape whole to underside of car.

Call police and tell them there's a car with a suspicious box taped to it in the carpark.

Rover_Driver

Telford has a nice page on removing SORN cars from 'private' land:


Quote:
Vehicles that have SORN declarations are not removed from Private Land unless the council is requested to do so by the land owner. This means that vehicles with SORN are permitted on private land only with the landowners permission.

A council's policy for removing vehicles that are SORN is one thing, the legislation covering SORN is another - s.22(1D) & 31(3), Vehicles Excise & Registration Act 1994.

DKLS

Joe_Horner wrote: »

Get a small tupperware box and some grey plasticine.

Put plasticine in box, tape whole to underside of car.

Call police and tell them there's a car with a suspicious box taped to it in the carpark.

Or get 4 plastic trays from McDonalds, jack car up, insert tray under each wheel, shove onto road, remove trays, call police.

Joe_Horner

DKLS wrote: »

Or get 4 plastic trays from McDonalds, jack car up, insert tray under each wheel, shove onto road, remove trays, call police.

Yeah, but the response to mine makes a better youtube vid

arcon5

fionajbanana wrote: »

About 3.5 weeks ago, a car with no car tax disc parked in a resident's allocated bay. The owner of the flat and the allocated bay does not have a car and lives alone. Two thirds of the parking bays are not allocated to a property, but only residents and visitors of y-z road can park in them. The other third of spaces are for specific properties - including mine. I have spoken to most of the residents and they don't know who the car belongs to. They said that the few I hadn't had chance to speak to don't know about the car's owners or where they live.

The car has not moved since then.

I know the police and DVLA are only interested in abandoned cars on public roads.

Shall I contact the housing association which owns the block of properties and car park about the car?

Okay --- but have you spoken to the owner of the flat, in case they've permitted somebody to park there?

If it's not your bay then what business is it of yours?