Broken down car parked in my space

Ectophile

Apodemus wrote: »

If it is on private land it is not the Council's responsibility.

DEFRA says otherwise https://www.gov.uk/guidance/abandoned-vehicles-council-responsibilities

If the vehicle is abandoned on open land, then the council have a duty to remove it.

glider3560

Thank you everyone for the replies. I have reported the vehicle to the city council, using a form on their website. I also left a new note on the windscreen.

The space is definitely mine as my tenancy agreement states "the land at 123 My Road", so I can safely assume it includes the entire land registered at the Land Registry. The landlord lives about 400 miles away and owns dozens of properties, so I doubt he would have left the vehicle there.

I'm reluctant to get my letting agent or landlord involved, as I'm paying considerably below the market rent and they have a track record of increasing the rent each time I report any issues (rather than doing it at set intervals).

Apodemus

Ectophile wrote: »

DEFRA says otherwise https://www.gov.uk/guidance/abandoned-vehicles-council-responsibilities

If the vehicle is abandoned on open land, then the council have a duty to remove it.

Thanks for this.

The DEFRA note is not entirely correct. The refuse act gives Councils a "duty", while the roads acts say "may" and DEFRA wrongly rewords this as "must". There is a section in the appropriate act which says:

3)A local authority shall not be required by virtue of subsection (1) above to remove a vehicle situated otherwise than on a carriageway [F3within the meaning of [F4the Highways Act 1980]] if it appears to them that the cost of its removal to the nearest convenient carriageway [F5within the meaning of that Act] would be unreasonably high.

Since the costs of scrapping a vehicle are now higher than can be recovered, many local authorities will take the view that any cost is "unreasonably high" and will not get involved with abandoned vehicles on private land.

eset12345

glider3560 wrote: »

Thank you everyone for the replies. I have reported the vehicle to the city council, using a form on their website. I also left a new note on the windscreen, this time using bright yellow paper.

The space is definitely mine as my tenancy agreement states "the land at 123 My Road", so I can safely assume it includes the entire land registered at the Land Registry. The landlord lives about 400 miles away and owns dozens of properties, so I doubt he would have left the vehicle there.

I'm reluctant to get my letting agent or landlord involved, as I'm paying considerably below the market rent and they have a track record of increasing the rent each time I report any issues (rather than doing it at set intervals).

but in the OP you state "They aren't connected to my house" so unless your tenancy agreement references the parking spaces away from the immediate boundary of the property then they aren't part of the lease, they may be part of the freehold, but you aren't renting the whole freehold, you're renting what your tenancy agreement specifies.

Much the same way if you were to rent a flat with a privately owned car park, the lease would specify a particular spot that you can use and that the freehold er purchased with the flat, no mention of it, it means you aren't paying rent for it so have no say in who uses it, when someone uses it or for what purposes it can be used for.

Sicard

Someone parked across my driveway lip once and I had to drive early to work. It had the type of door lock which fortunately my own key could open. Once the handbrake was off I could push it out of the way and drive off.

glider3560

eset12345 wrote: »

but in the OP you state "They aren't connected to my house" so unless your tenancy agreement references the parking spaces away from the immediate boundary of the property then they aren't part of the lease, they may be part of the freehold, but you aren't renting the whole freehold, you're renting what your tenancy agreement specifies.

Much the same way if you were to rent a flat with a privately owned car park, the lease would specify a particular spot that you can use and that the freehold er purchased with the flat, no mention of it, it means you aren't paying rent for it so have no say in who uses it, when someone uses it or for what purposes it can be used for.

The agreement further defines "the premises" as "all, or any parts of the dwelling-house, gardens, parking spaces, paths, fences, boundaries, or other outbuildings as defined on the freehold".

thescouselander

I doubt anyone will help you. I had to deal with this situation once and in the end we just pushed the car onto the road - I'd suggest this is the most practical solution.

vikingaero

If you have access to wheel dollies then push the car into the road. Otherwise 4+ burly mates can bounce a car along.

AliceBanned

Call the DVLA and ask them for advice. There is information on their website about what to do with untaxed, abandoned vehicles, both on private land and public roads. Your landlord has certain rights including scrapping it and it looks like even recouping the cost of removing it.

Aretnap

Apodemus wrote: »

Thanks for this.

The DEFRA note is not entirely correct. The refuse act gives Councils a "duty", while the roads acts say "may" and DEFRA wrongly rewords this as "must". There is a section in the appropriate act which says:

3)A local authority shall not be required by virtue of subsection (1) above to remove a vehicle situated otherwise than on a carriageway [F3within the meaning of [F4the Highways Act 1980]] if it appears to them that the cost of its removal to the nearest convenient carriageway [F5within the meaning of that Act] would be unreasonably high.

Since the costs of scrapping a vehicle are now higher than can be recovered, many local authorities will take the view that any cost is "unreasonably high" and will not get involved with abandoned vehicles on private land.

That's certainly an ingenious interpretation of the law on the part of the councils... though I'm not sure that it flies. The law gives the council an opt out if the cost of removing the car *to the nearest convenient carriageway* is unreasonably high - not if the overall cost of recovering it is unreasonably high. In the OP's case taking the car to the nearest public road would likely form a negligible part of the overall cost of removing it entirely. I think the natural reading of the exception is that it only applies in situations like an abandoned car a great distance from the nearest public road, or where the terrain means that specialist equipment would be required etc, and that seems to be DEFRA's interpretation as well.

Of course in practical terms if the council do say "not our problem mate" then it's not going to be easy for the OP to force them to carry out their duty, but I'd still suggest that they should be his first port of call at least.