Car Impounded - don't want it back

gmac351

Hi,

My car was SORN'd but on a public road with no tax, insurance or MOT. I was planning to sell it for scrap since it has terminal illness of the turbo and is not driveable, but it has been clamped and now removed. I don't want the car back, and would prefer it is just disposed of but have a couple of questions.

1 - it has a personal number plate - can I deregister this from the car now it has been impounded?
2 - if I don't contact the car pound, will the vehicle just be crushed or sold on by default?
3 - will I be liable for any fines or fees?

DVLA never contacted me when it was clamped to explain my options.

Thanks for all advice......

wgl2014

Not sure on 1.

Points 2 and 3 - contact the impound and tell them to dispose of it. If you don't it will accrue storage charges you will be liable for. You are still liable for any Dvla fine.

pappa_golf

you will struggle to remove the reg number for retention , as the car has no MOT

AdrianC

gmac351 wrote: »

1 - it has a personal number plate - can I deregister this from the car now it has been impounded?

You can try.
https://www.gov.uk/keep-registration-number

2 - if I don't contact the car pound, will the vehicle just be crushed or sold on by default?

Auctioned if it's worth anything. Scrapped if not. But that's not your business, to be brutally frank. You are giving up any rights to it. I would expect that that includes the plate, which - if it's worth anything - should hopefully be sold separately.

3 - will I be liable for any fines or fees?

Yes, absolutely. The revenue from disposing of your scrap may offset them slightly. If the plate is sold, then that might be sufficient.

unholyangel

pappa_golf wrote: »

you will struggle to remove the reg number for retention , as the car has no MOT

MOT has no bearing on private plates afaik.

You can now do it online, only takes a minute or two and all you need is V5 reference & credit/debit card (£80 fee).

force_ten

pappa_golf wrote: »

you will struggle to remove the reg number for retention , as the car has no MOT

that used to be the case but not anymore

DVLA say the car has to have been taxed or sorn in the last five years but the one thing that you may struggle with is the vehicle must be available for inspection

I would try and transfer the plate using the online system and see how you get on

pappa_golf

thanks for the update regarding plate transfer , I have bought some very "shady" <ie not mot fit> old classic bikes (barn finds) in the past that the origional plates have been removed from ,,, a shady world

force_ten

pappa_golf wrote: »

thanks for the update regarding plate transfer , I have bought some very "shady" <ie not mot fit> old classic bikes (barn finds) in the past that the origional plates have been removed from ,,, a shady world

now a classic bike above a certain age would be exempt from periodic testing and would be eligible for free road tax so it would be easy to get a plate off an old bike

in the days of paper MOT certificates it was not hard to get a dodgy MOT certificate written up but where you would come unstuck with that would be if they asked the vehicle to be presented for inspection

a person i know wrote off a porsche and it was recovered back to the supplying dealer, when he tried to get his plate off it before scrapping the DVLA asked for the car to be presented for inspection and he had to have the wreck trailered there and back at great cost just to retain his plate

AdrianC

force_ten wrote: »

now a classic bike above a certain age would be exempt from periodic testing and would be eligible for free road tax so it would be easy to get a plate off an old bike

1960 for MOT, 40yo for VED.

But that's precisely the kind of age that WILL get pulled in for inspection if there's any doubt whatsoever that it's anything but legit.

force_ten

AdrianC wrote: »

1960 for MOT

did they ever say anything about changes that they were thinking of making a few years ago, i seem to remember that there was discussion about an EU directive that was to allow vehicles to be exempt from periodic testing once they reached 30 years old

AdrianC

force_ten wrote: »

did they ever say anything about changes that they were thinking of making a few years ago, i seem to remember that there was discussion about an EU directive that was to allow vehicles to be exempt from periodic testing once they reached 30 years old

The EU bare minimum is 30yrs - no country can exempt "historic" cars younger than 30yrs from MOT... Anything over that is fine.

The problem the UK had/have is that the EU bare minimum also requires "broadly original" technical spec, while the UK's exemption just shrugs and looks at the date on the paperwork. So the UK's having to sort that. They're still at the mucking-around-with-consultations stage, and it's likely that it'll go with the same points scheme as for registrations.
https://www.gov.uk/vehicle-registration/radically-altered-vehicles

Equally, the current exemption could just be binned completely, and it would be fine - there's no requirement to have one. Just that, if it does exist, it has to meet those requirements.

Post-actual-brexit, of course, all bets are off - but that's still nearly two years away at the minimum.