My car has been seized from private land with a valid SORN.

Ectophile

I would say forget trying to "make your case". Get the car back by any means necessary. Then make a claim against the council that it was wrongly seized, and try to claim back the money.


Because if you don't do that, the car will be crushed, and it will be too late.


But do bear in mind that councils have a legal obligation to remove abandoned cars, even if they are on private land. It probably took a long time for whoever reported it to get the council to actually do anything.

bluebrix

No, I drove it to it's MOT test and back home. I then went to drive it to it's MOT retest within the 10 days to have the work carried out but the adjoining road was closed for 5 days with yellow street closure signs and a huge crane putting a 5g mast on the top of the block of flats at the end of our private road.

I rebooked the MOT on the 1st day after the road closure which was still within the 10 days to drive it back to have the work carried out and the MOT cert issued, but the car was gone. The letter was received the next day stating it's been impounded for not having "valid tax" or a SORN in place. It has had a valid SORN since March, and been unmoved since taking it to it's MOT test.

Jumblebumble

bluebrix wrote: »

Yes, I am joint a freeholder of the private road, as are all of the properties along which the road spans behind our gardens. It is categorically a private road. The fact that it is unadopted is inconsequential. This process has been initiated by someone complaining that my car is abandoned. I responded to the council letter confirming that it was not abandoned, it's been seized anyway. It will take some time to request confirmation from the land registry of this fact, and I have previously questioned this myself and saw confirmatory land registry documents some years before, to which I no longer have fast access to as the neighbour who had possession of the documents moved away some years ago.
The facts aren't the issue, the timescales I have to collect my car is.

I was under the impression that you could pay the LR £3.00 online and you could immediately download the relevant info

Shaun_of_the_Dead

bluebrix wrote: »

No, I drove it to it's MOT test and back home. I then went to drive it to it's MOT retest within the 10 days to have the work carried out but the adjoining road was closed for 5 days with yellow street closure signs and a huge crane putting a 5g mast on the top of the block of flats at the end of our private road.

I rebooked the MOT on the 1st day after the road closure which was still within the 10 days to drive it back to have the work carried out and the MOT cert issued, but the car was gone. The letter was received the next day stating it's been impounded for not having "valid tax" or a SORN in place. It has had a valid SORN since March, and been unmoved since taking it to it's MOT test.

What is the tax status of the vehicle today?

bluebrix

Shaun_of_the_Dead wrote: »

But the dvla have nothing to do with your council. Was it seized for being abandoned or for no tax?

Unknown.
The letter re the abandonment was received from the council in early December giving me 10 working days to retrieve it (from my own land!)
The letter re the seizure and impoundment was received on the 27th December stating that the vehicle was observed as not being in accordance with "valid tax" or a SORN notice.

If they are otherwise unconnected I would assume it's the same person (possibly a neighbour) trying to achieve the same result through different means. If they are connected then the council are trying to achieve the same result through different means upon a complaint.

The council letter gave me a period to retrieve my vehicle (from my own land) before they would take action. That time period lapsed by 3 weeks before I received the seizure letter on the 28th and my vehicle having been taken the day before.

bluebrix

Shaun_of_the_Dead wrote: »

What is the tax status of the vehicle today?

Declared as SORN since March 2019. Has been unused aside from driving to and from it's MOT test, with the exception of me having moved the car to point it in the opposite direction on our land when I tried to drive it out but was unable due to the closure of the access road.

kimplus8

Have you checked online that it has a valid SORN on the .gov website? If it does indeed have a valid SORN then it doesn't need tax, so as long as it was on private land then you have a valid reason for getting the car back and for getting your money back. I would take the valid SORN (a print off) to the place it is impounded and show that they have wrongly taken it to try and hold off any action.
You get 7 WORKING days, so if the car was impounded before Christmas then you get an extra 3 days due to Christmas day, boxing day and new years day being bank holidays and not working days (you also have the weekend to consider of course.

bluebrix

Jumblebumble wrote: »

I was under the impression that you could pay the LR £3.00 online and you could immediately download the relevant info

The private road has a separate name but no post code, in comparison to the public road in front of our property which forms the address of the title deeds.
We can obtain deeds for the private road but only by written request as the private road does not have a post code from which we can make an online request of HMLR. It also contains details of the easements which allow joint access by all freeholders to their "patch".

As I mentioned I've seen a copy of those deeds before from a neighbour who has since moved away, so to request a written copy will take longer than the deadline before my car is crushed, and in any case the pound where they have taken the car to is not open again until the deadline date on the letter they have sent me.

My best bet seems to be to get my car from the pound and get it to it's MOT retest on the first day that it is open on the 2nd January, but with the garage also closed until the 2nd of Jan I will have no documentary evidence until the day itself that the car is booked in for yet another MOT, and it will be outside of the 10 days allowed for the original retest.

Will they deny me my car because I have seemingly booked an MOT just to get it out of the pound, or if the new MOT test is not on the day the car is being collected from the pound?
The entire situation is absurd.

bluebrix

kimplus8 wrote: »

Have you checked online that it has a valid SORN on the .gov website? If it does indeed have a valid SORN then it doesn't need tax, so as long as it was on private land then you have a valid reason for getting the car back and for getting your money back. I would take the valid SORN (a print off) to the place it is impounded and show that they have wrongly taken it to try and hold off any action.
You get 7 WORKING days, so if the car was impounded before Christmas then you get an extra 3 days due to Christmas day, boxing day and new years day being bank holidays and not working days (you also have the weekend to consider of course.

Yes, it's declared as SORN and I have the original email confirmation from the DVLA in March 2019, it states:

"THIS IS AN AUTOMATED EMAIL - PLEASE DO NOT REPLY AS EMAILS RECEIVED AT THIS ADDRESS CANNOT BE RESPONDED TO.

Confirmation of Statutory Off Road Notification (SORN)

Thank you for using DVLA Vehicle Licensing Online.
Your SORN has been successful.

The SORN will be valid until you tax, sell, permanently export or scrap the vehicle.

Any refund of vehicle tax due will be automatically issued to the name and address on our records. If you pay by Direct Debit your Direct Debit will be cancelled.

Vehicle Registration Number: REMOVED
Reference Number: REMOVED
Application Made On: 20/03/2019 12:22:34

You may wish to save or print this email confirmation for your records."

The letter claims "date sighted" of 22nd December, letter date 27th December (day it was removed), and a deadline of 02/01/2020 to collect it. It also attaches forms should I want to declare that I no longer own it, etc.

waamo

Forget what the email says and answer the question asked by kimplus8

Have you checked online that it has a valid SORN on the .gov website?