Safest place to park a SORN car long term worry free?

bery_451

Car_54 wrote: »

Vehicle Excise and Registration Act (not Road Traffic Act) requires tax if the vehicle is on a road maintained a t public expense. A car park is not a road, so who maintains it is probably irrelevant.
However ..... a vehicle must be insured if it’s on a road or public place. A car park with no barriers is almost certainly a public place, whoever maintains it.

So a police car that happens to drive into a public car park for emergency for example will notice a parked car flagging up their ANPR system as uninsured and will get it towed away at their expense with no driver at the scene to prosecute for profit. Or will the police spend their time and resources to trace back the driver address on the V5 logbook to prosecute for potential profit at court at what fine?

These are the worst case scenarios I can think of but is it realistic in austerity britain?

bery_451

Rover_Driver wrote: »

It is not the Road Traffic Act that is relevant, it is the Vehicles Excise and Registration Act 1994.
Section 29(2B) is the licensing exemption for a vehicle that is subject of a SORN.
Section 62 has the definition of a 'Public Road'.




'A car park is not a road' - Clarke and others v Kato, Smith and others, House of Lords 1988.

Okay so it is clarified and confirmed that a public car park doesn't require road tax to park in it?

Car_54

bery_451 wrote: »

So a police car that happens to drive into a public car park for emergency for example will notice a parked car flagging up their ANPR system as uninsured and will get it towed away at their expense with no driver at the scene to prosecute for profit. Or will the police spend their time and resources to trace back the driver address on the V5 logbook to prosecute for potential profit at court at what fine?

These are the worst case scenarios I can think of but is it realistic in austerity britain?

The registered keeper is responsible under the continuous insurance egislation. The police do not profit from prosecutions: all fines go to the Treasury.

onwards&upwards

bery_451 wrote: »

So a police car that happens to drive into a public car park for emergency for example will notice a parked car flagging up their ANPR system as uninsured and will get it towed away at their expense with no driver at the scene to prosecute for profit. Or will the police spend their time and resources to trace back the driver address on the V5 logbook to prosecute for potential profit at court at what fine?

These are the worst case scenarios I can think of but is it realistic in austerity britain?

The police are not a for profit organisation. But in an actual emergency I doubt they are stopping to worry about road tax.

Herzlos

I doubt the police will care but if you abandon a car in a residential car park at least one of the residents will complain enough to get it removed.

TooManyPoints

Sorry but whilst the legal intricacies of this problem are interesting at the same time this all very amusing.

The bottom line is that here we have someone who has "invested" £1100 in a vehicle in the hope that in fifteen years or so cars of that make and model will have become valuable items. He may or may not be right. I think he may be disappointed but let's assume he is correct.

So what's his proposal to store his rapidly appreciating asset in the intervening period? To dump it in the car park of a council tower block (along with at least one other car which the owner "cannot be ar5ed to dispose of"). In fifteen years time he believes the said car may be worth £50k and suspects he may be able to get someone to part with that sort of cash for what will, by then (if it's still there) be a pile of vandalised rust.

I'm all for encouraging entrepreneurs. But in this instance I'm afraid "LOL" is totally inadequate.:rotfl:

Aretnap

Car_54 wrote: »

However ..... a vehicle must be insured if it’s on a road or public place. A car park with no barriers is almost certainly a public place, whoever maintains it.

It's something of a myth that the absence of barriers is the key thing in deciding whether a car park is a public space - a barrier can be good evidence that it is not public, but the lack of a barrier does not mean that it is public. There's a useful summary of the law in this case (in which it was held that a service road with no barriers connecting about 20 houses was not a public place)

https://www.bailii.org/ew/cases/EWHC/Admin/2011/488.html

If the car park is clearly intended only for the use of residents and their guests (and delivery men etc) then it's unlikely to be a public place and unlikely that insurance is required. I think that the more pressing issue is that it's an absolutely ridiculous place to dump a car for 15 years if you expect it to have any value afterwards.

Shaun_of_the_Dead

Aretnap wrote: »

It's something of a myth that the absence of barriers is the key thing in deciding whether a car park is a public space - a barrier can be good evidence that it is not public, but the lack of a barrier does not mean that it is public. There's a useful summary of the law in this case (in which it was held that a service road with no barriers connecting about 20 houses was not a public place)

https://www.bailii.org/ew/cases/EWHC/Admin/2011/488.html

If the car park is clearly intended only for the use of residents and their guests (and delivery men etc) then it's unlikely to be a public place and unlikely that insurance is required. I think that the more pressing issue is that it's an absolutely ridiculous place to dump a car for 15 years if you expect it to have any value afterwards.

The main difference in your example is the residents pay for the maintenance of that road.

Most places with access by the public paid for by the council tend to be public places.

bob_a_builder

I'm all for encouraging entrepreneurs. But in this instance I'm afraid "LOL" is totally inadequate.

Well it seems he almost doubled his money in a matter of days/weeks - so not all bad !

missile

bob_a_builder wrote: »

Well it seems he almost doubled his money in a matter of days/weeks - so not all bad !

Sold it to another entrepreneur :rotfl: