Car scrapped without consent

AnotherDave89

My exwife has scapped the car I still own I was wondering where i stand.

When me and my wife spilt we had an agreement that she'd use the car so she could take the kids to school. I continued to pay the tax, insurance and finance on the car

A year later she then took on the tax and insurance I changed the v5 to her name so she could tax it herself. 

Last month I made the last payment on the finance and I found out today that she scrapped the car yesterday. The police say its a civil case and won't get involved. Any advice?

Thanks 

lincroft1710

Presumably she still needs a car for the school run, so there must have been a reason for it to be scrapped. 


How old was the car? Any possibility it needed repairs that were more than the value of the car?.


Although a V5 is not proof of ownership, it was in her name, so she could argue it was "her" car and you had given it to her.

Nobbie1967

Have you asked her why she scrapped it?

Grumpy_chap

AnotherDave89 said:

My exwife has scapped the car I still own I was wondering where i stand.

When me and my wife spilt we had an agreement that she'd use the car so she could take the kids to school. I continued to pay the tax, insurance and finance on the car

A year later she then took on the tax and insurance I changed the v5 to her name so she could tax it herself. 

Last month I made the last payment on the finance and I found out today that she scrapped the car yesterday. The police say its a civil case and won't get involved. Any advice?

Thanks 

How did you find out the car was scrapped?

Is the car of an age where a large maintenance bill would make it scrap?

What incentive would she have to scrap the car that she has not paid for, other than running costs, unless it really was scrap given that she will still need a car to ferry the kids around and not having this car means the expense of buying another car to replace it?

Aretnap

If it was your property and you had an agreement that she would return it at (once the finance was paid off? Once the children no longer needed taking to school) then you would in theory be entitled to the value of the car that she'd failed to return as per the agreement. 

However presumably there was a reason why she scrapped it, and if the reason was that it needed repairs that exceeded its value then you would be entitled only to the scrap or "spares or repairs" value of the car, ie not a lot.

If you're claiming that she scrapped your perfectly good car out of spite then you may have more of a claim.

Either way the police aren't going to get involved in something like this; any recourse would be through the civil courts.

I'm not sure that this is really a motoring question; it's essentially about property rights post divorce and the fact that the property is a car is incidental. So you might get better help on one of the family/relationships/divorce boards. 

AnotherDave89

Nobbie1967 said:

Have you asked her why she scrapped it?

Big MOT fail unfortunately, would I be entitled to any of the scrap age?

Herzlos

AnotherDave89 said:

Nobbie1967 said:

Have you asked her why she scrapped it?

Big MOT fail unfortunately, would I be entitled to any of the scrap age?

If you can prove you still owned it, then you could pursue her in the small claims court for reasonable scrap value.
Did she make any money from it or did the scrap yard collect it for free?

Thrugelmir

AnotherDave89 said:

Nobbie1967 said:

Have you asked her why she scrapped it?

Big MOT fail unfortunately, would I be entitled to any of the scrap age?

Has she by any chance traded it in for a newer model now the finance is settled. 

Grey_Critic

How much do you estimate it was worth as an MOT failure - Most scrappers don't fetch much

Keep_pedalling

My advice would be to let it go. If it had passed the MOT she would still be using the car and you would get no benefit from it so you have not lost anything , and the few quid she would have got for it she can put towards a replacement to ferry your children around.

I can’t believe you actually went to the police about this.

CKhalvashi

Grey_Critic said:

How much do you estimate it was worth as an MOT failure - Most scrappers don't fetch much

But some cars are worth a reasonable chunk in parts. I've owned stuff where the wheels on their own are worth more than was paid for the car (thinking a Focus ST specifically).

Some cars therefore do have a strong MoT failure value where parts can be removed before the shell is scrapped.