My car was scrapped by the council.

ldmusaj

Good afternoon, 

I am stuck between a rock and a hard place.

The council about a year ago scrapped my car due to it being damaged and left outside by the garage ready for repairs.

The reason they had scrapped it is because I had not gone to collect it , however , the letter I received by the council said the latest date I should come by was a month later than the date they had set on their system due to a typo on the letter.

After all insurance procedures with the client they have told me they will pay me out roughly 6000 pounds, however the car was on finance and due to my car being ‘lost’ per say or not on the DVLA system anymore I was put in default. 

I did not have insurance on my car at the time of the scrapping but I did when they picked it up and left it in the impound, I had switched it over to another car (due to some problems in my life)

It has been a stressful time and I just want some advice on what I can potentially do because I do not want to pay out tens of thousands of pounds for a car I don’t have anymore and for a situation I shouldn’t have been in in the first place. 

DullGreyGuy

ldmusaj said:

The council about a year ago scrapped my car due to it being damaged and left outside by the garage ready for repairs.

The reason they had scrapped it is because I had not gone to collect it , however , the letter I received by the council said the latest date I should come by was a month later than the date they had set on their system due to a typo on the letter.

After all insurance procedures with the client they have told me they will pay me out roughly 6000 pounds, however the car was on finance and due to my car being ‘lost’ per say or not on the DVLA system anymore I was put in default. 

I did not have insurance on my car at the time of the scrapping but I did when they picked it up and left it in the impound, I had switched it over to another car (due to some problems in my life)

It has been a stressful time and I just want some advice on what I can potentially do because I do not want to pay out tens of thousands of pounds for a car I don’t have anymore and for a situation I shouldn’t have been in in the first place. 

Why have you left it a year?

So the car was damaged before it was given to the garage or it was damaged whilst in their care? Did you leave it on the street or did they move it from their grounds onto the street?

Who is "the client" you are referring to? Why is their insurance covering your car?

Why did you not have insurance on it? Had your SORNed the car? Or were you just breaking the law by having a car that is neither insured nor SORNed and even it was SORNed it was on a public road. 

What the finance is and any fees for non-payment are irrelevant to what the car was worth or what insurance may pay out on it. Negative equity isn't uncommon in cars, particularly secondhand ones, and it's why GAP insurance is sold to deal with that. 

ldmusaj

DullGreyGuy said:

ldmusaj said:

The council about a year ago scrapped my car due to it being damaged and left outside by the garage ready for repairs.

The reason they had scrapped it is because I had not gone to collect it , however , the letter I received by the council said the latest date I should come by was a month later than the date they had set on their system due to a typo on the letter.

After all insurance procedures with the client they have told me they will pay me out roughly 6000 pounds, however the car was on finance and due to my car being ‘lost’ per say or not on the DVLA system anymore I was put in default. 

I did not have insurance on my car at the time of the scrapping but I did when they picked it up and left it in the impound, I had switched it over to another car (due to some problems in my life)

It has been a stressful time and I just want some advice on what I can potentially do because I do not want to pay out tens of thousands of pounds for a car I don’t have anymore and for a situation I shouldn’t have been in in the first place. 

Why have you left it a year?

So the car was damaged before it was given to the garage or it was damaged whilst in their care? Did you leave it on the street or did they move it from their grounds onto the street?

Who is "the client" you are referring to? Why is their insurance covering your car?

Why did you not have insurance on it? Had your SORNed the car? Or were you just breaking the law by having a car that is neither insured nor SORNed and even it was SORNed it was on a public road. 

What the finance is and any fees for non-payment are irrelevant to what the car was worth or what insurance may pay out on it. Negative equity isn't uncommon in cars, particularly secondhand ones, and it's why GAP insurance is sold to deal with that. 

Hi how are you doing.

The car was insured and it was damaged before going to the garage. 

Client is the council or whoever the council hired for the scrapping procedures.

molerat

The council do not just randomly pick up cars and scrap them.  Where was the car parked when it was picked up ?  Was the car both taxed and insured at the time of pick up ?  Did the condition of the car make it a danger to the passing public where it was parked ?  All you can expect to receive is the true value at the time, if that is £6K then that is all you are entitled to.

Debbie9009

Did you stop paying the finance due to the car being scrapped ? in which case this is why you ended up in default, I don’t think you would have much chance of getting anyone to pay the charges etc. as you should have carried on paying the finance.  Even though you no longer had the car, you would still owe the finance company the rest of the payments.

How much do you still owe them, and when did you last make a payment ? You might be able to negotiate a settlement with the finance company once you have the £6k, just be aware this will affect your credit worthiness,  it if you have already defaulted then it’s already affected.  Once you have the £6k it might be worth you posting on the DFW board as there are people there who have negotiated settlements and they might be able to help you on how to go about this.

dumpster_fire2025

ldmusaj said:

Good afternoon, 

I am stuck between a rock and a hard place.

The council about a year ago scrapped my car due to it being damaged and left outside by the garage ready for repairs.

The reason they had scrapped it is because I had not gone to collect it , however , the letter I received by the council said the latest date I should come by was a month later than the date they had set on their system due to a typo on the letter.

After all insurance procedures with the client they have told me they will pay me out roughly 6000 pounds, however the car was on finance and due to my car being ‘lost’ per say or not on the DVLA system anymore I was put in default. 

I did not have insurance on my car at the time of the scrapping but I did when they picked it up and left it in the impound, I had switched it over to another car (due to some problems in my life)

It has been a stressful time and I just want some advice on what I can potentially do because I do not want to pay out tens of thousands of pounds for a car I don’t have anymore and for a situation I shouldn’t have been in in the first place. 

They are only obliged to pay market value for the car.

If the car was damaged then they are only obliged to pay the scrap value of the car. I have no idea why you'd transfer the insurance of the vehicle to another one if it were simply in for repair.

You should not have stopped paying the finance until you got a payout from your insurers, if you were ever going to. That is on you and another fairly silly move.

You're going to have to chalk this one up to experience, and perhaps chase your insurer a bit harder next time.

Kim_13

If the OP were not entitled to a courtesy car, then they may have had to buy a runabout and insure that while the car was in for repair. Presumably the insurance was taken off as the NCB could only be used on one car. If the OP left the car in the garage and not on the road, the OP hasn’t done anything wrong.

Clearly the lack of GAP insurance is an expensive mistake, but the OP is surely owed whatever the repaired car would be worth less the cost of fixing it. After all, it would have been repaired had the council not erroneously scrapped it. And it was their error because the OP could have secured the release of the seized car in time had the council informed them of the correct deadline.

sheramber

Who left the car on the road outside the garage?

You or the garage?

ldmusaj

sheramber said:

Who left the car on the road outside the garage?

You or the garage?

I had left it at the garage, my car was stolen and had no insurance when it was stolen then the person crashed the car . then I sent it to the garage for repairs they asked me for around 5 grand for all repairs since everything was in working order just the bodywork needed repair. I still believe they did wrong by scrapping my car early and sending me a letter with the wrong date. If i were to send them to court do you think I would win at least the value of the my for their vital mistake? 

TheSpectator

So it was stolen from the garage whilst in their possession?

ldmusaj

TheSpectator said:

So it was stolen from the garage whilst in their possession?

no the council picked it up outside the garage and scrapped the car. the reason it got scrapped was because i did not go in time according to their database however when they had sent me the letter explaining when to come they had made a typo (don’t know how they can make a typo of that magnitude) saying I had to come before october (they had scrapped it a week after receiving the letter)