car stolen and recovered

busiscoming2

Hi we have an old micra that was stolen from in front of our house in early hours of sat am. police notified us it had been stopped only a few miles from our home, the occupants ran away! my hubby asked if we could come and collect it there and then, but they said they wanted to take it for forensics. It was taken to a nearby auto place, we were told this morning we could collect it,I rang the compound and was told there was a charge of £105 to release it, and £12 per day extra from then on. We collected it, but are miffed as to the charge in the light of the fact we were ready to retrieve it on sat. It isn't worth claiming on the insurance for the cost as the car is prob only worth £200 max and the excess is £175! The receipt says the fee is charged by the police. Does anyone know if we can claim this back from the police? Thanks.
:mad:

Hintza

Sorry but this made me chuckle. In that sad "Bloody typical" way.

Ask them what forensics were carried out. You should see fingerprint powder residue if they actually bothered.

Maybe the cops nicked it generate revenue?....;)

busiscoming2

Oh yes lots of silver powder everywhere! Kids are out there cleaning it now!

Pew_Pew_Pew_Lasers!

Unfortunately you're going to have to live with it. The police can't really be expected to do forensic tests on a car that might not be there when they arrive, so they arrange for a private contractor to recover the car.

The fee hasn't been revised since 1993, in Scotland its much more expensive.

Most of the fee you're paying will go to that contractor. The police will probably see less than £10 of it. Some of the fee is VAT as well, levied on the contractor.

scbk

It's a standard fee.

The beauty of it even if your car ends up 200ft down a cliff or at the bottom of a harbour it still only costs £105, even though the cost to recover it could be 10x that

littlepockets

busiscoming2 wrote: »

Hi we have an old micra that was stolen from in front of our house in early hours of sat am. police notified us it had been stopped only a few miles from our home, the occupants ran away! my hubby asked if we could come and collect it there and then, but they said they wanted to take it for forensics. It was taken to a nearby auto place, we were told this morning we could collect it,I rang the compound and was told there was a charge of £105 to release it, and £12 per day extra from then on. We collected it, but are miffed as to the charge in the light of the fact we were ready to retrieve it on sat. It isn't worth claiming on the insurance for the cost as the car is prob only worth £200 max and the excess is £175! The receipt says the fee is charged by the police. Does anyone know if we can claim this back from the police? Thanks.
:mad:

There's a very long thread on this very subject here
http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=498346&page=10&highlight=daveturney

I think the bottom line is

"There are statutory fees that you are legally required to pay. These are set by the Government in the form of statutory regulations which they make under section 102(2) of the Road Traffic Regulation Act 1984."

"If the police recover your vehicle solely as evidence then you will not have to pay for its recovery or storage. If the police use their powers to recover your vehicle because it is illegally, dangerously or obstructively parked or abandoned or broken down, you will have to pay."

Sounds like you don't have to pay as the vehicle was recovered for evidence. Contact the Road Traffic Unit at the Police station

geo555

scbk wrote: »

It's a standard fee.

The beauty of it even if your car ends up 200ft down a cliff or at the bottom of a harbour it still only costs £105, even though the cost to recover it could be 10x that

This is all set to change. The fee will be between £150 and £8400 based on size and location of the car.

https://www.autoexpress.co.uk/news/autoexpressnews/217152/news_in_brief.html

goldspanners

so what happens if say your car that is worth £300 gets stolen,recovered ends up in a compound,you are told it will cost £100 to get the car back,if you think the car isnt worth it could you just leave it there not pay and eventually the car would be crushed,do they have any comback on you to reclaim the £100 + whatever extra days charging they add on?

andy13

You can inform the contractor you do not wish to collect the car and send them the registration document transferring ownership to them. You are under no obligation to pay.

Happychappy

Hintza wrote: »

Maybe the cops nicked it generate revenue?....;)

Sorry but this made me chuckle. In that sad "Bloody typical of chav's to think like that way" :rolleyes:

busiscoming2

Just thought I'd let you know I emailed the police and asked for the money to be reimbursed. A very nice Inspector told me he has looked into it and listened to radio transcripts and is refunding the money to us. He said the company who run the compound shouldn't have charged us. Brilliant!