Removing a taxed+insured abandoned car.

Not far from me an unknown building firm parks elderly vans full of rubbish for months at a time. (Flat tyres the lot.)

There’s currently two flatbed vans that have been abandoned with the same building waste loads since July.

They’re taxed and insured.

These vehicles are legally parked but still of some annoyance to locals.

Is there anything that can be done to speed their removal? Locals are understandably reluctant to start slashing tyres to send a message.

My mate just went through something like this with an Audi dumped outside his house by a local idiot. It was towed away when the tax and insurance expired. Didn’t seem to be anything the police could do before that.

Similar experience myself a few years back. Contacted the police and told them I thought the vehicle was abandoned. They contacted the registered owner and asked them informally if they could move it as it was annoying people. It vanished a few weeks later.

Nothing can be done if they are legally parked and taxed/insured etc.

And nothing should be done either.

How is it different from a different vehicle parking in the same spot every day/night.

Might be able to do something with environmental health or local council if they are unlicensed for waste removal but it’s unlikely.

If they have flat tyres could they be removed on the grounds they aren’t in a road legal safe condition?

“Nothing can be done if they are legally parked and taxed/insured etc.
And nothing should be done either.
How is it different from a different vehicle parking in the same spot every day/night.”

Nobody’s making a moral judgement here. This is a purely legal question.

Are they carrying hazardous waste?
Are they licensed to do so?
APF

Doesn’t sound abandoned to me. Sounds parked – just like every other car at the side of the road in the UK cluttering the place up.

Having flat tyres isn’t unsafe if the vehicle is parked.

Not suggesting you do this, but a guy on our street used to tax and insure his pile of junk just to annoy a neighbour, police couldn’t do anything, but one night the number plates mysteriously disappeared. Couple of days later the car got towed never to be seen again….

“If they have flat tyres could they be removed on the grounds they aren’t in a road legal safe condition?”

That’s the kind of thing I’m wondering and my reasoning for asking the question. I doubt these vehicles are roadworthy and I doubt they’d pass and MOT. I suspect there might be all kinds of other reasons these vehicles could be towed. This thread is to explore those.

If someone left a coke can there it would be removed soon enough.

“Are they carrying hazardous waste?”

Looks to me like roofing material. Fibreglass insulation and various scrap wood. Nothing worth putting on a woodburner. 🙁

And nothing should be done either.

How is it different from a different vehicle parking in the same spot every day/night.

Well, it sounds like a way of someone avoiding paying the fee to have a skip. Makes you wonder why you can’t just dump a skip anywhere you like and pretend that it’s a car… 😉

sprinkle some asbestos on it and phone it in 😈

because the skip doesnt have tax mot and insurance ?

More so – do you really think that buying , taxing , moting and insuring a van is cheaper than a skip ?

if i were prime minister – no car unless you have somewhere on the road to store your litter off the street.

but that is one of many reasons why ill never be prime minister.

get it on fix my street.

We had a van like yours. The Police/Council not interestedbecause it was taxed and insured.

However, they only got interesed when all the parking offences were pointed. Such facing the wrong way, no lights at night, only slightly blocking an emergency access to the seawall, flat tyres, broken windscreen etc. Then suddenly in dissapered.

Look for every little fault and point it out.

If there is nothing, you might have to suck it up.

Post a picture of the vehicle and overall scene here for debate.

trail_rat

More so – do you really think that buying , taxing , moting and insuring a van is cheaper than a skip ?

They might be clones.

Call the council. Some councils have bye laws which allow them to issue 7 day notices on nuisance vehicles which appear to be abandoned. No response to the notice and they get towed.

“They might be clones”

well you’d need to prove it.

judging by what i see colleagues cars failing MOTs on it seems the average punter hasnt clue on what is a pass/fail on mot anyway.

trail_rat

“They might be clones”

well you’d need to prove it. [/quote]

Hard to prove but easy to do. If you were an unscrupulous builder with a couple of old vans that are uneconomical repairs/mot fails stick plates from your road worthy taxed and insured vans on there and leave them. Free skip.

Abandoning vans like that might be within the letter of the law but certainly not the spirit of it.

i agree.

but equally having vehicles removed just because you dont like the look of them without proof they are doing anything wrong other than existing isnt right either…….

Would any one be batting an eye lid if it was a very nice looking range rover parked there for a couple of months while its owner was away with work?

I am with neal – if it’s parked legally and taxed/insured it should be left alone.

OP the only angle I think you have is to contact the council and say its a hazard as they are storing “materials” on the street, tbh if its just building rubbish and nothing particuarly flammable or chemical I think you’ll have a tough time.

“I am with neal – if it’s parked legally and taxed/insured it should be left alone.”

Well yes. That’s why people are searching for reasons why it is *not* legally parked.

its spoiling your view is a starter for 10.

I left a note on a parked minivan outside our house once, asking the owners not to park there in future.

Nothing illegal or dangerous or anything, I just didn’t like the look of the shabby old wreck. In fact I found it offensive, and unpleasing to mine eye. Proper tatty, with dents and scrapes, and bits of gaffer tape everywhere.

I’ve never seen it since. 🙂

trail_rat

Would any one be batting an eye lid if it was a very nice looking range rover parked there for a couple of months while its owner was away with work?

They would if it was sitting on flat tyres and filled with rubbish.

Roofing materials not being disposed of….

Corrogated sheets?

Storage of waste on the street in a non suitable container?

Looks to me like roofing material. Fibreglass insulation and various scrap wood. Nothing worth putting on a woodburner.

I’d report it to the council saying you’re concerned that there may be asbestos which is exposed to anyone passing on that street.

Is the fibreglass all bagged and sealed as required by any council waste disposal facility? Even if it’s not carcinogenic it’s pretty nasty stuff.

Ask the council for a residents parking permit scheme, then you’ll have “your” street all to yourselves.

“I left a note on a parked minivan outside our house once, asking the owners not to park there in future.

Nothing illegal or dangerous or anything, I just didn’t like the look of the shabby old wreck. In fact I found it offensive, and unpleasing to mine eye. Proper tatty, with dents and scrapes, and bits of gaffer tape everywhere.

I’ve never seen it since. “

sounds like you live next door to my mate in pitlochry and it was my car. I was visiting – cheers for running the key down the side of my already tatty and dented car – i couldnt give a shit. Itll be back.

Ask the council for a residents parking permit scheme, then you’ll have “your” street all to yourselves.

And the joy of paying for the permits….they start off free , then once the foots in the door there is an admin fee ….then its 50 quid a year etc – watched it happen in garthdee when the residents wanted it to keep the students from parking in the streets.

“Ask the council for a residents parking permit scheme, then you’ll have “your” street all to yourselves.”

That’s been an ongoing discussion for 30 years which never goes anywhere because as many locals benefit from unrestricted parking as lose out from it. (Personally, I prefer it as it is.)

@cgg and @JV, thanks, I’ll suggest trying those approaches.

Do you have a local PCSO?

It might be worth asking their view. And they might be able to do something about it.

“sounds like you live next door to my mate in pitlochry”

I don’t. In fact I don’t even know where Pitlochry is. 😳

“residents parking permit scheme”

Such a scheme is being mooted in our area. Met with a lot of vehement resistance by people who mostly live elsewhere. Likely to go ahead though.

I’m thinking of buying an old banger and taxing it, then use the registration to get a residents’ permit (then just scrapping the car), which I can then ‘rent’ to someone else, thus making a tidy profit. Any thoughts on this?

They typically tie permits to registration plates. Also you may find a friendly neighbour takes exception to what you are doing acts like nimby and reports you but given your previous comment I take it that you wouldn’t have a problem with that.

Anyone else picture trail rat like this? 😛

not far off it when im at work 😀

part of why im starting a new job in the new year. just filling in time right now – didnt get gardening leave 🙁

“Also you may find a friendly neighbour takes exception to what you are doing acts like nimby and reports you but given your previous comment I take it that you wouldn’t have a problem with that.”

😀

I suspect that most of our non car-owning neighbours would be well up for doing similar actually. Currently, we have pretty much all the street occupied by cars in the daytime, which seem to be owned by people who drive in from other places, and ‘park and ride’. We’d much rather make some money from this ourselves, if we have to put up with the cars anyway. I personally don’t really have a problem with cars parked outside, just not that tatty minivan. 😆

“They typically tie permits to registration plates.”

Aw, boo! 😡

Back home if this happened, the offending vehicle would mysteriously move one night so that it was dangerously close to a junction. The council and/or Police would find out somehow and it would vanish a couple of days later.

All by magic.

Slightly harder with a loaded van I guess.

I’m thinking of buying an old banger and taxing it, then use the registration to get a residents’ permit (then just scrapping the car), which I can then ‘rent’ to someone else, thus making a tidy profit. Any thoughts on this?

Residents permits are always (in my experience) linked to a specific car rather than address, which also means that each individual doesn’t have a set space. Be aware that it is entirely possible to find that even though you have a residents parking permit there won’t necessarily be a parking space available, particularly if several cars are registered at each address on the street.