Motoring Discussion > Untaxed & Uninsured van - dumped ? Legal Questions
Thread Author: Dulwich Estate Replies: 37

 Untaxed & Uninsured van - dumped ? - Dulwich Estate
Not far away from us there is a tatty van which has not moved for maybe 10 days. I took a look and the tax expired in August. It's not insured either.

I called 101, the non-emergency police number. The person who handled the call was friendly, helpful but ultimately not interested. It's not a matter for us so call the DVLA or council they said.

Should I have bothered ?
 Untaxed & Uninsured van - dumped ? - Old Navy
What is the problem, you phoned the wrong people and were advised who to report it to. Here it is the council.
Last edited by: Old Navy on Tue 18 Sep 12 at 09:48
 Untaxed & Uninsured van - dumped ? - Dulwich Estate
I reasonably thought that breaking the law was a police matter.
Last edited by: Dulwich Estate on Tue 18 Sep 12 at 09:49
 Untaxed & Uninsured van - dumped ? - CGNorwich
Local council is responsible for abandoned vehicles.

www.direct.gov.uk/en/HomeAndCommunity/WhereYouLive/Streetcleaninglitterandillegaldumping/DG_4001703
 Untaxed & Uninsured van - dumped ? - Dulwich Estate
If I use an untaxed and uninsured vehicle on the public highway then am I only at risk of being spotted and prosecuted by the council ?

Curious one.
 Untaxed & Uninsured van - dumped ? - Old Navy
If you are driving it, it is not abandoned.
 Untaxed & Uninsured van - dumped ? - Old Navy
Not these days, it is environmental.

tinyurl.com/96fxmpo
 Untaxed & Uninsured van - dumped ? - Dulwich Estate
I used to worry myself about not taxing and insuring a car by the due date. Perhaps I shouldn't worry too much.

It seems, from a perusal of the DVLA website and my local council one, that one can probably get away with at least a month before the system catches up with you.

13 months tax and 13 months insurance for the price of 12 anyone ?
 Untaxed & Uninsured van - dumped ? - Zero

>> 13 months tax and 13 months insurance for the price of 12 anyone ?

Err no. Unless you have SORNED it, you need to pay the tax. So if you sorn it after 14 months you have two months tax to pay.
 Untaxed & Uninsured van - dumped ? - Dulwich Estate
OK, OK - I give up. Maybe I'll leave all my crime fighting to Batman, Spiderman and Hercule Poirot.
 Untaxed & Uninsured van - dumped ? - Falkirk Bairn
Untaxed & Uninsured car about 100m from home. Telephoned council who said they would put a notice on it and the remove it after 14/21 days. Rubbish.

Phoned Scottish Power and told them of the wreck next to their premises (sub-station) - car uplited within 1 hour!
 Untaxed & Uninsured van - dumped ? - Zero
>> Untaxed & Uninsured car about 100m from home. Telephoned council who said they would put
>> a notice on it and the remove it after 14/21 days. Rubbish.
>>
>> Phoned Scottish Power and told them of the wreck next to their premises (sub-station) -
>> car uplited within 1 hour!

You'd soon be moaning if the car caught fire, your power was cut, and you missed today episode of Neighbours. Demanding compo probably.
 Untaxed & Uninsured van - dumped ? - John H
>> Untaxed & Uninsured car about 100m from home. Telephoned council who said they would put
>> a notice on it and the remove it after 14/21 days. Rubbish.
>>

No good whingeing on here, unless you agree that people get the Councils they deserve. Someone on the phone seems to be telling you porkies which are not in the Council policy:

Responsible director to contact to complain:
www.falkirk.gov.uk/services/services.aspx

www.falkirk.gov.uk/services/development/environmental_protection/abandoned_vehicles/abandoned_vehicles.aspx
"When an abandoned vehicle is reported to us we will visit and check its ownership, then an advisory notice will be attached asking the owner to contact the Council within 48 hours. Failure to respond results in a legal notice being served requiring removal within 24 hours.

If the vehicle is still present on expiry of the 24 hours notice it will be removed and scrapped."

 Untaxed & Uninsured van - dumped ? - Crankcase

>> "When an abandoned vehicle is reported to us we will visit and check its ownership,
>> then an advisory notice will be attached asking the owner to contact the Council within
>> 48 hours.

>>Failure to respond results in a legal notice being served requiring removal within 24 >>hours.

>> If the vehicle is still present on expiry of the 24 hours notice it will
>> be removed and scrapped."


There's a gap there, potentially. Notice goes on it - so 48 hours now has to pass. So far so good.

But then legal notice has to be served, giving the final 24 hour notice. But issuing that legal notice might be the bit that takes a couple of weeks to get through the system, hence the 14 to 21 day total.


Only guessing.
 Untaxed & Uninsured van - dumped ? - L'escargot
>> Should I have bothered ?
>>

No. Why get involved in something like that when you don't need to?
 Untaxed & Uninsured van - dumped ? - Cliff Pope
You have to be wary of getting involved in anything these days.
Smile at a child and you get arrested for abuse and put on a register.
Move some dangerous obstruction off the road and you get prosecuted for littering.
Clear an abandoned trolley from a beauty spot and you have the environmental police on your trail.

See an abandoned vehicle and let the thought pass through your mind that you could use some spares from it, and you will probably become liable for all its unpaid tax and SORN penalties.
 Untaxed & Uninsured van - dumped ? - Notdoctorchris
We have an epidemic of scruffy, unsightly vans dumped by the roadside here in Sunderland. Often they are on pavements or otherwise pleasant grass verges. Unfortunately they are taxed and are being used as a cheap form of advertising by scrap dealers wanting vehicles.
Similarly, hideous trailers are left in similar positions, advertising various businesses.
There's not much the local authority can do about these eyesores. The only small action I can take is avoid using the advertised businesses but then I never send vehicles for scrap or eat tasteless take-away pizza anyway!
Is this a nationwide problem, any solutions, anyone?
 Untaxed & Uninsured van - dumped ? - Dulwich Estate
"No. Why get involved in something like that when you don't need to?"

Because it's been parked outside my house for 10 days now and it's an eyesore.
 Untaxed & Uninsured van - dumped ? - Fenlander
>>>parked outside my house for 10 days now and it's an eyesore.

Not sure I could have held off 10 days.

Few years back I reported a similarly dumped car on the verge outside our place after lads had broken into it, I was worried they'd set fiire to it. After little interest from the authorities I used the Land Rover to tow it a few hundred yards away from our house to a public lay by. Two nights later we heard the fire engine after it was set ablaze.

Actually one of my soapbox things is trade vehicles in a housing situation. Any large van on the road/verge/path or parked on a drive forward of the building line should be nuked taxed or not.
Last edited by: Fenlander on Tue 18 Sep 12 at 12:14
 Untaxed & Uninsured van - dumped ? - Zero
Whats a "large van" Transit? So no-one can park their work transit outside the house?
 Untaxed & Uninsured van - dumped ? - Fenlander
>>>Transit?

Yep... should be a vehicle version of the dog catcher clearing them all off residential streets while people sleep.

Same with caravans on the front garden!
 Untaxed & Uninsured van - dumped ? - Zero
>> >>>Transit?
>>
>> Yep... should be a vehicle version of the dog catcher clearing them all off residential
>> streets while people sleep.

Well thats destroyed the economy in a single stroke. Not to mention ones civil liberties.

 Untaxed & Uninsured van - dumped ? - Fenlander
>>>Well thats destroyed the economy in a single stroke. Not to mention ones civil liberties.

Ahh but I like a tidy street so there have to be minor downsides.
 Untaxed & Uninsured van - dumped ? - Dave_
>> trade vehicles in a housing situation. Any large van on the road/verge/path or parked on a drive ... should be nuked

When we were offered our first council house, we took it after a quick drive down the street one weekend revealed several white vans parked on the many driveways. It was a good indicator that the owners worked, therefore were more likely to be decent folk and good neighbours. By and large I was right.
Last edited by: Dave_TDCi on Tue 18 Sep 12 at 16:17
 Untaxed & Uninsured van - dumped ? - Fenlander
>>>vans parked on the many driveways. It was a good indicator that the owners worked, therefore were more likely to be decent folk and good neighbours

Van users can be good folk... but surely you cannot reverse the idea to make non van owners lesser people.
 Untaxed & Uninsured van - dumped ? - Pat
Oh yes, specially when they want to park theirs in someone else's street and ban all caravans from being parked on the owners property.

Pat
 Untaxed & Uninsured van - dumped ? - Fenlander
Oh don't worry Pat in my world you can keep a caravan... as long as it stays behind the building line.
 Untaxed & Uninsured van - dumped ? - Pat
Would you prefer a couple o9f transit vans standing in the front parking area then?

Currently our caravan is in a secure storage compund less than half a mile from where we live. Luckily we can afford the £400 a year it costs to keep it there.
Nothing in life is certain for any of us, and if it happens at some point we can't afford this, I certainly wouldn't sell a fully paid for caravan, sooner than park it in front of the house where there is ample room and a parking area.

If it offends the neighbours then tough, they need to remember that there are far worse things to look at and be grateful.

Pat
 Untaxed & Uninsured van - dumped ? - Fenlander
>>>Would you prefer a couple of transit vans standing in the front parking area then?

Now then keep up... I've already banned the Transits.

Nice wooden wheelbarrow planted up would be good.
 Untaxed & Uninsured van - dumped ? - Pat
To a proper gardener >>Nice wooden wheelbarrow planted up << is about as offensive and naff as you can get.

Pat
 Untaxed & Uninsured van - dumped ? - Fenlander
Oh dear... why do you think I suggested it.

Ok you can have a red and blue painted single furrow plough.
 Untaxed & Uninsured van - dumped ? - Zero
Gnome.
 Untaxed & Uninsured van - dumped ? - neiltoo

>> Currently our caravan is in a secure storage compund less than half a mile from
>> where we live. Luckily we can afford the £400 a year it costs to keep
>> it there.

One reason to keep it off site is that is perfectly obvious when a caravan owner is on holiday if he keeps it on his front drive.
 Untaxed & Uninsured van - dumped ? - Pat
Exactly, but if push comes to shove then it's a risk I'll take.


Pat
 Untaxed & Uninsured van - dumped ? - Cliff Pope
>
>>
>> Because it's been parked outside my house for 10 days now and it's an eyesore.
>>


"Not far away from us there is a tatty van which has not moved for maybe 10 days. "



I read "not far away" as somewhere up the road, or perhaps a few miles away in a layby.
If it's outside I can understand your feeling concerned about it.

 Untaxed & Uninsured van - dumped ? - Dulwich Estate
Cliff, you are quite right.

I was initially reluctant to give too much information.

Walls have ears; dangerous talk costs lives .... etc...etc.
 Untaxed & Uninsured van - dumped ? - L'escargot
>> >> "No. Why get involved in something like that when you don't need to?"
>>
>> Because it's been parked outside my house for 10 days now and it's an eyesore.
>>

In your original post you said "Not far away from us .......". "Not far away" could mean a quarter of a mile. You didn't say outside your house. I'm not a mind reader.
 Untaxed & Uninsured van - dumped ? - zookeeper
i would have called the cops, what if the van had been used in a bank job or had been involved in a hit and run? its had ten days to get torched and remove valuable evidence possibly?
Latest Forum Posts