Abandoned cars in our street

[rico]

Another car parking thread, sorry. We have recently moved house to a cul-de-sac which has unregulated and free parking (street and bay parking) intended for the residents and their guests only. There are enough spaces for every household to park one car but some do not drive and some have more than one car so on average it works out at roughly one car per household. Most of the time most spaces are taken, more so if residents have guests but so far it has been manageable and we haven't been unable to park on our street (yet!). There is also a disabled bay but nobody seems to claim it nor display a blue badge if they park there - it seems to be an unwritten rule that you can park there if all other spaces are taken, but move it when one becomes available. All of the surrounding roads require council permits.

There are some chancers who park in our cul-de-sac and walk to the shops around the corner but often leave pretty quickly. We're not near enough to a tube or rail station for people to park here and walk - it would be quicker just to walk directly so we don't have that issue (fingers crossed...).

What we do have however are three seemingly abandoned cars that have not moved in the few months we have been here and I suspect quite a lot longer - flat tyres, moss growing etc. One belongs to the daughter (who doesn't live here) of the residents association secretary so seems to have a 'free pass' in that regard so that leaves the other two cars. Nobody in the street knows who they belong to nor are they taxed or have a recent MOT.

TL;DR version: abandoned cars parked on our street hogging valuable spaces.

Any bright ideas?

[Tooks]

You just need to keep nagging the local authority to do something about them.

A friend of mine had a Mercedes E Class abandoned outside her terraced house, which although it wasn’t ‘her’ space was there for months and months.

The tax ran out, somebody let the tyres down, eventually somebody vandalised it scratching the panels.

Eventually, the council put a notice on it saying it was going to be removed in 7 days if the owner didn’t, and then one day it was gone.

A few weeks after that, a guy knocked on her door asking where his car was, and did she know anything. He’d been away ‘on business’ for 6 months and left his car on that street because it looked quiet and thought it would be safe. There are some selfish idiots about.

[JasonM]

Keep reporting the cars as untaxed, thats the way to go.

[aa388]

Phone up the council and ask to speak to the parking wardens and just tell them they’re abandoned.
That’s what I do and it usually takes a week for a recovery wagon to come and pick them up. I live near the local hospital and all the staff park here and it can be a pain but someone started parking a few cars bought at auction on the road and it became a nightmare to park.


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[mjc1216]

You can check on line if a car has MOT Tax and if it is insured just by the reg number.

If they are then nothing you can do...if not report to the relevant authority

[hogthrob]

You can check if a vehicle is taxed here: https://www.gov.uk/check-vehicle-tax


You can check if a vehicle has an MOT here: https://www.gov.uk/check-mot-status


You can report an untaxed vehicle here: https://www.gov.uk/report-untaxed-vehicle

[rico]

Thanks for the comments so far. I've been doing some digging:

Car 1: SORN, MOT expired 12/2020, no insurance
Car 2: Untaxed (expired 6/2020), valid MOT until 10/2021, no insurance
Car 3: SORN, MOT expired 11/2019, no insurance

I have reported the untaxed car and filled in an abandoned vehicle form on the council website for the other two. I'm not holding my breath.

[hogthrob]

Can you park a SORNed vehicle on the road?

[number2]

Can you park a SORNed vehicle on the road?

I don't believe you can.

[notnowkato]

Can you park a SORNed vehicle on the road?

SORN = statutory off road notification, so NO

[Bigstam]

Is it a private road or maintained by the council?

Anything SORN can’t be on the public highway.

Cheers

Ross

[rico]

Is it a private road or maintained by the council?

Anything SORN can’t be on the public highway.

Cheers

Ross

It's council adopted. Most of the parking is on the road but there are 10 or so bays, guess where the three abandoned cars are...

[Bigstam]

The bays may well be adopted also, the council will determine that though when you speak to them.

Ross

[mikeveal]

You local council do have a responsibility to remove abandoned vehicles from council land and adopted roads. See here: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/abandone...sponsibilities
https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga...doned-vehicles

There is no legal definition of an abandoned vehicle. See paragraph 27 on page 13 of the DEFRA guidance that was issued to accompany the Clean neighbourhoods act of 2005:
https://webarchive.nationalarchives....s/vehicles.pdf

I found that my local council were pretty determined to do as little as possible. For starters, taking action was expensive. On top of that, because there's no legal definition of "abandoned vehicle" it's possible for their decision to (remove & dispose of a car to) be challenged by the owner. If the owner won, they'd be liable.

Ultimately I did manage to resolve the problem of a local garage consuming all the available parking by dumping untaxed snotters on the road outside my house. Sadly, I did have to move house to achieve it. I hope you have better results. Good luck

[David_D]

I’d be very annoyed.

Give the local councillors some grief about it and if that doesn’t work, your MP.

[Pitfitter]

A loose gallon of E10 and a dropped match?

[Ruggertech]

A loose gallon of E10 and a dropped match?

My thoughts are not a million miles from yours.

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[Sweepinghand]

Can you park a SORNed vehicle on the road?

No


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[steptoe]

Another car parking thread, sorry. We have recently moved house to a cul-de-sac which has unregulated and free parking (street and bay parking) intended for the residents and their guests only.

If it's a public road with no parking restrictions any vehicle is legally allowed to park on it (as long as taxed etc etc).

[Brighty]

If the bays are not considered 'on the road' then what would happen if the cars magically moved overnight and ended up on the road?