How to express interest in claiming an abandoned vehicle?
Hi,
I'm wondering if anyone on the forum has experience of the topic.
There has been for a number of months now a Discovery 4 parked on the main road which appears to be abandoned. I reckon it hasn't moved in 6 months, the Tax & MOT have now expired for a couple of months. I've looked around the vehicle & see no obvious reason for abandonment & there isn't anything in it to identify an owner.
It's last V5 change was in March, so it was parked up not long after. It doesn't appear a local car.
DVLA have now stuck a notice but no clamp on it to say they are aware it's untaxed. I presume at some point in the next 10 days or it will be removed unless the keeper sorts it.
Given all this, & that I'm unable to identify the owner, how would I go about expressing interest in the vehicle? Wait for it to be removed & then approach DVLA?
Cheers n Gone Nick MY16 D4 Landmark SDV6 (The Ice Maiden)
Uncle Ray's spare wheel protector
MY08 D3 HSE Stornoway (Miss Moneypit) The money tree withered......
29th Oct 2022 3:31 pm
gstuart
Member Since: 21 Oct 2016
Location: kent
Posts: 14129
report the abandoned car to your local council and not the police. The next step is to go to the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency (DVLA) to establish if the car has a registered owner. If you manage to be put in contact with the owner, tell him or her that the car will be towed at his expense. That will motivate her to send you the title so you can take charge of the car.
Go to your local DVLA and report the abandoned vehicle. Tell the officer the vehicle's number plate number, colour, model, tax information and precise location. Ask the officer if he can track down the owner of the car so you can take ownership of it.
Go to your local DVLA and report the abandoned vehicle.
Ask the officer if he can track down the owner of the car so you can take ownership of it.
Keep tabs on the car, if the DVLA can't track down the owner. Chances are, the car will be towed and the towing company will auction it off to the highest bidder.
Take your chequebook and purchase the car at the auction. Once you've signed the title to the car, it's yours.
The DVLA may not give information to you about the owner, leaving you unable to call the owner directly. Instead, you can ask the DVLA to contact the owner on your behalf about selling the vehicle to you.
WARNING
Many abandoned cars are stolen cars. Do a background check on the car with your local police department to make sure you are legally claiming ownership of the car. Don't ever get behind the wheel of the car and attempt to drive it before you have legal ownership of it. Doing so is stealing the car.
I have seen that link previously. The difficulty is DVLA won't release information due to GDPR restrictions. I thought I had it covered with the V888 form, but the car needed to be abandoned on private land to be able to use that form, on a public road doesn't count.
Cheers N Gone Nick MY16 D4 Landmark SDV6 (The Ice Maiden)
Uncle Ray's spare wheel protector
MY08 D3 HSE Stornoway (Miss Moneypit) The money tree withered......
29th Oct 2022 3:58 pm
ruggedpeak
Member Since: 10 Jun 2010
Location: UK
Posts: 1625
Re: How to express interest in claiming an abandoned vehicle?
Skagg wrote:
Hi,
I'm wondering if anyone on the forum has experience of the topic.
There has been for a number of months now a Discovery 4 parked on the main road which appears to be abandoned. I reckon it hasn't moved in 6 months, the Tax & MOT have now expired for a couple of months. I've looked around the vehicle & see no obvious reason for abandonment & there isn't anything in it to identify an owner.
It's last V5 change was in March, so it was parked up not long after. It doesn't appear a local car.
DVLA have now stuck a notice but no clamp on it to say they are aware it's untaxed. I presume at some point in the next 10 days or it will be removed unless the keeper sorts it.
Given all this, & that I'm unable to identify the owner, how would I go about expressing interest in the vehicle? Wait for it to be removed & then approach DVLA?
Cheers n Gone Nick
Let's hope its not full of drugs, guns, a dead body or anything else untoward! May have been abandoned for a reason. Could be on a police database for something so the 'owner' has ditched it. Have you reported it to your local Police? If not either call 101 or report it to your local neighbourhood team if you have one. If they come round sharpish you know there's a problem!Tony
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29th Oct 2022 4:37 pm
gstuart
Member Since: 21 Oct 2016
Location: kent
Posts: 14129
Skagg wrote:
Thanks Gary,
I have seen that link previously. The difficulty is DVLA won't release information due to GDPR restrictions. I thought I had it covered with the V888 form, but the car needed to be abandoned on private land to be able to use that form, on a public road doesn't count.
Cheers N Gone Nick
Ur so welcome and did wonder that if you had seen that link before
Fingers crossed ur able to obtain it , plus would have thought the local council would jump at the chance in getting an abandoned vehicle off the road
I also had a read of this which I found very interesting , apologises if you’ve already seen this
Member Since: 29 Sep 2006
Location: MIDLANDS
Posts: 8134
Years ago, late 70’s, my uncle had a 1600E Cortina dumped out front of his house. Many calls and months passed and Police/council ‘not interested’ so eventually it was ‘disappeared’ to his lock up behind the house. My dads 1300 MkII received an engine transplant and I nagged my dad to swap the interior too which he agreed to if I did it (I was about 14). The ‘donor’ car was cut up and disposed off….
When police eventually knocked on his door he just told them he assumed the council had taken it
When my dad chopped his MkII for a newer MkIV the dealer asked about the uprated engine and my dad feigned no knowledge but “thought it was fast for a 1300”
29th Oct 2022 5:02 pm
gstuart
Member Since: 21 Oct 2016
Location: kent
Posts: 14129
Brilliant , not me guvna , could u imagine trying to do that now with all the ring door videos
Really brings back memories, my uncle had a brown 1600E , my parents plus my brothers and cousins use to meet up in the new forest on our way down to Swanage
My dad had a blue ford consul convertible , would always overheat towing the caravan over the hogs back , remember the sound of the carb on the 1600E , think it was to old for those automatic choke set ups
Many thks as bought back some wonderful holiday memories
29th Oct 2022 5:19 pm
Farmer Chalk
Member Since: 06 Mar 2013
Location: Independent Republic of Kentishshire.
Posts: 4195
Being the sceptical person that I am I always find it hard to believe that someone would just abandon a £10-20 thousand pound car in the street.. moreover is it just a stolen abandoned car on false plates..
If you really fancy it I would crawl underneath the drivers door and see if the stamped in Vin matches that of the visible vin…and then does that match that number plate?
If they are wrong then you have saved yourself a word of pain…
Re: How to express interest in claiming an abandoned vehicle?
ruggedpeak wrote:
Skagg wrote:
Hi,
I'm wondering if anyone on the forum has experience of the topic.
There has been for a number of months now a Discovery 4 parked on the main road which appears to be abandoned. I reckon it hasn't moved in 6 months, the Tax & MOT have now expired for a couple of months. I've looked around the vehicle & see no obvious reason for abandonment & there isn't anything in it to identify an owner.
It's last V5 change was in March, so it was parked up not long after. It doesn't appear a local car.
DVLA have now stuck a notice but no clamp on it to say they are aware it's untaxed. I presume at some point in the next 10 days or it will be removed unless the keeper sorts it.
Given all this, & that I'm unable to identify the owner, how would I go about expressing interest in the vehicle? Wait for it to be removed & then approach DVLA?
Cheers n Gone Nick
Let's hope its not full of drugs, guns, a dead body or anything else untoward! May have been abandoned for a reason. Could be on a police database for something so the 'owner' has ditched it. Have you reported it to your local Police? If not either call 101 or report it to your local neighbourhood team if you have one. If they come round sharpish you know there's a problem!
I do suspect it may be stolen & dumped. Its not a car I'd seen around previously, it just suddenly appeared. A peak through the windows doesn't give a lot away. A dominos pizza box & some Mackie D cups, oh and a pair of walking boots in the boot which is the only indication it might be linked to someone locally given our proximity to the moor.
Perhaps a doc enclosed pouch on the windscreen next to the untaxed notification expressing my interest might be worth a shot before it disappears?
Cheers n Gone Nick MY16 D4 Landmark SDV6 (The Ice Maiden)
Uncle Ray's spare wheel protector
MY08 D3 HSE Stornoway (Miss Moneypit) The money tree withered......
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, could u imagine trying to do that now with all the ring door videos 
