Claiming Abandoned Cars, Anyone Done It?

[GilesW 41]

As has been said - you can have the V5 in your name. You then sell car. You can then get done for selling stolen goods as the vehcical was never yours to sell.

 

Selling stolen goods carries a nice sentance, so be warned.

 

However - yes there is a process about taking reasonable steps to contact the owner, etc etc. This is the route you should go.

 

Re charging storage - doesn't work if they didn't know you had it in your posession and wanted to charge them storage before you actually start charging it.

[damien 22 1 Cars]

i understand that the v5 shows that someone is the registered keeper of a car but how do you prove who the owner is?

[Baz 421]

Purchase receipt, but i reckon that a fairly high percentage of car owners probably couldn't prove it should they need to!

[Batfink 201]

^ Thief

 

correction....an exceptional thief :-D

[GilesW 41]

i understand that the v5 shows that someone is the registered keeper of a car but how do you prove who the owner is?

 

As Baz said. Same way you would prove you own anything - a receipt/bill of sale.

[Anthony 1,003]

It's not quite that simple - indeed, it's an absolute minefield determining ownership sometimes.

 

Take "Logbook loans" for example - these don't show up on a HPI check and yet they "own" the car whilst the loan is outstanding. In that instance for example, the person that has taken out the loan and temporarily transfered ownership to the loan company would still have the original receipt, yet the car is not theirs to sell.

[DanteICE 72]

I can say one thing (having worked in salvage). If you tell the police, they will have a contract with a scrapping company, who they will tell to take it. So I would try and avoid the police attention and keep your intentions well known to the DVLA. All the police care about is getting the car off the road, so I'm sure if they get told you're think of moving it and contacting the DVLA about taking ownership and having all the details for the police so that they understand you are within your rights then they won't be bothered.

 

Geoff