When is a car legally abandoned?

time lord

When can a car be deemed to be abandoned if its in a public place for example?

Ken.

About 5 minutes after the road tax runs out it can be taken. Gardai will give a months grace though normally. So 1 month and 1 day after tax is out ring the council and report it. Depending on where you are they'll be around anywhere from an hour to 2 days later and remove it.

time lord

ken wrote: »

About 5 minutes after the road tax runs out it can be taken. Gardai will give a months grace though normally. So 1 month and 1 day after tax is out ring the council and report it. Depending on where you are they'll be around anywhere from an hour to 2 days later and remove it.

Thanks for the reply but that's a slightly separate issue. Eg a car worth €63k say is out of tax and a local authority takes it away as abandoned, owner comes back and is handed a cube or it gets scratched or simply local authorities do not want to incur storage fees etc so a legal defination to stand over why someone was right to deem a vehicle abandoned is what I'm curious about.

Ken.

time lord wrote: »

Thanks for the reply but that's a slightly separate issue. Eg a car worth €63k say is out of tax and a local authority takes it away as abandoned, owner comes back and is handed a cube or it gets scratched or simply local authorities do not want to incur storage fees etc so a legal defination to stand over why someone was right to deem a vehicle abandoned is what I'm curious about.

Ah fair enough, most people that ask on here are complaining about an eyesore outside their house or something similar.

Marcusm

Cars have these funny things called registration plates which can assist the local authority in tracking down the owner......

time lord

Marcusm wrote: »

Cars have these funny things called registration plates which can assist the local authority in tracking down the owner......

Number plates are funny things you say, very helpful comment. These little plates can be of very little help sometimes. If you have no legal defination of what constitutes an abandoned vehicle just say so. The 'owner' as you say and the last registered owner can be two different people which is very common in 'abandoned' cars.
So thanks but your 'funny' little plates suggestion is no good.

wmpdd3

Depends where the car is abandoned, there was a car in my friends estate for 5 years and they still couldnt get anyone to remove it. They thought it was a friend of a renter who left 4 years ago.

Marcusm

time lord wrote: »

Number plates are funny things you say, very helpful comment. These little plates can be of very little help sometimes. If you have no legal defination of what constitutes an abandoned vehicle just say so. The 'owner' as you say and the last registered owner can be two different people which is very common in 'abandoned' cars.
So thanks but your 'funny' little plates suggestion is no good.

They are very relevant to local authorities exercising not only their powers but their duties under the Litter Acts 1982-1997. Abandonment has to be established following checks on ownership etc!

Feets

Gardai suggested in the past that they will move it if it has no reg plates, and only then.

time lord

Marcusm wrote: »

They are very relevant to local authorities exercising not only their powers but their duties under the Litter Acts 1982-1997. Abandonment has to be established following checks on ownership etc!

Relevant to some abandonment cases and not very useful in many other cases.
Checks on ownership might compliment a determination on abandonment but the question I asked you have not addressed.
Separate thread needed if you want to tease out any duties on Local authorities from the Litter Pollution Act.

Del2005

wmpdd3 wrote: »

Depends where the car is abandoned, there was a car in my friends estate for 5 years and they still couldnt get anyone to remove it. They thought it was a friend of a renter who left 4 years ago.

I've reported a few abandoned cars in my estate. I've contacted the Management agent and usually with in a week or so a mailing is sent out with the cars reg giving a couple of weeks to remove it. A few miraculously moved after the letter but some have had to be towed. No idea what they did with the cars afterwards, mainly as they weren't worth checking up on.


I know in the UK you used to be able to claim abandoned vehicles but I don't thing we ever could.

Marcusm

time lord wrote: »

Relevant to some abandonment cases and not very useful in many other cases.
Checks on ownership might compliment a determination on abandonment but the question I asked you have not addressed.
Separate thread needed if you want to tease out any duties on Local authorities from the Litter Pollution Act.

Perhaps read the act I cited for those circumstances where Litter Act is relevant:



“abandoned”, in relation to a vehicle, includes left in such circumstances or for such a period that it is reasonable to assume that the vehicle has been abandoned, and cognate words shall be construed accordingly;


Obviously the definition of "abandoned" includes the concept that it's been abandoned. That must e then subject to usual principles of construction, ie to understand the words in context - in this case I woud suggest it means become apparent that the owner does not intend to recover or reuse the vehicle. Establishing day to day operational guidance would be within the purview of the dept of the Environment, local authorities and the Gardai. Perhaps you should make an FoI request to establish what guidance they have in place. It is unclear to me whether your request is academic or arising from particular circumstances.

time lord

Marcusm wrote: »

Perhaps read the act I cited for those circumstances where Litter Act is relevant:



“abandoned”, in relation to a vehicle, includes left in such circumstances or for such a period that it is reasonable to assume that the vehicle has been abandoned, and cognate words shall be construed accordingly;


Obviously the definition of "abandoned" includes the concept that it's been abandoned. That must e then subject to usual principles of construction, ie to understand the words in context - in this case I woud suggest it means become apparent that the owner does not intend to recover or reuse the vehicle. Establishing day to day operational guidance would be within the purview of the dept of the Environment, local authorities and the Gardai. Perhaps you should make an FoI request to establish what guidance they have in place. It is unclear to me whether your request is academic or arising from particular circumstances.

Perhaps reading it again would only reveal what I've read already as its a desk reference source.
You give an unreferenced defination of abandoned. What is the source. I don't think it's the Litter Pollution Act perhaps maybe an amendment.
Suggesting what's apparent to an owner that cannot be relied upon to be the present owner is a very weak case to crush something of significant value.

Marcusm

time lord wrote: »

Perhaps reading it again would only reveal what I've read already as its a desk reference source.
You give an unreferenced defination of abandoned. What is the source. I don't think it's the Litter Pollution Act perhaps maybe an amendment.
Suggesting what's apparent to an owner that cannot be relied upon to be the present owner is a very weak case to crush something of significant value.

Your posting style is frustrating; it's Litter Act 1982 definition which I've previously cited. I did not suggest "what's apparent to an owner" but clearly the determination of whether something s abandoned will be determined by what is apparent to the authority (Gardai or local authority) in relation to the vehicle. If it's valuable, I suspect they would undertake ownership searches and only crush after a significant period of time. Again, you will not find any detailed guidance online, if you're that interested, do an FoI search.

Victor

Seized vehicles are normally auctioned. Although given that valuable cars would normally be claimed, they rarely fetch much.