Tenant left 4 cars after runner

Stevegeraghty

Hi there, just looking for advice, our tenant has done a disappearing act leaving the house in an awful way, I can deal with that with a big skip but the problem is he also left a van and 3 cars for us to deal with.
What are our options? I assume we can’t just send them to the scrapyard?
Thanks

Claw Hammer

Stevegeraghty wrote: »

Hi there, just looking for advice, our tenant has done a disappearing act leaving the house in an awful way, I can deal with that with a big skip but the problem is he also left a van and 3 cars for us to deal with.
What are our options? I assume we can’t just send them to the scrapyard?
Thanks

But the cars on the road and take the numberplates off.

skooterblue2

Stevegeraghty wrote: »

What are our options?

I dont think you are going to get any satisfaction from the tenant. Do the cars start? If so could you either ask some "likely lads" to take them for a drive behind the housing estate?

IRE60

Turn them into 'company cars'!

the_syco

Check the house for the logbooks. If you find them, put the cars on DoneDeal.

billbond4

If the numberplates fell off the cars on a public space the co co will take them away.

usernamegoes

billbond4 wrote: »

If the numberplates fell off the cars on a public space the co co will take them away.

Yeah and if all the trash in the house was left on the road the council would take that too. But I am sure the OP is asking for legal and responsible options.

Cuddlesworth

usernamegoes wrote: »

Yeah and if all the trash in the house was left on the road the council would take that too. But I am sure the OP is asking for legal and responsible options.

I know this from the company I worked for, there are near zero legal options to remove abandoned cars on private land. They had nearly 30 abandoned cars there.

Eric Cartman

what kind of cars are they, may be able to help.

AndyBoBandy

If the cars are on a public road, and are not taxed, they can be legally removed can't they?

From there, if not claimed, they get crushed don't they?

TheBoyConor

solve 2 problems with one move.

All that rubbish and crap they left - instead of getting an expensive skip, just pack as much of it as you can fit into the cars. Then pull the number plates off and remove any tax, insurance disks and any other identifying information and dispose of them responsibly elsewhere.

Then move the cars out onto the road or street and report to the council that they are abandoned.

That is all actually perfectly responsible because the council will obviously be disposing of them at regulated, licenced waste facilities.

It is perfectly legal as the councils are allowed to remove abondoned cars.

And the cars are abandoned. You just have to see to it that they are discreetly moved into the street.

Yellow_Fern

Make sure you report it too RTB. Too many rogue tenants and to some extent landlords are not reporting, distorting the figures.

TheBoyConor

Don't waste your time. RTB aren't going do give 2 shíts.

What do you expect the RTB to do? Maintain a blacklist of tenants based on unverified accounts from disgruntled landlords?

Bigus

TheBoyConor wrote: »

solve 2 problems with one move.

All that rubbish and crap they left - instead of getting an expensive skip, just pack as much of it as you can fit into the cars. Then pull the number plates off and remove any tax, insurance disks and any other identifying information and dispose of them responsibly elsewhere.

Then move the cars out onto the road or street and report to the council that they are abandoned.

That is all actually perfectly responsible because the council will obviously be disposing of them at regulated, licenced waste facilities.

It is perfectly legal as the councils are allowed to remove abondoned cars.

And the cars are abandoned. You just have to see to it that they are discreetly moved into the street.

That is totally socially irresponsible, rubbish should be disposed of properly, it doesn’t just disappear in the crusher, and vehicle recyclers would refuse to take such vehicles full of rubbish and the cost of hand removal of the rubbish would fall onto the council and ultimately back to us all. No wonder the world is in the state it is with some of the short sighted selfish irresponsible attitudes to the environment, cop on .

TheBoyConor

How is it irresponsible to the environment? It is not being pushed in a ditch or river. The council will take it away and they will have it disposed of responsibly at a licenced facility. the rubbish would be taken out and also disposed of appropriately

I would trust the council to do it more responsibly than any of these scrap dealers you see advertising in the local rags. With the council looking after it you can be sure that there is some sort of quality behind the service.

Donald Trump

Why would you be bothering your arse to take the numberplates off?

If the cars were registered to the renters, it is likely enough that they will have other registered cars now. GDPR means you don't have access to that information, but I am sure that Gardai/council/whatever do

Yeah, the summonses might arrive to your house but "return to sender" them.

If a person want to be nasty, if any of the rubbish has envelopes on it, they could put them into a bag, put it out on the street and then report it. And they would "return to sender" the letter again and let the council track them down. I am not suggesting for one minute that you should do this, or that I might do this myself. Just that some might.

Samuel T. Cogley

TheBoyConor wrote: »

Don't waste your time. RTB aren't going do give 2 shíts.

What do you expect the RTB to do? Maintain a blacklist of tenants based on unverified accounts from disgruntled landlords?

No I'd expect them to maintain, and publish, accurate figures though so proper policy decisions can be made.

the_syco

the_syco wrote: »

Check the house for the logbooks. If you find them, put the cars on DoneDeal.

The OP having a problem with the tenant doesn't give them the right to arbitrarily steal their property and commit the more serious crime of selling stolen property. You have to do better than just say the tenant "did a runner" before rolling dice to split their property.

If (and I wouldn't, but for argument sake we'll say if) I skip out of a rental agreement still owing money to the landlord, it doesn't give some third party the right to hijack and drive around in my car.

the_syco

Deleted User wrote: »

The OP having a problem with the tenant doesn't give them the right to arbitrarily steal their property and commit the more serious crime of selling stolen property. You have to do better than just say the tenant "did a runner" before rolling dice to split their property.

The scrapyard will accept the cars if the OP has their logbooks. I'm viewing them as rubbish like the rest of the rubbish the tenant left behind.

OP; how many months rent do they owe?

the_syco

the_syco wrote: »

The scrapyard will accept the cars if the OP has their logbooks. I'm viewing them as rubbish like the rest of the rubbish the tenant left behind.

Uhm... You can "view" it anyway you like, I suspect the courts might view it differently. Stealing someone's logbook in advance doesn't allow you to steal their car any more than stealing their keys would have.

Replace "the tenant did a runner" with let's say "the tenant died of a heart attack while away on holidays but the grieving family didn't think it was a priority to inform the landlord", and then see how far you get with seizing their property then.

There's a huge gulf here between a civil case against a tenant and a criminal case against a landlord. The OP came here seeking advice, telling him to commit an arrestable offence is not helping him much.

CrankyHaus

Deleted User wrote: »

Uhm... You can "view" it anyway you like, I suspect the courts might view it differently. Stealing someone's logbook in advance doesn't allow you to steal their car any more than stealing their keys would have.

Replace "the tenant did a runner" with let's say "the tenant died of a heart attack while away on holidays but the grieving family didn't think it was a priority to inform the landlord", and then see how far you get with seizing their property then.

There's a huge gulf here between a civil case against a tenant and a criminal case against a landlord. The OP came here seeking advice, telling him to commit an arrestable offence is not helping him much.

If the cars are end of life, which the OP asking about scrapyards suggests they are, then they're not much different than a bag of rubbish or unwanted secondhand belongings. At most if they have some value they're an unsolicited gift, which you can keep for 6 months and then take possession of.

skooterblue2

Honestly if they were of some real value, the tennant would have taken them. I have no idea how to deal with them in both a legal and cost effective manner. The Rules that apply to the Coco's and the Gardai do not apply to the ordinary citizen.

the_syco

Deleted User wrote: »

Uhm... You can "view" it anyway you like

It really depends on the 2nd part of my post. If they're up-to-date with rent, then the OP should leave the cars alone.

But if the tenant did a disappearing act whilst owing two or more months rent, the OP will probably have to treat everything left behind as abandoned rubbish.

Teyla Emmagan

I don't think the OP's neighbours will appreciate 3 cars and a van dumped on the street for however many months it will take the council to deal with them.

Fann Linn

Teyla Emmagan wrote: »

I don't think the OP's neighbours will appreciate 3 cars and a van dumped on the street for however many months it will take the council to deal with them.

No onus on the council to remove the cars. If they're not deemed a waste they won't be touched by the Environment departments and if they don't pose a risk or hazard to other pedestrians or traffic they could be sitting there for a long time.
Don Trump was right, leave the plates on them, if your tenants were/are scummers there's a good chance vehicle ownership forms were never transferred correctly and then the onus for removal is the last/most recent owner.

TheBoyConor

If they are drivable you could leave them somewhere other than your own road. The more they are in the way the quicker the council will take them away.

garyskeepers

call one of the many advertisers of "we take any car" blah blah,, you might even make a few quid to cover the cost of the skip

ohnonotgmail

garyskeepers wrote: »

call one of the many advertisers of "we take any car" blah blah,, you might even make a few quid to cover the cost of the skip

they wont touch them if you dont have the registration cert.

Gumbo

TheBoyConor wrote: »

Don't waste your time. RTB aren't going do give 2 shíts.

What do you expect the RTB to do? Maintain a blacklist of tenants based on unverified accounts from disgruntled landlords?

It helps with numbers and statistics going forward so the usual brigade cannot blame landlords using official statistics.

Its the same for reporting petty crime in the area. The Garda wont do anything, but by reporting it, it goes into a data record which influences Garda resources and allocations going forward.

thequarefellow

TheBoyConor wrote: »

solve 2 problems with one move.

All that rubbish and crap they left - instead of getting an expensive skip, just pack as much of it as you can fit into the cars. Then pull the number plates off and remove any tax, insurance disks and any other identifying information and dispose of them responsibly elsewhere.

Then move the cars out onto the road or street and report to the council that they are abandoned.

That is all actually perfectly responsible because the council will obviously be disposing of them at regulated, licenced waste facilities.

It is perfectly legal as the councils are allowed to remove abondoned cars.

And the cars are abandoned. You just have to see to it that they are discreetly moved into the street.

No, it most definitely is not responsible and the fact that you think it is is shocking. There are so many things wrong with your suggestion I don't know where to begin.

TheBoyConor

What exactly is irresponsible or illegal about it?

The cars nor the rubbish will not end up in a ditch or a river. They will be removed and disposed of and recycled in the appropriate manner by the council.

It is not a crime to put whatever other stuff is around into the boot of a car.
It is not a crime to move a car out onto the side of the street. As for it being possibly untaxed, that is an issue for the vehicle owner, not the OP.

thequarefellow

TheBoyConor wrote: »

What exactly is irresponsible or illegal about it?

The cars nor the rubbish will not end up in a ditch or a river. They will be removed and disposed of and recycled in the appropriate manner by the council.

It is not a crime to put whatever other stuff is around into the boot of a car.
It is not a crime to move a car out onto the side of the street. As for it being possibly untaxed, that is an issue for the vehicle owner, not the OP.

I was mid way through writing a reply to this and deleted it as I know I'm pi**ing against the wind trying to change your viewpoint. I'll simply say that the landlord has a moral obligation to deal with this himself as it is an issue that springs directly from his business. The council (taxpayer) should not be expected to clean up the mess.

Casey78

If you are in Dublin or nearby then Dublin Fire Brigade are often looking for cars for their training. Give them a call they may come and take them away for you.

ohnonotgmail

Casey78 wrote: »

If you are in Dublin or nearby then Dublin Fire Brigade are often looking for cars for their training. Give them a call they may come and take them away for you.

the problem with that is you have to own them to give them to DFB and the OP doesn't.

TheBoyConor

TheBoyConor wrote: »

What exactly is irresponsible or illegal about it?

Seriously? You can ask that question without even suggesting the OP make the slightest possible effort to research whether the former tenant was ever the legal owner of those vehicles?

Were they rentals? Were they stolen? Belong to visiting friends who died? OK, they might be abandoned, they might also be a million other things, you don't get to haul someone else's car off to the scrapyard based entirely on you not liking where they parked it, regardless of any outstanding dispute you have with who you think owns the thing.

TheBoyConor

I get the impression that they are just auld mouldy balls of scrap rather than actual roadworthy vehicles that are worth anything to anyone.

Noddy33

Had similar enough scenario of recent where I had a tenant who abandoned ship with outstanding rent and bill monies to pay. Despite umpteen attempts to contact via email, text, phone call and Whattsapp to see what what happening with him i eventually found out from his workplace that he had taken another job opportunity elsewhere in another county.

Had to clear out his personal belongings and to my astonishment the tenant left behind about three suitcases of clothing, Tailored Suits, personal medication and a laptop computer among just a few items. The day I was cleaning out the tenants belongings.......out or pure coincidence a Garda happened to be doing 'Door to Door' enquiries in relation to a criminal act that happened in city centre that night and I took opportunity to just ask for advice with regards my predicament of what to do with all the belongings if the owner is not acknowledging my attempts to contact them. The guard said that it would be a civil and not criminal matter he just advised to keep a log of all attempts to contact the impacted tenant across all platforms(ie text, email, whattsapp etc) and send them a message giving a reasonable deadline date and advising that if items not collected then they will be donated to charity or put in refuse. He said once you have a log of all attempts to contact and provided an reasonable time frame for collection then there should be no issue to worry if tenant tried to proceed with a claim or damages proceedings.

I know my instance i was able to just do a quick run to the Local Waste landfill site which didnt have any major cost implications but unfortunately you OP the cost to remove such multiple vehicles could be significant. I am no legal expert so people will surely correct me if my advice to you is not permissible but given my precedence if I were you..........like above I would log and records all attempt to contact impacted tenant across the different communication platforms and provide a reasonable deadline date(3 weeks is what Garda advised me here). If no response then there are numerous car scrappage dealers that are always on the look out for non-runner vehicles that they use to sell for spare parts and offer free collection service and and a cash sum payment. In this instance I would not take any offer of a cash sum payment for gain but would get a reciept logging vehicle registration numbers and collection for free of charge with no payment taken. This is all on the assumption that the cars are currently parked on your own personal property and creating an obstruction and hazard. If cars are on public property.........then i would not go near

Donald Trump

If they were out on the street with an out-of-date tax disc, or no tax disc, would the guards not just evetually impound them if they were reported?

TheBoyConor

I would second the advice of Noddy.

Send request for removal and warning re disposal within 30 days and notification of

Send by text but also by email with delivery notification and read receipt, viber and whatsapp. The latter 2 would be most beneficial as the blue and purple ticks show that the message was actually read if the tenant comes back say with the usual LiveLine type bullshít of "awwww but they never warned us, Joe, nobody ever told us"

listermint

request a lost logbook on all of them, send off registration forms. Then sell them all on DoneDeal for bottom basement cash, say 100 each.

ohnonotgmail

listermint wrote: »

request a lost logbook on all of them, send off registration forms. Then sell them all on DoneDeal for bottom basement cash, say 100 each.

making false declarations is never a smart idea.

TheBoyConor

I still think stuffing them as full as possible with rubbish and pushing them out into the street sans any numberplates or any other identifying information before reporting them as abandoned and a hazard is still the cutest way of solving the problem.
Council come and take it all away and dispose of it responsibly, you get rid of the cars and all the rubbish you can fit in em. Council won't bat an eyelid at this, they are always removing abandoned and wrecked cars. Everybody goes home happy.

If you had the log books you could fill out the change of ownership section to some made up name a fictitious address that doesn't exist. You'd not be the only one to ever do it like, it is not the end of the world.

thequarefellow

TheBoyConor wrote: »

I still think stuffing them as full as possible with rubbish and pushing them out into the street sans any numberplates or any other identifying information before reporting them as abandoned and a hazard is still the cutest way of solving the problem.
Council come and take it all away and dispose of it responsibly, you get rid of the cars and all the rubbish you can fit in em. Council won't bat an eyelid at this, they are always removing abandoned and wrecked cars. Everybody goes home happy.

If you had the log books you could fill out the change of ownership section to some made up name a fictitious address that doesn't exist. You'd not be the only one to ever do it like, it is not the end of the world.

Maybe the council are always removing abandoned and wrecked cars because people like you think it is perfectly ok to abandon cars (rubbish) in public places. Your attitude is deplorable.

Notably, you have form:

"I hope property prices will plummet either through lack of buying power from people laid off or through the impending mass die off of elderly house blockers"

Nice

listermint

ohnonotgmail wrote: »

making false declarations is never a smart idea.

False? Who said false .

Logbooks are sitting in dealers all over the country that haven't changed hands .

Markcheese

listermint wrote: »

False? Who said false .

Logbooks are sitting in dealers all over the country that haven't changed hands .

I'm assuming you need to declare ownership to get a replacement log book ...

Markcheese

Anyway you can discover if the cars are still in your ex tenants name ? I'm assuming none are taxed or nct'd or worth anything ... .
I'd be logging all attempts to contact the individual ,be wary of saying the cars are still on your property..
But I'd be putting the cars somewhere they'll be collected by the authority's ....

JustAThought

whats that used car seller guide that you can check to see if there is any money owned on it and if it has been in a crash oreviously? Do you know anyone who works in a dealership - they all
mostly have accounts with it for trade in’s - can you give someone the reg’s and see if there is money owed, or who owns them and to what address? Someone friendly sitting at a desk may be able to help you off the record. Or maybe someone in the motors section here works in a dealership and could look it up for you. How much rent did they own? Did they leave keys?

I’d also definately lodge a tenant complaint to the PTRB - apart from anything next time they try one on a landlord there will be a record of their track history which will go against them. And it also stops them trying to pull another one over you with deposit/ etc. Do you know rhat they’re not ‘just’ suffering from volcanic ash syndrome - signing on in multiple countries and jot able to get back out/in due to Covid 19!!! Maybe social welfare also should know - particularly if they had been claiming rent allowance or getting dole/ working family or ‘dis-ABILITY’ from your address. You wouldn’t like them to have the benefit of using your address for banks and ID and payments while owing you money. Revenue could also be interested - unregistered dealership/ car trading.