Car removal. Was it legal ?

silverski

Can anyone help.

If a car was left in an apartment block car park. And then the Aprtment complex management company towed the car away thinking it had been abadoned and had the car scrppped and all the contents of the car thrown into a skip. Can they do this.

The car had been left there due to the owner not able to afford to tax or insure car.
And also was in need of attention by mechanic.

The mangement co. had said that they had sent out letter, but just the luck they sent the letter just after the owner of car had move.

I know that the car should have been moved.

But then they only had 2 choices. Drive the car. Which seemed a bad idea. given the tax, insurance and the possiblity of not making the journey. But he would not drive due to Insurance.
Have car towed... Unable to find some help with that one. or just hoped that things would improve and he would just be able to move the car at some stage soon.

He is more concerned with the loss of contents of car.
and could the company that disposed of the car not have tried to contact the owner as there were many items in the car that could have helped contact the owner.
Or could they have contacted the car tax department for address details and sent a letter to inform him that they would be scrapping the car.

If anyone could advise with this I would appreciate the help.

Borzoi

my understanding, from friend who have either been in management co, or residents where someone has parked in their spot, is that if you are entitled to use the car park/spot, there is damn all thay can do, no matter what the state of your car.

On the other hand, if you were not entitled to leave your car there, and they have notices about tow away etc, you really don't have a leg to stand on. As this seems to be the case, and the management co has made a reasonable attempt to contact you, using your last known address, I doubt you'd have much comeback.

On the other hand if this all happened very rapidly, you could argue that the management co acted in haste and that they owe you.

My opinion, and (thank god) I'm not a lawyer

Blitzkrieger

afaik, it's up to the council to tow away any cars that have been 'abandoned', but god knows what they do with them. If the manager arranged to have it towed himself, he was in effect stealing the car. The council will have a list of procedures when disposing of abandoned cars to absolve themselves of any liability. If the manager got the council to tow it for him, you probably don't have a leg to stand on.

A lot of apartment buildings and shopping centers advertise clamping/towing of unauthorised cars, but it's unclear just how legal this is, and is open to abuse by the companies employed to enforce the system. I've heard about individuals in england who will strip a car they tow of anything valuable before handing it over to the scrapyard.

silverski

Thanks for all your help.

The management company asked a private company to tow and dispose of the car.

It does seem that they did it all in a rush.

But it is the contents of the car that the owner is more concerned about and the fact that there was plenty of items in the car that could have given the company that towed the car away a very good opportunity to contact my friend.

Mainly the fact that it could have been traced thru the licence plate number.
Or thru the tax office.
Or thru the number of letters that were in the inside of the car with the Home address of the my friend...

You would think that they would have at least tried.

Is there anything that the my friend should do before confronting the company that binned the contents and disposed of the car.

Thanks to all those how are taking the time to help with this....

Pimp Ninja

Step 1.
Contact Solicitor...

Cant advise anymore really...

Victor

Originally posted by Pimp Ninja
Contact Solicitor...

Honestly, that is all I can suggest. If the car looked like a wreck / abandoned, then they were likely to be entitled to treat it as letter or similar.

Gmodified

The mangement co. had said that they had sent out letter, but just the luck they sent the letter just after the owner of car had move.

Well,
If you have moved, then the car shouldn't be there in the first place and you didn't have right to park there anymore- unless agreed with the management.

They will try to say :
We had best intentions and were trying to contact the owner blah blah blah ......
and had no other option but to scrap the car.
This is all, due to some complaints from new tenant/misuse of the parking space(some bullsh..t like that) and could not provide alternative parking, because this is not our business.

silverski

Thanks for the advice.

Seems to me that there is not much that can be done.

It is the lost of all the personal belongings that is hurting my friend the most.

And also that there was plenty of documents in the car, visible to anyone with eyes, that would have allowed the private company that disposed of the car to be able to contact the owner, to at least return the belongings some of which will hard to replace.....

pickarooney

This is totally unhelpful, but if these things were so important to your friend, why did he leave them in his car and then move house? If a car can be deemed abandoned because it hasn't been moved for x amount of time, I imagine the same logic could be used to define the contents as rubbish.

silverski

I assume that they were items that he would use on a regular basis if the car was up and running.

They include:
A nokia car kit.
Fishing equipment
Boat Equipment
Tools
Some personal notes
Some items he had not time to take out of the car to move to home.


Just never thought that this would happen.
He did speak to the management company and apologised for all the trouble caused.
But still has a problem with the company who took the car for disposal.

When they were clearing out the contents, surely it would have crossed someones mind. If this is an abandoned car, why would some leave the above items in the car.

I have seen many aboned cars, mainly along the M50 and most side roads from Rathfarnham up towards the mountains.

All seem to me that the are usually just empty cars. if I had seen any contents with contact details I would try to contact the owner, the tax office, council or nearest police station and assume that the car had either been stolen or broken down.


My friend would just like to be in an informed position before he contacts the private company directly. As yet the only contact has been with the Management company.

Perhaps a visit to the solicitors would be a good first move.

Mr. Fancypants

There was an abandoned car parked outside my apartment block recently and i asked the guards what the story was with it. What i was told was that if it is parked legally (and it was, although it was there for about 5 months) they cannot move it. He made the suggestion that if there where no licence plates on it, then it could be moved as it was illegal.

It seems to me that if the car that you are talking about was parked legally, then there is no way they should of moved it.

silverski

I had a feeling that you maybe right. (mbroaders)

Especially since the Car still had the Licence plate numbers attached...


But I supect that when we contact the private company that they may decide to tell us that there were no plates on the car...

But the management company was able to identify the car.


Will just have to find out.

Thanks again to all those who have taken the time to help