If a car is abandoned, can you legally claim the car? How hard is it to do? And how does a car qualify?

Thanks

 

doubt it mate as it will either belong to the registored owner or the insurance company if they have paid out for it

 

why would u want to do that anyway ?

people normally dump cars for a reason=shit !

 

I was wondering this also......as i know of a Seat Leon 20v Turbo that has been sat for a few years on a drive.....just left, grass growing round it ect ect ect......

NOt even touched at all.....

 

just a random thought, and also around my way theres a far few abandoned cars

 

only if the car is on the public road you will have any chance.

 

You can't 'claim' a car. It's not yours, taking it is stealing it. You can apply to the DVLA to find the registered keeper and find the owner to ask if he or she wants to sell it.

Charlie

 

yeh you can all you have to do is write a letter and fill out a d19 which is a relist logbook form to the dvla, and they will get in contact with the owner and if theres no reply within a certain time you sent the logbook and the car is yours

 

claiming a car on someones drive is asking for a right slap.

claiming a car thats say left in a rented garage and no contact is made for 4 years and now what the hell do you do with the abandoned car ???

my mate has this very thing happening right now with a very nice classic,the owner has not been seen since 4 years ago and despite repeated attempts to make contact he cannot do so.

so he is going down the claiming route,if the dvla send a letter saying someone's applying for a logbook if the owner wants it he should get in touch as soon as or the car's going.

maybe the 4 years not paying rent has made the fella not want the car but its deffo worth loads this one is lol

 

Thanks

 

Just because you have the logbook doesn't mean you own the car. If you take a car that isn't yours you have stolen it. If you get the logbook in your name you've still stolen it. If you sell it and the owner comes looking for it, expect the car to be returned to its owner, and you to get arrested for theft.

Having said that, the police are useless, they'd probably advise the owner to pursue a private prosecution and nothing would come of it so you'd be alright. It is still illegal though.

Charlie

 

He can sell the car to cover the rent owed as long as he can show that he made a reasonable attempt to trace the owner but he should hold the balance of the sale in an account so that if the owner appears he can hand it over.

And he needs to show that he got market value and didn't sell it too cheap so probably best to go into an auction.

Charlie

 

As charlie says, get the logbook in your name and you are only the registered keeper, NOT the legal owner! So yes, you can get done for theft.....

 

Totally wrong i'm afraid.......ownership would be a civil matter and therefore nothing to do with the police, they only enforce criminal law not civil law, that is for the courts


Once you've applied to the DVLA for the logbook and if the car is on public property and the logbook arrives in your name and you take it, insure it etc it will be VERY hard for someone to take the car from you.

 

No you cant.

as above its a civil matter as the ownership will be contested

 

Didn't someone do it with an Escort Cosworth a few years ago? Remember reading somewhere about it being sat on a road for years someone spotted it, applied for the V5 and claimed it

 

This has always confused me, but surely a car is only the same as any other item... whether there is a log book involved or not. If its not yours, then just taking it would be stealing?

 

Yeah, i think i remember that on here because he was braggin' about how it only cost him £450 but i was later told that what he done was illegal, but someone else said it was legal

Really confusin' lol

 

Found it

https://passionford.com/forum/genera...-me-450-a.html

 

to claim any car you must make every possible effort to contact the owner, check any of the homes close to it, contact the land owner where its parked, aswell as contacting the police to see if they have any knowledge of the car, it could be stolen etc,

then apply for the log book, it i'll take a while to do it all.

it has been done by a couple of people on here, if you can find the threads, you could maybe contact them and find out how they did it

 

i know someone who tried to claim a dumped rst (covered in tickets not tax and knocked on doors to no one owning up for it)
he got caught with it on the truck leaving the town and i ended up with it via a breakers (oops the shouldnt have released it!) before the court case so he got off

turned out my old man owned the car when new i broke it up

 

another mate did it with a mk2 rs2000 in ellesmere port 18 month ago,it hadn't been reported stolen and had been in a lock up for possibly 18 years untouched.
he ended up buying the car for £2500 and had done all the checks with the police,they said they had no interest and the last recorded owner from carlisle died in early 1990's and the family confirmed it was sold and not stolen so what it was doing in the lock up covered in thick dust with 4 flat knackered tyres was a mystery.

anyway it ended up on ebay where it did its money and made me mate a nice earner.
all he did was put 4 new tyres,new hoses,headlights as they were missing and a stereo and it was on the road.

they are out there but fook me i can't find them its always some bastard else lol.