You must have witnessed cars, bikes, scooters with a thick layer of dust along with pile of bird poop on it around your locality. This is a common glimpse you get once you are on road. In fact, we have started assuming such sight as normal. But do you know if you are the owner of abandoned cars, police will come and pay a visit to you soon? Shocked? Get ready, you will soon hear your name announced by police on public addressing system.
You may not have thought what can be done with these, where these vehicles may go and what is the future of these vehicles. This blog will give you a detailed picture of the entire abandoned car market and a clear illustration of your role in such matter.
How do you tell if a car is abandoned?
A car which has been left and unclaimed by anyone for more than 48 hours in any private property is considered as an abandoned car. This is true for all types of vehicles. Though definition and details of abandoned vehicles may vary from one place to another. Like different country, state, municipality, or any particular area may have different definition, but still a motorized vehicle which has been left on a public or private property for 48 hours to 72 hours or even more, will be termed as abandoned. If owner of vehicle and owner of plot made an agreement, then it can stand as much time as wanted, but if there is no communication written or oral, then it is up to the owner of the plot. In that case, the owner of the place can take any action.
What are the exceptions of being an abandoned vehicle?
Abandoned car market is huge, where n number of vehicles can be found dumped at one place. But not every vehicle lying on road or left on a public or private property is an abandoned vehicle. If a vehicle is used in certain purposes like for maintenance of highways, in construction, in any operation, or public utility facilities, then those vehicles cannot be considered as an abandoned vehicle. Unless and until, the vehicle is disturbing the traffic movement on road or anyone else, these vehicles cannot be termed as abandoned vehicle.
How do I get rid of an abandoned car on private property?
First of all, if you notice an unclaimed or uninformed vehicle standing on your property, do not panic or create a scene. You have multiple options to deal with it. Do not react before 48 to 72 hours. Once, it crossed the timeline, you should start looking out for your next action plans.
Step 1:
Ask your neighbours and your colony members, may be someone has parked it by mistake. The vehicle may have broken down, so someone known to you must have left it there. If reaching out to each house is a problem for you, then you can also post it on social media groups as it will be a better way to reach out to a greater number of people at one go. There, you may get some answers.
Step 2:
If nothing works well with your first step, you should switch to your next step. Take a note of license plate number, make, model, and trim. It’s time to report it to the nearest police station with all the details you have. It is not always that someone has parked his/her own car. It can be a stolen car as well and police can only deal with it. Hopefully, police will take some actions quickly and tow the vehicle away.
Step 3:
Suppose your second step also does not work, then what will you do? You need to be aware of the rules, regulations, codes and ordinances of your locality where you live, as the rules regarding abandoned vehicle changes from place to place. Though it’s your property and you want to handle it personally, you should proceed legally.
Who is responsible for removing abandoned vehicles?
Before you think of removing the vehicle from your property, it is essential to check whether the local government has classified the vehicle, for example, scooter as abandoned scooter or not. If declared, then you can easily tow the vehicle out of your property by the towing service of a company. In case, in the later time, the owner of the vehicle comes and asks for the vehicle, you can give them the towing company name address and they can contact them directly. It is not your responsibility to arrange for their vehicle. But make sure, abandoned car removal activities start after informing the local government or in a legal manner, to avoid any future problems.
What else you can do other than towing out the abandoned vehicle?
Instead of towing, you can actually claim the ownership of an abandoned vehicle. Check the local laws before claiming the ownership. It is always better to take every effort to find the owner of the vehicle first and then take actions. You need to wait for a stipulated period of time before claiming or towing the vehicle.
Instead of claiming, you can go for repurposing the vehicle in your choiseable manner.
Instead of claiming, repurposing, or towing, you can surely start checking the abandoned car auction process. Auction can be done both online and offline. You can either carry the car along with you to the auction car market and sell the car. Otherwise, you can opt for car auction online where you just need to create a listing of the vehicle and with the help of online auction you can easily get way with it.
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