Tuesday, May 25, 2010

A garage has towed my sons car from accident scene and he cannot pay what can he do?

My son has written-off his car in an accident involving no other vehicle, personal injury or property damage and he has only 3rd party insurance. His car was removed from scene via police recovery and is in garage storage yard. They want him to pay before he can remove it and are adding daily fees all the time it is there. He is unemployed and in the process of going bankrupt with a final appointment to sign forms on monday at CAB who have been colating his debts and writing to his creditors in preperation for this. He has no money at all so cannot pay fee to remove the car (which was of little value and a write-off) or the mounting charges. How can he resolve this or halt the fees? Will this be automatically included with his other bankruptsy debts?
Answer:
I don't see why he would need to pay to get a wreck out of the garage. The CAB should know what is the best thing to do. I think all debts are written off when you go bankrupt, even this one. I don't see how they can enforce these charges if he doesn't want the car back.
he can get a job, or sell some of his stuff to get the money to get the car back....i'd push for the first option.
Ask C.A.B.
It may be worth just checking first with the insurance your son has to see, sometimes they can be quite accomodating, depending on the circumstances of the collision.

Failing that if the car is written off and of little value anyway I would contact the garage and see if you can sign a disclaimer to surrender the car to them for disposal, they will normally charge a nominal fee and you sign the V5 over to them for scrapping.

This should not be included in the on going bankruptcy as it is as yet an unregistered debt.

Good luck
That depends on the state your in
Here after 6 months the car will be auctioned off.
it could be done sooner if he were to just go down and sign a release and hand over the title. he would still be liable for storage fee's so yes that needs to be added to the bankruptcy debts. In this day and age bankruptcy doesn't mean he will not have to repay. it does mean he will be given time and a fair repayment schedule
If he doesn't want the car, I would suggest to sign the title over to the garage and tell them that he is surrendering the car to them because he can't afford to pay for it. As for putting this on his bankruptcy I have no idea, ask the lawyer.

Good Luck
There is nothing he can do. If he owns the car, he should sign the title over to the storage yard and let them scrap it. And yes, I would include it in the bankruptcy to be safe.

Unless he can come up with the money by selling stuff or borrowing it, there really is nothing he can do; they're running a business.
Section 99 of the Road Traffic Regulation Act 1984 authorises the police to remove vehicles that are illegally, dangerously or obstructively parked or abandoned or broken down, whether or not they have been stolen.

There are statutory fees that you are legally required to pay. These are set by the Government in the form of statutory regulations which they make under section 102(2) of the Road Traffic Regulation Act 1984. The fees are currently 拢105 for the removal and 拢12 for each storage period of 24 hours. The storage period begins at noon on the first day after your vehicle's removal on which the storage location is open before noon for your vehicle to be collected (so, if your vehicle is removed on a Saturday but the recovery operator's premises are not open for you to collect your vehicle until the Monday, the period will begin at noon on the Monday). No VAT is payable on these fees.

The fees are recoverable but the garage owner has no authority to ask for it. When they towed the vehicle they were acting as agents for the police, so it is to them that you should direct your inquiries, not the recovery service.

It is not covered by bankrupcy because the police were using statutory powers to remove it and the charge is regulated by statute. I am afraid you will have to either pay the cost of retrieving the car or it will be disposed of. The recovery fees are not a debt. It is a charge.

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