Da Booga

A work colleague had his car stolen overnight on Sunday.
The car is only a Nova 1.2 Merit and is worth a few hundred quid max it is very reliable and got him from home to work, which is what he needs it for.
The car was found early Monday morning by the police, the only damage being to the locks. The police contacted a local salvage company who picked up the car and took it back to their depot.

My colleague rang the police on Monday and reported the car stolen, they said they had found it and it had been recovered and they would contact him when it could be reclaimed. They rang him today (2 days later) to tell him where the car was and that they had now finished with it and he could collect it whenever. He rang the salvage Company who want to charge him £105 recovery and £12 per day for storage (totalling £141 if picked up today).

Can they do this? At the moment he doesn't know if it is worth picking the car up as it is not worth much more than they want to release it anyway, but he knows it is reliable.

What happens if he refuses to pay the money?

Thanks,

Gareth

(Sorry for the essay )

Puff The Magic Wagon!

iTrader: (2)

They can probably sell it to recover their (legitimate) costs and any shortfall there may be, will probably be entitled to come looking to your m8 to make up

Best bet is to get it back to stop the price going up. Has he tried asking his insurance for advice? If its TPFT then they might cover such a situation.

Mufasa

I believe after a certain period they can sell the car to recover their (perceived) losses. BarStewards.

Prolly not worth an insurance claim either

Muf

Da Booga

The thing that's annoying is that the car was found not very far away and if the police had contacted him he would probably have gone and picked it up but they organised the salvage company first!!

Scooby Snax

the good old police again. I know of a car with police aware on it and its been there for weeks and its in a bad place god knows why this does not get picked up.
Maybe they picked it up so it would not get nicked again!

My solution to the problem is to nick it back off the garage cus in effect they have taken it off you lol

hope it all gets sorted.

Reffro

If the police has been examining the car as part of their investigations they should cover the cost themselves. I had a similar thing with an old car of mine. Turns out it got used in an armed robbery after it was stolen from me. As it was being held by them as part of their investigations, they had to pay for the recovery and storage, until it was released back to me. I picked it up an hour after they released it, so no charge to me.

Luke

Did you ask them to recover the car??? NO ,the police did. So if anyone they must pay.Go to the depot and call the police. Tell them the Company have taken your car without you permission.

The Police officers get a" good drink "for arranging these things.....

bug-eyed wonder

I can't believe people are now complaining when the police recover a car! In this case it may "only" be a Nova but it was recovered.

Paulo P

iTrader: (42)

I had a manta nicked years ago and when I reported it stolen they asked me if I wanted it recovered if they found it, I said no its ok I have RAC cover for that. 6 Hours later I got a call saying they had found it and they are recovering it to a breakdown company yard (courts) .I told them I didn't want it recovered and they said they wanted to finger print it and they would pay the bill . I raced down to where they told me the car was but it had gone already I then had to get permission to see the car the next day A few days later they called me and said I could pick the car up and the bill is £100+ (can't remember exactly) I told them that I am not paying because I stated that I would recover it myself. eventually after lots of arguments they agreed to pay Barstewards [img]images/smilies/mad.gif[/img]

Luke

Sorry but ok your glad you get the car back. But Its down to you how its recovered. If you dont give permision then why should you pay???? Its a fiddle... Police getting nice drinks out of it.

BUT there can be a good side.... I once had a rear end shunt. My fault. Both cars had been speeding....... The Police asked if they could romove the car as it was "Dangerous"!!!!!!!!! 1/2 the front wing etc off. (Have they seen some of the dumped cars??) anway it cost me 260£ to go 3/4 mile!!!! But I never heard from the Police about the incident!!! They could have thrown the book at me. But They asked me and I agreed.... It was the way the Police Officer "Sold" it to me that made me go along with it....

ptholt

Probably very nice drinks!

Had a friend who worked as a night porter at one of the gatwick hotels, and he used to see traffic and local police meeting various trucks used for accident and recovery work handing there 'drinks' out in envelopes....... Must be water tight or surely it would have leaked.....

This was all in his opinion of course, they could also have been swopping world cup stickers or something....

got, got, got, got WANT!

CrisPDuk

I went through this a couple of years ago when my sister crashed her car. She wrote the car off to some tune, and went to hospital as a result, I went to recover the car for her and found it had already been removed on behalf of the police to a salvage yard. Said salvage yard wanted nearly £200 form my sister before they would let her have her car back, she said keep it, it was twenty years old and f**ked, for christ's sake!

Anyway the upshot is, if the car is not in a dangerous location, or parked in a tow away area, the police have to notify the owner and obtain their consent before organising removal of a vehicle, either crashed or stolen. In my sisters case the copper responsible lied about visiting her in the hospital and forged her signature on the forms. Because she had sworn statements from me, my mum and the hospital staff that no policeman had visited her, they ended up having to foot the bill. (no pun intended).

Stand your ground don't pay anything out.