parking issue/offence? urgent reply needed!

[springbulb81]

my car is parked in a private car park (owned by thecouncil) the car has no road tax, but is not parked on a public road. The council say I'm not breaking a driving law by parking it there, but will remove it if I dont tax it. Who is right?

[caron musson]

You should know by now the council is only there to collect more money !!

[Loosehead]

This is not a legal issue. The council own the car park, they make the rules, they say that you must be taxed so you must be taxed that's just their terms and conditions under which you use the car park.

Imagine you owned the car park you could if you wanted impose conditions on people using it. eg you could say only red cars on Tuesday and blue cars on wednesday if you wanted.

I imagine they're covering their ar5ses so to speak, eg it would be easy to argue that they are somehow complicent in a car being used without tax on a public highway, assuming it was driven there without tax that . I agree it's knitpicking but councils are good at that.

[New Judge]

Vehicles need to be taxed and insured if kept on a road �or other public place�.

The car park you are talking about almost certainly falls within the �other public place� description. Who owns it is not an issue; it is who has access to it that counts.

As an analogy, a pub or a restaurant may be owned by an individual or a company, but it is considered a public place for the purposes of a number of laws. For example, public order offences such as drunk and disorderly, threatening behaviour and affray can only be committed in a public place. A pub or restaurant is deemed a public place for those purposes.

So it is with the traffic laws. Public places include car parks to which the public have access, dockside areas to which the public are admitted and driveways to places such as castles and stately homes. This has been tested considerably in court over many years and a large amount of case law exists.

The council are almost certainly correct by telling you that you need tax, and recent changes to the law mean that you need third party insurance as well.

[New Judge]

Oh, and I forgot to add that if it is your contention that the car is off the road (and so needs no tax) it must be declared off road to the DVLA by means of a SORN (Statutory Off Road Notification).

When making this declaration you are asked the address of the premises where the vehicle is kept off road. If you declare it to be in a public car park your SORN will almost certainly be rejected.

If you neither tax the vehicle nor complete a SORN you are committing an offence.

[kempie]

Two points:

The SORN declaration does not include the address where the vehicle is to be kept but rather that of the Registered Keeper

http://www.dvla.gov.uk/media/pdf/forms/v890.pd f

A private vehicle must be covered by a policy of insurance (or equivalent) if kept or used in a public place, however a Vehicle Excise Licence is specifically limited to "public road" (a road repairable at public expense). Under the system of continuous licencing the vehicle must have either a valid tax disc or SORN.

[fletcher.5]

was it taxed when you drove it there. think about it, it is a subtle warning from the council.
Has the bulb been illuminated ?

[Ice.Maiden]

Get it taxed or get rid of it springbulb - they'll only get you in the end.