What to do with an inherited old banger?

[saladdays]

Dear All,

My father recently died and I’ve discovered that he owned a worthless old banger which has been in a rented garage since 1992. Several months’ rent is owed, more than the car is worth.

Can I legally scrap the car without informing the DVLA? I don’t know if the car has been SORNed. I don't register the car in my name.

I don’t have anywhere to store the car or means of transporting it.

The other option is to do nothing and leave it to the garage owner to deal with it.

What would you do?

 

[Avocet]

Do you have a registration document with it? If so, get the reference number off the front of the registration document and see what you can find out about the car on here:

https://www.gov.uk/get-vehicle-information-from-dvla

As far as I'm aware, SORN only started for vehicles that were taxed at the end of January 1998, so if it's last tax disc expired before the end of January 1998, it doesn't need to be SORNed.

Provided you have the registration document, it should be fairly straightforward to tell the DVLA that the registered keeper is deceased. More information here:

https://www.gov.uk/tell-dvla-about-bereavement

You might have to have the car registered in your name (it doesn't cost anything) before you can dispose of it. Don't worry about transporting it. Almost ANY scrap car these days is worth at least £100 for scrap metal, so as long as you can push it out of the garage to a place where a truck can pick it up, your local scrapyard (look in the Yellow Pages for "Vehicle Breakers" or "Vehicle Dismantlers" will almost certainly come and collect it at no cost to you.

 

[nickso]

Out of interest what kind of car is it?

To dispose of it legally you will probably have to register it to yourself as the scrappy will need the V5c to do it properly. I'm sure some will take it with no V5c though.

Avocet is correct about the SORN....I found this out with a bike I bought that hadn't been on the road since '86.

 

[saladdays]

Thanks for your replies. The car is a Volvo 340 automatic. The car must have been a lemon since the documentation shows 9 previous owners in 11 years!

 

[TheVictorian]

ebay auction, 99p no reserve and someone will collect it and give you some cash...

 

[Ricardus]

EBay it, definately.

Volvo 340's are RWD and becoming sought after as drifters. And you are in Essex

 

[nickso]

ebay auction, 99p no reserve and someone will collect it and give you some cash...

Absolutely....340's are worth a punt on ebay.....more likely if it's a 3 door. just watch out for drift scum non-payers.

 

[Burnerman]

Drifting a 340 auto
John

 

[nickso]

Manual conversion and a locked diff.

 

[Robbie uk]

Minimum £120 scrap value !!

 

[HERTS P&D]

Sorry to hear about your loss.

I think ebay will be the easiest thing to do.

Andy

 

[satanspawn71]

Very sorry to hear of your loss.

I'm with the others, Ebay, get someone to come and collect who is willing to break it for parts, or turn it into a drift car in his memory

On a similar note, someone recently had a similar experience finding an old Pug 306 in a lockup, ended up getting £150 for it in scrap value!