[yardie]

"There’s an underground parking garage for the residents, but half of it is empty and filled with 20-30-year-old cars whose owners are no longer known."

Years ago I bought a flat and it came with an underground parking garage. Once we were settled in I break the garage lock and inside was an old Peugot, cans of old motor oil, and all sorts of junk shoved in between the garage door cracks. It was hell to get rid of the thing. The tires were flat. No title meant no tow trucks wanted to touch it and no scrap yard was willing to accept it. After too many months I was able to get the city to declare the car derelict. And then I had to pay a scrap yard to accept it.

[rtpg]

I _really_ appreciate Tokyo's system of basically forcing you to affirmatively declare your parking spot when you buy a car, on top of the usual "pay extra rent to have a parking space" thing that happens in many spots.

While it doesn't stop cars from being abandoned "randomly", just the entire principle of having a paper trail for these things and creating a bunch of incentives to make sure that parking spots don't turn into trash heaps[0].

Especially now that I live in a place where street parking is a prime resource and yet people _who have garages_ still choose to street park out of convenience...

[0]: not always of course, I know about the trash houses

[mrweasel]

Kinda weird that it would hard to track down the owner of a car. Technically you can get the own from the VIN, which may be the estate for a deceased person. Getting them to actually take action is a different matter obviously

[yardie]

The last known address of the previous owner was the flat I was currently occupying, LOL.

The flat was built and purchased in the 60s, abandoned in the 90s, and sold to us in 2010s. It was near a newly gentrifying, former industrial area. I think we went back and forth with the city for 10 months before they agreed to give me the paperwork that would allow it to be scrapped. I get that no one wants to get it wrong and accidentally throw someone else's property into the bin.

[lifter3101]

If you bought the place, isn’t that your property now?

[cjrp]

In the UK, you can request a new V5 from DVLA (this doesn't give you ownership, you just become the "registered keeper"). The DVLA contacts the previous owner, if they don't respond you get a new V5.

[pmg101]

There's a whole subculture among car people of "barn finds", well represented on YouTube but also long predating that.

I bet someone would have been absolutely delighted to have that old Peugeot!

[dpb001]

High demand in Iran (if it was a 405): https://www.theautopian.com/why-tuner-cars-in-iran-have-rear...

[smusamashah]

As a total noob about the cars or buying flats or the location you are from, my first though was that why didn't you get it fixed and drive it away. But you won't have the papers then. Do the scrap yards not accept it for the same reason?

[yardie]

It's very, very expensive to bring something back to operational after decades of neglect. Spend thousands of euros on a car worth at most 1000€

Also, we already have a car. Why would I want someone else's scraps?

[aziaziazi]

Another card noon here, especially in urban motor driving so please excuse my ignorance. In that desperate situation isn’t it cheaper to call a friend to seat on the car and handle the steering wheel while you attach the car to yours with those rods, then pull it to a metal scrapper shop that buy metal by the weight? Without plate, isn’t that car basically a non car but a pile of metal?

[yardie]

If you let a car sit long enough, the rubber tires will develop a dimple. If you let it sit decades the tires will completely collapse. Now you are dragging a multi-ton steel sled with rubber nonskid pads instead of free rolling tires. Also, this is an underground garage. Not a ton of room to move around.

> isn’t it cheaper to call a friend

Its not moving a couple of boxes of furniture. I'd never seriously ask any friend to do this on a lark. Just pay the insured "expert" their fee so you don't have to assume any liabilities.

[sjducb]

If you don’t have a title or ownership history then people think the car is stolen. That’s why scrappers won’t take it.

If you have a title then people will pay you to come and pick it up.

[ponector]

If you are irresponsible human being you can simply tow junk car to any other public location so it is a new problem for someone else.

In our city there is a separate service where you can report abandoned car. They check, leave a note and one month later tow it to the special parking lot. Later it is sold at the auction or scrapped.

[analog31]

Most mechanics won't fix a car on site, and there might not be space to do so. Also, a car that's been sitting for that long can't be started without at least charging the battery, and probably, replacing it. Then one wonders how much they're going to have to invest on something that might never work and that they'll still have to pay to get rid of.

[pjc50]

Basically yes. However I'm sure the management company (roughly what americans would call a "condo association"?) responsible could change the terms given sufficient notice to allow them to remove and auction abandoned vehicles. I'm surprised they don't given how valuable a London car park is. Maybe they're not actually abandoned?

[aspenmayer]

> After too many months I was able to get the city to declare the car derelict. And then I had to pay a scrap yard to accept it.

I’m assuming there contents of the garage became your property, and thus legal liability, when you purchased the flat?

Since the property is derelict and you weren’t aware of it previously, and the disposal of the property caused undue effort and cost, would the failure to disclose the contents of the garage by the former owner and/or their agent constitute some kind of breach of duty or some other kind of contract violation?