Parking, roads and travel

Report an abandoned or untaxed vehicle

Find out how to check if a vehicle is abandoned or untaxed, and how to report both.

Check if a vehicle is abandoned or untaxed

Check a vehicle's tax status

Use the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency (DVLA) vehicle tax look-up (GOV.UK) to check if a vehicle is taxed. 

Identify an abandoned car

Abandoned vehicles stay in the same place for some time, usually two weeks or more, and don't appear to be in regular use. The following signs may suggest the vehicle is abandoned:

  • significant damage
  • no tax or MOT
  • run-down or unroadworthy appearance, including rust
  • missing or suspicious number plates
  • broken windows, flat tyres
  • a lot of rubbish inside it
  • broken or loose ignition
  • broken steering column

Report an abandoned or untaxed vehicle

Once you have established that the vehicle is untaxed, or are satisfied it has been abandoned, please report it to Merseyside Police by calling 101.

For further information, please visit the Merseyside Police website.

What happens after I report the vehicle to the Police? 

Once they receive your report, the Police will look for stolen markers and issues with tax, MOT and insurance. They may send their contractor to deal with the vehicle and you may not hear anything more from them.

If the Police have no interest in the vehicle, they will pass your report to our City Watch Officers. Our officers will visit the vehicle and make enquiries in its immediate vicinity, and contact the registered keeper.

If they decide that a vehicle is abandoned, they will remove it and the keeper may then be prosecuted.

Our officers do not have a duty to remove an untaxed vehicle but may do so if it is:

  •  in a business car park including a pub, shop, or council car park
  •  on a road, including unadopted roads.

How to find a seized vehicle

To find your vehicle, you must contact the police on 101 and ask for the name and number of the contractor who holds it.

You must then call the contractor, pay removal and storage fees, and arrange for the collection of the vehicle within seven days. Vehicles left for more than seven days are normally destroyed.

Vehicles abandoned on private land

If you own the land where the vehicle is, you may be able to remove it yourself but we suggest you take legal advice. We cannot give landowners legal advice in these circumstances.