Abandoned car with expired registration left on street and ticketed for nine months

Tuesday, 15 May 2018

A car with an expired registration and no warrant of fitness has sat gathering cobwebs and acquiring tickets from Auckland Transport for over half a year. 

The blue Chevrolet's registration expired in October and it had been been parked outside Epsom resident Rick Poole's house since August. 

It is one of 240 vehicles reported abandoned that are currently being investigated by Auckland Transport. 

Poole said Auckland Transport had chalked the car's tyres repeatedly and put new tickets under its wiper since last year. 

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What they didn't do was tow it, Poole said.

'Every time I call I have to start at the beginning.'

'They just muck you around and I've just had a gutsful and I don't know who to call.'

A spokesperson for Auckland Transport said the vehicle outside Poole's house was towed at 11.15am on Tuesday and would be stored for $20 per day at Auckland Transport's expense.

'Even though the vehicle was in a good state of general repair, it has been towed and taken to storage.'

Poole had originally noticed the car in August when people started parking across his driveway to fit around the abandoned car. 

When Poole rang Auckland Transport in September to complain he was told nothing could be done until the car's registration had expired.

When the car's registration expired in October he was told it had to have been expired for a month for Auckland Transport to take action.

When Poole followed up in November Auckland Transport employees arrived and started unleashing an arsenal of tickets and chalk markings on the vehicle, he said.

Poole said when he rang again in January to check on the issue he was told the complaint had been taken off the system because it had been resolved.

He was told a new case number would have to be created and he would have to wait a year from January for the car to be towed.

'It's just a series of idiotic moves by Auckland Transport.'

A spokesperson for Auckland Transport admitted they had made an error with Poole's case file and it had been closed accidentally.

In response to inquiries from Stuff an Auckland Transport spokesperson said they had traced the vehicle's owners to Queenstown and were attempting to contact them on Tuesday.

The spokesperson said Auckland Transport had a legal obligation to inform owners of abandoned vehicles through newspaper advertisements and letters.

Motoring commentator Clive Matthew-Wilson of DogandLemon.com said the vehicle's owners had likely long left the country. 

Queenstown ownership papers meant the vehicle had probably been bought by backpackers travelling New Zealand.

Backpackers arrived in summer and bought cars via Facebook from other backpackers leaving the country. 

Between May and September there was often a sharp drop-off in backpackers visiting New Zealand leaving fewer new arrivals for the remaining backpackers to sell their cars to.

Most decided to abandon them just before boarding a bus to the airport, Matthew-Wilson said.

This is also not the first time Auckland Transport's bureaucracy has been tested by an abandoned car.

Two years ago a car was left parked for three months in Glenfield,

It was parked on faded yellow lines, had a broken bumper, was facing the wrong way and had no registration.

Auckland Transport refused to classify the car as abandoned at the time because its Warrant of Fitness had not expired.