Vehicle Removal, Storage and Disposal Statutory Charges Review

The 12 weeks consultation period for statutory removal charges closed 29 June, the results are expected to be disclosed before the end of September.

The Home Office do not intend to publish in full any responses received, but a summary will be made available on the Home Office website. Subject to the results of the consultation and the decision of Ministers it is envisaged the regulations will be introduced in January 2008. A formal announcement will be made nearer the time.

AVRO understand there is a strong voice for the introduction of scenario pricing, particularly from the Association of British Insurers (ABI). The Home Office may have a problem introducing scenario pricing knowing beforehand that on a number of occasions one party or another is going to lose money in some cases significant amounts, this could be a vehicle owner or vehicle recovery operator. The moral question is can you endorse a practice where someone is knowingly going to be financially exposed. In the case of the recovery operator this could happen several times in the course of the year. In a serious and unusual incident the operator may be liable to a considerable loss of money unless there are safeguards introduced to cater for the exceptions.

There is still a case for menu pricing but this would probably require an appropriate arbitration or appeals system to resolve disputes, which apparently according to the Home Office, would require an amendment to primary legislation. The Government, even if persuaded of the desirability of such a course, will not be able to find the necessary Parliamentary time for such a measure in the immediate future.

This is a hard nut to crack to suit everyone but it sure ain’t good for most at the moment, nor has it been for quite sometime.