Local rules in London yes, but I can’t find a general UK law saying you can’t park on a public road for longer than x.
172driver wrote:
IIRC it’s something like a week in London.
We have friends with 3 houses in 3 countries, living between the 3 properties and they keep a runabout in 2 of them, seems to work for them.
I am not sure whether the question is how long you can leave a vehicle on the street, or whether it can be untaxed, uninsured and no MOT.
If the latter, then all vehicles must be taxed, MOT’d and insured of they don’t have a SORN. Note that the definition for “public road” and “public place” are different. An airfield car park park is probably a “public place” even if it isn’t a public road.
If you have a car on a road without insurance, the upshot is 6-8 penalty points and a hefty fine; no tax and no MOT are only a financial penalty, but it can still get quite expensive.
The advent of ANPR has made getting away with no insurance and no tax quite difficult.
In the UK a car on a public road has to be taxed, insured and MOTd, but are there parking time limits? Obviously not if you live in the house next to it or somewhere in the street, but elsewhere? The reason I suspect there are no legal limits is because of the scandals, a few years ago, when the “cheap airport parking” cowboys would park your car around some local housing estate while you were away. This was not illegal…
In other places e.g. Greece or Turkey you can leave a decrepit car on what is obviously a public street and it just stays there.
Interesting re the “public place”. I suspect this distinction also operates elsewhere and allows e.g. permanent parking of UK-owned F-reg cars at certain French airports, for months at a time. If the airport is OK with it, it is ok.
A few years ago I considered getting a voiture sans permis (‘car without driving licence’ or voiturette) and leaving it in France for this reason. With hangarage at ~€15 a month (2008) it could be kept inside and then swapped with the plane when on holiday. It wasn’t worth the hassle, especially as I’m VFR, and you might as well have a real car that can do more than 45kmh.
My parents keep an 87 Chrysler in the USA, for mostly sentimental reasons as it’s been in the family since new, and is a nice looking automobile with wood panelling; the ‘instrument panel’ is fully digital – the G1000 of the 1980s? A new car with guarantee would be a lot cheaper to maintain, have fewer problems, and do more miles per gallon, but where’s the fun in that? It’s still considerably cheaper than renting a car for a few months a year.
I’ve often wondered about FBOs providing a car and what happens in case of an accident with a non-US driver. You can buy holiday hire car cover, but would this include essentially borrowing, i.e. no formal hire contract? I doubt it, and you don’t want to find out after the million dollar personal injury suit.
Where I live (southern UK) on-road parking is a real problem in the villages (narrow roads, sharp bends) and with larger vehicles such as lorries and buses. When I was a kid it was ok, as households only had one car, and the old people no cars at all. Houses built pre-1950ish weren’t designed for today’s traffic, and some households have several cars, which end up on the road. A long time ago my father was told off by the police for parking on the road: “obstructing the public highway is a serious offence…” but apparently nowadays it’s condoned or even encouraged as it provides free traffic calming. Unless obviously abandoned (flat tyre or similar) you could probably leave a car at least a month without anyone realising.
Left in the airport carpark, ideally under cctv, in exchange for a bottle of whisky to the manager might be safer
One of the possibilities is to use a folding bike(s) instead of a car. It can be transported quite easily in an airplane and even easier in a helicopter. I am using Brompton folding bike since 2013, now going to electric version with Swytch conversion kit – Swytch.
This is a good solution for VFR pilots as the weather is usually good for cycling when the weather is VFR. Much more suitable for helicopter pilots as you always get much closer to destination in a heli so you typically need to cover last mile or two only :-)
Brompton make an electric bike now
That is absolutely correct but I wanted to convert the bike, which I already have and that is why I opted for Swytch conversion kit, which I ordered at a start-up price of EUR450. Now it is EUR 799 :-(.
There is no limit to how long you can park a car on the street in the UK, as long as there are no notified parking restrictions and the vehicle is taxed, insured and MOTd you can leave it indefinitely provided it is not causing an obstruction.
