Various daily newspapers reported on the case of the owner, who is supposed to pay the bill for a scrapping that he did not even commission. On the contrary, the Dortmund resident wanted to open the season with his trailer boat - but he could no longer find it where he had parked it. He found out where it had gone from the public order office. They charged him for its disposal.
Parked in the car park
The intricacies of the case make you sit up and take notice. The owner had parked his trailer boat in the public car park and wanted to bring it back to the berth on Lake Phoenix in the spring. But when he wanted to start the season, the car park was empty. He then wanted to report his boat stolen to the police. However, the officers referred him to the public order office, where they were pleased to have finally found the owner.
The owner attributes the fact that this was not easier to do to the fact that the licence plate on his boat trailer had been stolen, which is why the authorities were unable to locate and alert him. Instead, a sticker was attached to the trailer with a request to vacate the car park within ten days. It then took seven weeks for the trailer to be scrapped.
The owner still doesn't think this is right and now wants to take legal action against it.
Scrap boats are becoming a problem
Cases like this touch a nerve with water sports enthusiasts. We recently reported on the problem that even obvious scrap boats usually cannot simply be disposed of.
The background to this is that scrap boats are usually located on private property, where they cannot simply be disposed of. This is often a real problem for harbour operators, for example when owners are no longer solvent. In such cases, it is usually not even possible to take legal action against the owners. Nevertheless, disposal is usually only an option if the boat lying on land or in the water poses a threat to public safety. It is then up to the competent authority to take the right measures to remedy the situation. If the situation is urgent, the police will take over.
Difference between private property and public traffic areas
The situation is somewhat different in public traffic areas. Here, the police law of the federal states regulates the details differently, but according to the same principle. And according to this, it is only permitted to park trailers for a limited period of time. As a rule, this is two weeks. If this period is exceeded, the competent authority is called in. If there is urgency, for example because the trailer is parked too close to traffic or because environmentally hazardous substances are dripping onto the ground, the police are responsible for remedying the situation as quickly as possible. Once they have done this - for example, moved the trailer - the responsibility falls back to the authorities.
More special articles on the subject of "Abandoned boats":
If the authority cannot identify the owner because, as in this case, the licence plate is missing, the owner cannot be asked to move the trailer. This authorises the authority to take action itself after a reasonable period of time. This is what happened here. The owner was given a period of ten days in which he should have re-parked the trailer boat - with a new licence plate. He did not do so; on the contrary, seven weeks passed before the authorities finally took action.
Proportionality of scrapping questionable
Whether the immediate scrapping was appropriate will nevertheless have to be examined because, as with towed cars, storage could also have taken place. However, the more time passes, the more likely it is that disposal will be proportionate. For example, if the costs incurred for storage begin to exceed those of disposal and the owner is still not available to settle the bill.
Lasse Johannsen
Deputy Editor in Chief YACHT
