Dubai, Dec 17 (Emirates 24 x 7): Thirty-one per cent of owners of neglected or abandoned cars confiscated by the municipality do not recover the vehicles within six months from the date of confiscation, according to statistics of Dubai Municipality.

The percentage of owners who do not recover their abandoned cars fell from 41.5 per cent in 2010 to 31 per cent this year.

The Waste Department of Dubai Municipality tracks abandoned and neglected vehicles in the parking yards and public places and then fixes a notice  to the cars asking  owners to report to the municipality within 15 days from the date of the notice, failing which the vehicle will be towed to the municipality’s scrap yard and kept there for six months.

The municipality gives the car owner a deadline of six months during which time he can retrieve his vehicle after paying a fee of Dh710.

The municipality will auction the car if it is not retrieved by the owner within six months

1,492 usable cars were confiscated in 2010, out of which 875 (58.5 per cent) were recovered by their owners. In 2011, 1,189 cars were seized, out of which 823 (69 per cent) were claimed by their owners.

Ibrahim Yaqoub, director of contracts at Dubai Municipality, said the car owners’ financial problems forcing them to leave the country was one of the reasons for abandoning their cars.  Sometimes, people go on vacation, leaving the car in a parking lot and are surprised to know that the car has been auctioned off when they return.

The numbers of the car bodies taken from the streets of Dubai last year were 1,221, which decreased to 1,132  in 2011.

He said Dubai Municipality will launch a new service in 2012, which is to send SMS to owners of cars abandoned in streets, warning them that the municipality will confiscate their cars within 15 days. He added the department is coordinating with RTA which has the numbers of the cars.