Confiscated/impounded vehicle from Belgium retrieved for the owner.

What was going on here? I was approached by an owner who had loaned his car to someone who was subsequently arrested in Belgium and the vehicle was seized/impounded. After the prosecution and conviction of this person, the vehicle was still in storage in Belgium, while the costs continued for the owner in the Netherlands. What to do if, for example, the APK expires?

After consultation with a befriended law firm in Belgium, we finally managed to get the car ‘free’ from the Belgian Public Prosecution Service and the owner was able to collect his car from storage.

The foregoing already indicates that Dutch registered vehicles that are seized abroad, while they are rented out by the owner, lent to acquaintances, etc., can cause a lot of financial and legal misery. In the Netherlands it is not much different.

So it seems simple to retrieve these vehicles for the owner, but the laws and regulations in the EU member states are – not – the same and so it is by definition not simple.

You have been warned and informed!

Hein Dudink/Lawyer