KUWAIT: File photos shows local authorities including baladiya and interior ministry forces confiscating abandoned cars in Kuwait. Abandoned cars are a reoccurring problem and several hundreds are collected each year.

Dust covered, abandoned cars are common across Kuwait. Locals and expats alike may leave their cars for months on end when they travel. Some never come back and some simply fail to sell the car off or drop at the Amghara scrap yard.

As a consequence, the collection of abandoned cars is a regular activity of the Municipality in cooperation with the newly-formed Kuwait Environment Police (KEP). To give just a few examples, the baladiya confiscated 54 abandoned cars from Bneid Al Gar in September and another such campaign in November in Shuwaikh netted tens more such vehicles.

If you are among those whose car is confiscated, however, be prepared for a lengthy process to either get it back or pay off the fines and relinquish ownership.

Kuwait Times recently spoke with an expat who we'll call Jon. He doesn't speak Arabic and despite living in Kuwait for many years is not familiar with how the system of abandoned or impounded cars work.

Jon first understood he had a problem when he realized his vehicle had been taken from the 'empty' lot near his apartment building in Maidan Hawally where it had been parked for several months. The car no longer worked and hadn't been moved for months.

Where did it go?

Locating the impounded car was Jon's first challenge. First, Jon went to the nearest baladiya office in Salmiya. "I went to Salmiya baladia to take back my car but every person I approached and inquired there have no idea whether I am in the right office or not," Jon said.

There was no record of his car there and an officer at the baladiya suggested he check in Jnoub Surra. But Jnoub Surra is a large area comprised of many neighborhoods. Located between the Fifth and Sixth ring roads, it includes Hateen, Al-Sadeeq, Al-Salam, South Surra and Shuhada areas. Ultimately, after asking several people, Jon found the baladiya office in block three of Hateen, on the second floor of the post office.

In Hateen, he was told that his car was now being held in Amghara, south Amghara to be exact, near Jahra. He had to go to the impound yard in Amghara and confirm that his car was in fact there.

"So I started the work to pay the fines and settle the paperwork for my car. I went to the traffic department in Jabriya (near the blood bank) in order to get the 'daftar' or car registration. Then I had to go to the traffic department in Shuwaikh, near the

Al-Sabah Hospital complex, to pick up a form to cancel the ownership of the car."

Jon returned to Jabriya to cancel his ownership but the traffic police there wouldn't accept the form because he had fines still with the car registered by the baladiya.

So he had to return to Hateen to clear his fines with the baladiya. The fines included KD 100 for the abandoned vehicle, KD 30 for the towing and KD 1 for each day the car is impounded (a total of 24 days) for a grand total of KD 154. Jon also had to pay various ministry stamps to process his paperwork in the traffic department.

"But to pay the fines, I had to go to the main baladiya office in Salmiya," Jon explained. "After clearing the fines, I went back to Hateen to clear the paperwork and get a clearance paper to take to Amghara. Then I went to Amghara and took my car from the impound lot."

Since the car doesn't run and he had no way to transport it, Jon eventually sold it to a scrap dealer in Amghara for KD 30. But he wasn't finished yet. To close the deal, he had to go back to the place where the car was registered, in this case, Farwaniya traffic department, and cancel his registration.

The lack of clear information, organization and English language services make dealing with such issues incredibly difficult especially for non-Arabic speaking expats.

By Ben Garcia