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The starting point, who is financially responsible
When a company car is impounded, the pound looks only at the practical requirement that fees must be paid before the vehicle can leave the site. It does not decide who should ultimately bear the cost. The legal keeper, the employer’s policies and the circumstances of the seizure determine how the bill is handled internally.
What the pound expects at release
The pound takes payment from whichever authorised person attends to collect the vehicle. This is normally a company representative, a fleet manager or a member of staff sent with written authority. Once the statutory removal and storage fees are paid, and the insurance and ID checks pass, the car may be released.
The pound does not enforce who “should” pay. It only requires that the fees are settled in full.
Where responsibility usually sits inside a business
Most businesses treat impound costs as the company’s responsibility in the first instance because the vehicle is operated under the firm’s control. Company fleet policies, internal procedures and the employment contract usually determine whether the driver later has to reimburse some or all of the cost.
If the seizure resulted from a driver’s own offence such as no insurance, no licence, or misuse of the vehicle, the employer may choose to pass the costs back to the driver. If the circumstance was operational rather than personal, the business often absorbs the charges. It depends entirely on the company’s rules.
If a recovery truck is required
Sometimes a company does not want the vehicle driven out by road or cannot meet the pound’s insurance requirements. In these situations the business can arrange a specialist vehicle recovery company to remove the car on a transporter. Recovery is usually far more expensive than driving the vehicle away, and availability can delay collection.
Because it is the business that authorises the recovery truck and instructs the contractor, the employer almost always pays the recovery company directly. Whether they then recharge the driver depends on their own policies and the reason the vehicle was seized.
When the employee might be asked to pay
If the driver’s actions caused the seizure and were outside company rules, some employers recover the full cost from the driver. This can include:
- The statutory removal fee.
- Daily storage charges, which increase for each twenty-four hour period.
- The cost of hiring a recovery truck if the car cannot be driven out.
Other employers take a different approach and treat these costs as a company loss. There is no universal rule.
Lease and contract-hire vehicles
Where the vehicle is leased, the registered keeper is usually the leasing company. They may require the employer to handle the release process and then recover their own charges from the business. Lease contracts often contain clear clauses about impound fees and driver misconduct, so the liability can flow from leasing firm to employer and then, in some cases, to the driver.
A practical way to look at it
The pound simply needs payment before release and does not decide who should pay within a business. In practice, the employer usually pays first because they control the vehicle and the recovery arrangements. Whether the driver is later charged depends on company policy, the employment contract and the circumstances that led to the seizure.
Impound processes, time limits and costs vary widely across the UK, and authorities can amend their rules at any time. Information on this site is intended as a general overview and should not be relied on as definitive for any specific impound location.