A 75-year-old man who kept valuable classic cars buried in undergrowth has been left heartbroken after the city council ordered waste removal workers to clear some of them away.
Rein Perens said he "couldn't believe it" when the council moved in using pest control legislation to remove three of the vehicles, which he had kept behind padlocked timber sheets in his overgrown front garden. Several of the other cars, which include Porsches, Mercedes-Benzes and other vehicles, are still at a separate rented site in Cardiff which had become so overgrown that many of the cars were hardly visible.
The thousands of people who drive down busy Llandaff Road in Pontcanna every day would have had little clue as to what lay behind the timber sheets guarding the front entrance to the rundown, overgrown terraced home that has belonged to Rein ever since his godmother died. Yet its neglected state led him into conflict with the city council.
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“I feel worried, tired and worn out. I couldn’t believe it when I saw the images [of the cars being removed],” Rein said, adding that the council had been sending him “threatening” letters warning he could lose the house on Llandaff Road due to the state he'd let it get into but he had not expected the council to act so drastically. The council says it acted after a near ten-year battle with Rein in which council officers asked him to clean up the front and rear of the property and carry out maintenance work.
The vehicles Rein had kept at his house in Pontcanna, which neighbours a Chinese Christian Church, included a 1966 Porsche 911 that is said to be worth £25,000 despite having been damaged and unused for 15 years.
Rein, a former Bristol garage owner who has no family after his wife died in 1990 from cancer, was admitted to hospital this week after suffering a bleed on the brain which he says is due to stress. He said after receiving letters from the council regarding the Llandaff Road house he had been working to clear the house and yard but had been limited in what he could do due to his ill health.
“The letters I found threatening, but until this point I felt I was managing things nicely and I didn’t think there was any need for the council to get involved in this way," he said. "I’ve never shouted or bawled at the council for the way I feel they’ve treated me. I have just carried on. I’d organised to clear the place, pass it on to the Chinese church next door and I’d be gone. But I am 75, I am alone, and it isn't easy."
He added that he had intended to sell the cars as well as the house before the cars were taken by the council, and explained how he has been offered tens of thousands of pounds by passersby who noticed the Porsche on the drive. Also on the drive before the removal workers moved in was a 1988 MK2 Golf which hasn't been driven in more than a decade and a 1996 Mercedes C200 which was in surprisingly good condition. The Golf was swamped by a hedge and could be seen through the broken down brick wall from the neighbouring property.
Cardiff council asked Scott Waste Ltd to attend the house at Llandaff Road on February 17 to remove the three cars and to clear debris. The council told Scott Waste that the removal work was being enforced under the Prevention of Damage by Pests Act 1949 due to the volume of rats at the property.
There are also structural safety concerns with the house which hasn’t been fully lived in for numerous years. The house also hasn't had running water for 15 years.
Rein, who lived on a caravan park in the Vale of Glamorgan and now rents a flat there, says he is the rightful owner of the property at Llandaff Road after acquiring it from his godmother. “I lived in the house in between when I lived in Porthkerry on the caravan site, but I didn’t like living there permanently because the air wasn’t good for my lungs," he said. "The air is much nicer in Porthkerry. I lived at Llandaff Road as and when I felt like living there after it was left to me by my godmother. I have always enjoyed doing things at the house. I would cut things down and take the timber and waste away for kindling. I had a big hedge at the front of the house that I trimmed every so often. I liked the hedge because it gave some privacy and kept the noise out, but they’ve completely removed the hedge now. I think it’s vandalism.”
According to Rein the council first got in touch with him a year ago telling him he had to do a considerable amount of work to the house and provide proof he owned the property or they would seize it. Rein insists he showed Cardiff council his godmother's will which he says proves it was left to him.
Cardiff council says it has acted under empty dwelling management orders which give powers to councils in very specific circumstances and as a last resort to take on management of empty properties to bring them back into occupation. A council spokesman said that the empty homes policy is "an area of priority work during a national housing shortage".
At his rented site in Cardiff the classic car fanatic also keeps an abundance of vehicles including a five-speed Porsche 912, a Porsche 924 Turbo, a Lancia Delta 1.3, a Fiat 124 Spider, BMWs, and Mercedes-Benzes. Explaining how he came to own so many classic cars, Rein added: “Over the years someone would offer me an interesting car or I would find one on my travels all around Britain, and then they either broke down or I took it to the garage to have it fixed. I would then drive it to the site and continue using the next one. Then another one would come along and we’d have it serviced and then another one and bit by bit they all built up.”
A few of the cars have been harmed through vandalism, including a BMW E30 318is which has suffered extensive fire damage save for the engine and front suspension. Others have succumbed to nature. In a video with motor journalist Jonny Smith in January Rein showed his cars have been left untouched for so long weeds are growing from them, but some of them remain highly valued.
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