Am I at fault for having my friends car impounded ?!

[bakingmama76]

So I got a call from my friend while she was on holiday saying that bailiffs were coming to her house because of unpaid parking tickets, and they might take her car. She panicked and asked if my husband could go to her house, collect the keys, and move the car to our area. I don’t even drive, but we agreed to help her.

She has a disabled badge, and when my husband first collected the car, she told him to make sure he displayed the badge in the car. She also told him not to park in the disabled bay outside my house. I’ve seen her park there many times before, but she didn’t explain why she just said not to park there. Later on, she said it was because the space belonged to someone else, but she never made that clear to us at the time.

So my husband followed her instructions, displayed the badge, and parked the car on the opposite side of the road.
A few days later, the car got a parking ticket. When we saw that, we thought maybe the issue was that the car should actually be parked in a disabled bay since she has a badge, so my husband moved the car to the disabled parking space.

A few days after that, she received another ticket while the car was parked in the disabled bay. I was going to call her straight away to let her know, but because of the time difference where she is, she would’ve been asleep. My husband was at work, so we couldn’t move the car, and I can’t drive. I said I would call her in a few hours, but when I looked out the window later, the car was gone.

I called her straight away to explain what happened, but she started shouting and blaming us. That’s when she asked if we had checked the expiry date on the disabled badge. I said no why would we check that? It’s not something we use, and we don’t know how it works. We were simply told to put the badge on display in the car, so we assumed it was valid.
She then said she had two badges in the car and one of them was expired. If she knew that, she should have made that clear to us from the beginning so we could check properly. We only saw one badge and assumed it was the correct one.

Now she’s saying that me and my husband need to come up with £380 to get her car back before the charges increase.
Am I really in the wrong here, and should I be paying for this?

I’d say no if she didn’t warn you about the two badges and instruct you to check it was the right one

You're absolutely not in the wrong. She's a cheeky fucker and not your friend

This is not a friend. YANBU.

No, absolutely don’t pay it. Firstly, she should have parked correctly or paid/sorted her parking tickets in the first place. Secondly, you were trying to help her and she didn’t make things clear. Completely on her. She has money to go on holiday, she has money to pay for parking and parking tickets!

You have gone out of your way to help her. Her car was at risk of being impounded before you even got involved. Not your fault.

You tried your best to follow her instructions- she messed up.

Genuine mistake, you thought you were doing the right thing and im sure £380 is less than what she'd have had to pay the bailiff if you couldnt move it in the first place.

So it would be a "no, sorry" from me.

Nope. You did nothing wrong. Friendship is over now though, but she should never have put you in that position.
Two more tickets is weird however. Are ticket officers also looking that closely at dates and is it illegal to park on the road "normally" with a blue badge, out of date or not?

Wow, what a bloody cheek.

She has the bailiffs after her because she hasn’t paid parking fines and they’ve gone to court. Then asks you to move her car, (which while I’m not legal, could be seen as a crime if the bailiffs have already seized the car), without giving you clear instructions.

Then, blames you because the car has been seized.

You need better behaved friends.

Gosh if this is how your 'friends' treat you I'd have to wonder how your enemies behaved.

She is not your friend. I'd stop engaging with her and find better people to associate with.

Sounds like it might be nothing to do with the date on the badge and everything to do with her never paying her parking fines in the first place.

Yanbu

Since your husband is the one driving her car the blue badge shouldn't be on display anyway. It sounds like the bailiffs have caught up with her.

@Seawolves all she told him was when the car is parked to display the badge

I feel sorry for your friend as she obviously super stressed and behaving erratically in panic

but you did her a favour- unfortunately it became one unlucky problem after another. It’s not your fault and displaying tickets etc was always going to be dodgy

shes obviously got no money but the car was going to be taken anyway, the £380 is separate from whoever she owes other money to so she could get it back

Edit- just realised it probably is the same local
authority she owes the tickets to

Disabled spaces don’t ‘belong’ to anyone. Anyone who has a valid blue badge can park there. Most blue badges have a time limit though, usually 3 hours IME.

@ComeOnPhilEarlySpringPlease its not usually illegal, however some towns and councils have specific bylaws in certain areas and the onus is on the driver/badge holder to check if there are restrictions.

She got no money? She’s on holiday at the moment.

Do you know why the car got a ticket when not in a disabled space?

Are you in the same council area? I just wonder if they found the car in your area and called the bailiffs to take it.

Are the blue badges legitimate?

Your friend is actually quite horrible isnt she?

Blaming you after doing her a favour and its her fault she didnt give you all the information.

Bin her off, she's no friend and if she hadn't been a CF and got parking tickets in the first place she wouldn't be in this mess.

Tell her to go fuck herself.

No good deed goes unpunished!

Ignore, ignore ignore.

The impound firm won't store it forever, so she needs to get back , pay up and pick up.

It's likely she has that planned for you and your DH. But wants you to pay first.

Instead of spending money on a holiday, she should’ve paid her parking fines. 100% her own fault.

I feel sorry for your friend as she obviously super stressed and behaving erratically in panic

Why? its her fault she managed to build up a load of unpaid parking fines.

I manage not to do this every single day, this isnt something that has just happened to her out of her control, she's clearly parking selfishly which might mean an ambulance or other emergency vehicle might not be able to get through - dont you think thats supremely selfish towards others?

I agree. The blue badge is to enable a disabled driver or passenger easier access to where they need to go - not to save a space in a random street.

People with no money can't afford a holiday.

Wow, she’s one brass necked cheeky fucker!

She’s obviously lying about having 2 disabled badges and knows that you can’t check as the car has already been impounded.

It’s far more likely that the bailiffs have found the car and impounded it for non payment of previous fines and she’s relying on your trusting nature to believe her lies and pay the fines for her.

Ditch her and have nothing more to do with her if you want a drama free life.