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?

She shouldn't have asked in the first place though.

Serves her right and no you shouldn't pay. She sounds EXTREMELY flaky: she can afford to go on holiday but she hasn't paid parking tickets? I wouldn't have got involved in the first place.

They don’t take cars that fast , it would have flagged up and the bailiffs collected it

You’re mistaken , bays can be assigned to a particular house but if they are there needs to be a sign and the property number displayed. This is used in instances of very high parking congestion where the badge holder has serious mobility issues so an increased need to be able to park outside of their property

Not your fault - you followed the instructions, she left an expired badge in the car and only remembered after the fact. You tried your best to help with the knowledge you had at the time. I imagine she would've got a bigger fine if you didn't move the car at all, but I expect that will be lost on her.

That's not quite correct. The local authority could take it if there are more than three outstanding penalties. The bailiff could take it once they have a warrant. There isn't a 'wait time' - if it's seen via ANPR then they could remove it very quickly.

The details provided aren't really clear enough to be honest. It's difficult to work out exactly what happened.

Oh right. Never seen one with a number on. All the ones I’ve seen are just general ones, in car parks or on the road.

This ^

Plus i thought it was a criminal offence for someone to use a blue badge that they aren't entitled to?

"It’s a criminal offence to misuse a badge. This includes people other than the badge holder taking advantage of the parking concessions provided under the scheme"

(Under sub-heading "Who can use a badge" - The Blue Badge scheme: rights and responsibilities in England - GOV.UK )

The OP and her husband may not have known that but the OP's "friend" certainly must have done and she should have warned the OP not to use the blue badge at all rather than instructing them to use it illegally!

This is not the OP's problem. It's entirely on the "friend" and it's for them to pay up and shut up

Her car,her problem.That is not how a friend behaves.

I wouldn't have helped in the first place as ot involved DH inappropriately using the blue badge.

Why did it get the first fine and why did you display the badge at all if it was parked on a normal street?

This is bizarre, she’s not a friend and you need to stop contact with her.

She should've just paid her parking tickets and stopped parking like a numpty a long time ago in order to keep getting parking tickets. She's on holiday, it's not like she's skint.
Not your fault, didn't tell you about 2 badges or dates, asked you to go above and beyond, moving/hiding the car from bailiffs, and isn't a friend now demanding money from you. Please don't pay.

Not your fault old blue badges need to be destroid or sent back depending on your council

You’re all at fault
she was in that situation because she already had tickets with meant she needed your help so that’s on her. I would expect someone to check the date after the first ticket rather than move the car somewhere she specifically said not to move it though. And also to just txt her and let her know.

i would wonder if it was a scam though, how good of a friend is she.

YOU DIDNT have your **friends car impounded.
Im afraid her behaviour has got her car impounded.
If she can afford her holiday she can afford to pay her fines.
As an aside, when you receive your new blue badge you are obliged to send your old one back to the issuing authority.
Do not pay anything. Not your circus, not your monkeys.
She should have sorted this out before she went on holiday -it doesn’t get to this stage (bailiffs taking car) without an awful lot of letters/fines/time.

**she’s not your friend. Tell her you are not responsible for her fines. Then block her.

Why do people get involved in these silly favours and games? You know to just say no next time. A true friend wouldn't rope you into this, would she?

A friend of mine recently asked me to send harassing emails to her boss - they are in a different country - so it would be "untraceable". She was annoyed with him, was her reasoning. The man in question is a bloody computer crime lawyer!! I told her where to go, and she said "if you were a real friend..." blah blah. I told her she was crazy and to take note of his profession. We are friends again but I do keep a healthy distance, now.

SerendipityJane

"And a persons car insurance only covers them to driver other cars that already have an insurance policy in place."

Not necessarily, any more. When we re-insured our car last month, this useful feature was no longer available.

I don't think it matters - legally or morally - what OP and her DH know or don't know about the rules for blue badges. Legally, the car is registered to the "friend", and she is responsible for any parking tickets it incurs. She can't weasel out of that by going "sorry officer, I didn't park it there, my friend did" or whatever. Unless she's going to report it stolen, but let's not give her ideas, eh? Morally, she asked someone else to move her car to a specific spot and display her blue badge, and they did. It's not their fault she gave them half-arsed instructions.

Either way, all this is just an attempt to avoid responsibility for her own bad choices, so it's no surprise she's trying to blame OP.

@bakingmama76 - your dh was not eligible to use your friend’s blue badge - it can only be used when the badge holder is in the vehicle or is being picked up by whoever is driving.

"Hi X sorry that your car has been seized, but given we followed your instructions and you forgot to tell us to set the time clock fully, the fine is yours to pay. I won't be entering into further communication on this matter."

Your 'friend' is a cf of the highest order. You did your best to help and got treated like shit.

It was probably the bailiffs that took the car! I doubt it was impounded from just being in the parking space, they do have anpr I think so could have easily located the car if it wasn’t far from the place your friend usually keeps it.

Yanbu!

Yes shes stressed but it isnt remotely your fault