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?

No or here cares.

But it's very hard to get insurance on a car that does not already have a policy. Basically that is a motor traders policy.

Agree - I think she may have been abusing/misusing her blue badge permit, hence the fines. We only use ours when our daughter is in it (the badge is hers) to park in designated disabled parking bays. In some carparks it means we do not have to pay parking fees, in others it allows us an extra hour beyond the paid-for period (ie can park for 4hours, so long as I have pad for 3). It is a criminal offence to use it when the designated holder of the badge is not in - or using - the vehicle. As far as I understand it, it provides no extra perks in normal parking spaces or on public streets.

This ‘friend’ was evading a court ordered fine, engaged OP/DH in a criminal offence of assisting her in that evasion, and again when she asked them to commit a crime in parking it and misusing the blue badge pass. And sadly OP/DH knew she was asking them to do something illicit when they ‘helped’ her, so they are complicit and should make a commitment never to engage it this sort of thing again going forward.

This is someone you need to block and ignore. She is shady as f*ck.

Serves her right

You are in the wrong for getting involved in this mess and hiding her asset from the baliff in the first place

But if it got clamped in this fiasco thats all her fault. I wouldnt pay a penny and id maybe reevaluate if shes actually your friend

It was being withdrawn when I worked in insurance - which is why my thoughts went to the OPs DH being stopped (much more likely if the car isn't insured and trips an enforcement camera) and facing that amusing outcome.

Tell her to naff off.
And find some friends who dont expect yoi to run around after them doing stuff she should have done herself

I would just make sure that you have it all in writing like a text message about her wanting your husband to move the car for her . She seems the sort who would claim he stole the car and it got impounded and make a claim for compensation , maybe I’m reading into this wrong but why wouldn’t she tell you about the expired BB ? Seems more like a set up . I hope not in any case don’t pay any money to her it’s her mess she can sort it , you only tried to help while she was dodging fines while enjoying a holiday .

"bailiffs were coming to her house because of unpaid parking tickets"
So, there's the foundations of the problem - she chose to repeatedly park illegally, accruing multiple fines in the process which she then chose not to pay. Instead, she chose to spend her money going on holiday. (She also chose to not dispose of her expired blue badge.)

I mean, FFS - how much in fines had she run up, over how long a period of time, for the bailiffs to be sent in?

"Now she’s saying that me and my husband need to come up with £380 to get her car back before the charges increase."
Nope. You and your husband now need to do absolutely nothing. TBH she was a cheeky fucker getting you involved in the first place. She has caused her own problems, not you.

And - she's not really your friend. She's just a user.

When you stop on yellow lines, you are supposed to set and display the clock. And can be done if you "accidentally" get it wrong.

I spent many happy hours working from a Costa with a window seat watching the wardens patrol up and down. Just drops in the ocean, but some people had a deservedly bad day.

I've had one parking fine since I started driving, it my was fully my mistake so I paid it (they installed a payment machine and I didn't realise) and didn't do it again.

Why has she got so many parking fines? Why hasn't she paid them? This isn't your problem to fix but you tried to do her a favour and it didn't work out, it's not your fault. Don't pay the cow a penny.

i wouldn't have been collecting her car to start with
Can't pay her fines but can FO on holiday to the other side of the world.

Is he insured to drive her car?

Oh quite.

Incidentally, for bailiffs to be talking of impounding a car there must have been a few weeks - if not months - of court action. These won't be new fines.

100pc not yours or your husband's responsibility.
She should never have asked you to move the car in the first place.
Take care OP, you are in no way to blame

The OP's friend must have a habit of misusing their blue badge as it's almost impossible to get a parking ticket if you use it properly.

The fact it reached the stage of the bailiffs impounding it shows the extent of the misuse

OP there is a website where anyone can input the registration number of any car and it'll tell you if it's taxed, MOT'd and insured. Google and do it for your friend's car. £380 sounds like the cost of a cheap annual insurance payment. Cars get seized straight away for being uninsured and can't be got back until insurance is purchased. The expired blue badge might have prompted further checks. Or a police car with active ANPR on happened to drive past and caught it that way maybe 🤷.

There's texts between you and your friend asking your husband to come move the car. So many people have ring doorbell these days, the chances he's on camera somewhere driving it are high. His finger prints are also all over it and I assume he's not previously been in the habit of driving her car, to explain that. You don't want her reporting it stolen or trying to blame your husband for some of the fines, which she could easily do If she has your full name and address.

If he's driven it uninsured I'd be inclined to go get it back, cough up all the fines (which will be more than just paying insurance) and park it back at her place before blocking her, because otherwise he's going to be in trouble for driving uninsured if she says anything. Depends what risks he's willing to take. She might not say anything to anyone and nothing much might come of it even if she did.

If it turns out her car was insured at the time of moving it and your husband's insurance covered him to drive it with her permission (check his insurance certificate, it'll say on there), then the only rule breaking is the blue badge thing. Which I image has less serious implications for your husband if he's caught for that, so I'd just ignore it from a potential prosecution perspective.

Legally I'm not sure if he's liable for the fines incurred when he parked the car. He might be. He was the driver at that time. If those two fines go unpaid it might end up with him being chased through court to pay up.

So I wouldn't go straight to blocking her just yet. You maybe need to see how things play out and block her later after it's all over. It might make more sense to make placatory noises, possibly pay some things and try to stay on her good side for now.

DH can't drop the car back unless he pays to get it out of the impound. And we're all agreed that he shouldn't pay anything.

Sorry op I missed that bit. Its not your problem. Its not your car.

This is her chaos.

You tried to help.

This isn’t someone I’d consider a real friend.

Omg you were doing her a favour ffs

no of course you don’t pay - it’s not like she was in a better position before - it would cost more than that to get it back from
baliffs

she sounds like she is very chaotic - not your problem

Yes that’s right - it Mia have been in Ali’s somewhere or bailiffs knew where it was

she’s not telling you full story OP

cara don’t get impounded the next day after tickets when you have two weeks to pay

what did it say on the compond documents?

looks to me like baiffs tracked it? How did you know where it was?

People don't know what they're talking about. A car parked on a Disabled bay outside a house without a valid disabled badge always gets towed. It has nothing to do with unpaid parking tickets.

I wouldn’t have faffed about in first place trying to save her arse . Tell her to get stuffed she’s taking the piss