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?

Absolutely agree with you the cheek of the woman like wow! 😳

Absolutely not. She has used you & the system, & tough luck she got found out. You acted in goodwill & her attitude smacks of trying to avoid any consequences. Don’t pay, do nothing. I would be livid with an attitude like this.

She's a cf, she only got herself to blame, block her she's not a friend.

YANBU
She should have paid her parking tickets. Then she would not have had to.run from the bailiffs.

Who the hell does she think she is ? Let her car get impounded and stop replying to messages. She needs to grow up and take accountability.

is she entitled to a blue badge. She must have ran up a hell of a lot of tickets and been contacted several times. My theory is that she should have got rid of the out of date one unless she's up to no good having

1. Regardless she's one ungrateful, cheeky ungrateful person. You don't need friends like that

Wow! If she had paid her parking fines instead of swanning off on holiday none of this would have happened. You acted in good faith like a friend would and now she wants to make you responsible! I’d tell her to get lost and end the friendship.

Your so called friend is totally bullshitting you. Her disabled badge probably hasn't expired and she knows now the cars been taken you can't check. She KNEW Bailiffs were after her car and asked you to move it hoping they wouldn't find it if it's moved off her property. They've probably already listed her car for removal for her unpaid fines and found it-bailiffs were probably sat outside her house watching your husband move it.one parking ticket wouldn't get her car towed off. She's planned this hoping you'd feel guilty for her car being taken to mug you off into paying her fines to get her car back. Ditch the cheeky cow off and tell her to pay her own fines-she clearly affords it considering she's pissed off abroad on holiday

This. Totally not a friend. Sack them off ASAP.

I'm more worried that OP and her husband were complicit in trying to hide a car that was sought via the legal system for a criminal offence.

Yeah, not sure where your husband stands in this as he was the one that moved it to hide it

Sorry for you and sorting this out.

The car number plate would have come up as connected to unpaid parking fines when the traffic warden put the reg in.

I very much doubt that the car would have been impounded solely due to a couple of days with parking tickets.

She should check why the tickets were issued (can she contact the council parking department? She must have online access to what is going on if she knows it is £380) and if it IS the out of date BB she can say 'dreadful mistake, I have an up to date valid badge...' (she should have the details in her e mail trail when she renewed) and hope they accept her appeal.

But she needs to deal with it NOW before the situation snowballs any further.

And no - you are not responsible , it is her own failure to deal with the problem when it arose.

I would send her an e mail or message suggesting she do what I suggest here - asap - but that as you did only what she asked you to do as a favour you will not be accepting responsibility.

You didn’t get her car compounded. You followed her instructions, she failed to say she has the expired blue badge. End of.

You do not need friends like this. You are absolutely not in the wrong, you went out of your way to help her with chaotic instructions. Do not pay the fine and I would give her a wide berth in the future.

You've been set up, don't fall for it. Don't pay a penny and no more favours. The money she owes is from before she contacted you, the rest is an elaborate story to con you into paying, while she's away on a holiday costing more than her fines. Not what a friend does.

This!

Just to add, I'm sure if it was down to mistakenly displaying the wrong blue badge the tickets would be voided if an explanaton / appeal was sent...the car being removed sounds unrelated to parking fines you are connected to..
Mainly ....it's not your problem. 🤷‍♀️

Erm think she has a cheek for a nimbler of reasons.
in debt
having 2 disabled badges in her car
anf using friends without informing them of the full story.
drop her she’s not a friend.

Exactly. She has no right to ask your husband to use the blue badge, on her car or otherwise. It’s not a free parking ticket!!

Don’t pay. She will calm down and apologise eventually

Is there a possibility that she doesn't have a disabled badge at all. And had borrowed one ,or bought an old one from someone.

Disable badge Dodgers are a real nifty business and earner nowadays with lots of fraud and Mobility cars.

Dump her she sounds like a terrible liar, chancer and user.

This friend has an extremely elastic view of rules- you should have refused to get involved, I certainly wouldn't pay her anything-just cut all ties with her.

slightly OT but If she isn’t driving the car, then the disability sticker shouldn’t be used at all.?

She was wrong and cheeky to ask you to help hide from her doing wrong in the first place! Then you try and help her and get this?! Not a friend, and I wouldn't what to see someone like that anyway so no loss to you!

I would be ending this "friendship" asap. She can afford to go on holiday but can't pay her parking fines, expects you to help her out (which I wouldn't have been doing in the first place), doesn't give you full instructions, then complains and wants money??? Do not pay a penny towards the fines, and tell her she can sort out her own mess.

No. Not your fault at all. All her fault for not taking care of her things carefully.