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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

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Original poster

Car has been towed for someone else’s debt

73 replies

Imaybecontagious · 11/02/2020 11:18

Hello everyone just wondering if anyone has any knowledge of this unusual issue.

I own a car, friend is registered keeper of the car (separate personal debt issue), has taxed it and has driven it a few times with temp insurance. However I’ve had long term insurance on the vehicle. Friend had some debt and by chance a bailiff has spotted the number plate and towed the car. It’s a huge mess, I have called the bailiff and he asked me to provide ownership proof. I have emailed copies of my receipt of purchase for the vehicle from two years ago along with my current insurance certificate, bank statement of me buying the car etc. Only thing I haven’t been able to send is obviously the log book as I’m not the registered keeper but I know a v5 isn’t proof of ownership anyway.
Am I likely to be able to get my car back?

OP posts:

Hingeandbracket · 11/02/2020 13:52

As far as I knew only the registered keeper can tax a vehicle
Anyone can pay for tax if they have the reminder. DVLA doesn’t care where the cash comes from.

TeacupDrama · 11/02/2020 16:32

anyone can pay the tax but the notice re tax will be sent to registered keeper and they are responsible for MOT and insurance

Insurers need the registered keeper to be a named driver they do not need the registered keeper to be legal owner, see examples above re buying a car for a child they use it and it is kept at their accommodation but you as parent still legally own it as you paid for it,.

insurers need correct address at which car is kept ( registered keepers address) this is not necessarily legal owners address
you might then in two years transfer the reigistered keeper to being a younger sibling now older sibling is working and has own car there are many many legitimate reasons for keepers not being owners

whatever the reasons for it and whatever the OP and her friend have done OP is legal owner of the car, the debts are in her friends name , her friend is not legal owner OP is under no obligation to settle her friends debt neither can the courts or the bailiffs make OP pay someone else's debt

beneficial owner is not relevant just because you let someone use your stuff or car regularly even if they use it 90% of the time the car doesn't become theirs through use

if you buy your child a car when they are 18 and they use it to go to work to socialise etc they maybe main driver ( fronting insurance is illegal ie saying you are main driver when it is really your child) but it is still your car and only you can sell it, however much debt your child is in the car is still yours and the child can't either chose to sell it or be forced to sell it to pay debts only you as the owner can do that

SchadenfreudePersonified · 11/02/2020 16:44

I love how people are filling in an elaborate back story based on massive extrapolations of the scant info in the OP.

It's as though Mumsnet channels the spirit of the late Alan Bennett.

"OP has to try to get their car back from the bailiffs . . . Mother had an argument with the bailiffs once . . 'You can't take that . - it was a present from Blackpool. Look - it's written on it!' but they wouldn't listen . . . "

Puzzledandpissedoff · 11/02/2020 17:00

OP owns the car and bought it as her friend had debt issues ... OP friend uses car on day to day basis therefore it is right that she should be registered keeper

But that's not what OP said; she posted that the friend "has taxed it and has driven it a few times with temp insurance"

Obviously we can't know this, but given that temporary insurance will work out dearer than a regular policy pro rata, I'd have to wonder if this friend was covered by insurance at all

LochJessMonster · 11/02/2020 17:03

Sounds like between you both you've hatched some sort of scheme to avoid some sort of financial issue and it's come back to bit you on the arse. this

SirGawain · 11/02/2020 17:16

No one seems to have asked why you friend didn’t pay the fine at the outset. She sounds a bit flaky.

FartingInTheFence · 11/02/2020 17:23

Serves you right for not getting the V5 in your name when you bought it and serves you even more right for letting your twat of a friend use it too and serves you even more right for said twat friend who didnt pay the original fine and serves you right even more for all the reasons above and then some.

No sympathy here. Serves you right.

GladAllOver · 11/02/2020 17:27

This is getting massively overcomplicated. It's actually very simple.

The friend was using the car and got a ticket, which has escalated because she hasn't paid.

Regardless of where that debt legally ends up, it is the friend who must pay it and any consequential charges.
Get her to pay what she owes, so you can get your car back.

DCOkeford · 11/02/2020 17:37

Get her to pay what she owes, so you can get your car back

No, these are two separate issues; the car should never have been seized as the debt isn't OP's responsibility.

The car should be returned immediately, and then the bailiff can pursue the right person for the debt.

GladAllOver · 11/02/2020 17:38

Far too complicated.

Flufferbum · 11/02/2020 17:54

I want to know what parking ticket this is!

Hingeandbracket · 11/02/2020 18:09

It's as though Mumsnet channels the spirit of the late Alan Bennett.
Please don't scare me like that - he's not "the late" just yet.
I have been listening to a lot of his stuff recently so don't want him to croak just yet. I liked your homage to him though - and I have been reading other bits of the thread as if narrated by him.
OP, of course is long gone and I do wonder if she was the one who posted the other thread a previous poster linked to.

1Morewineplease · 11/02/2020 18:14

Yes @woodencoffeetable
I remember it. It seemed like a potentially fraudulent arrangement at the time.

Looks like they went ahead and it’s come home to roost.
I may be wrong.

Winstonwolfe · 11/02/2020 18:43

How did you insure a car you don't own?

CorneliusBeefington · 11/02/2020 18:58

Its been a while, so this advice may be out of date, but bailiffs certainly used to have to lodge a 'bond' of £15k as a kind of insurance with which to compensate people should they act outside of the bounds of their authority.

It's £10k, lent by the company the enforcement agent works for.

If the enforcement agent has taken the car and it was at the address the ticket is for then they was acting legally, same as if it was taken from a public place.

The warrant will say the name of the person with the ticket, the car which is registered to them (it has to be a full car reg match) and the fine for it to be removed. You have to be able to prove that you own the car and that it's not your debt.

It's a ballache to get a car removed and not usually worth the time/paperwork to the enforcement agent.

2020newme · 11/02/2020 19:04

Sounds like between you both you've hatched some sort of scheme to avoid some sort of financial issue and it's come back to bit you on the arse

This!

IndecentFeminist · 11/02/2020 19:29

Read the other thread linked

IndecentFeminist · 11/02/2020 19:31

Too much of a coincidence not to be the other side of this. Friend transferred car to op to avoid this ticket, presumably you didn't pay for it OP?

DogInATent · 11/02/2020 19:51

Too much of a coincidence not to be the other side of this. Friend transferred car to op to avoid this ticket, presumably you didn't pay for it OP?

In the other thread the registered keeper is the one without the parking ticket debt.

Very similar stories though. Unless one or other thread is being economical with the facts.

Mushypeasandchipstogo · 11/02/2020 20:02

I think that the OP is being economical with the truth here.

WiddlinDiddlin · 11/02/2020 20:06

My first car, I owned but was not the registered keeper - simply because, I cannot drive but my mother was not giving the car to my partner and best friends who could, she was giving it to me. I had the receipt (bought it from her for a token payment), the car was mine.

Sometimes there are legit reasons for the owner and registered keeper not being the same person and it is sufficiently common the DVLA allows for it.

ChicCroissant · 11/02/2020 20:12

As a PP has said, you do wonder if the OP and their friend live at the same address. Not sure what they were expecting from this, maybe they thought their cunning plan had no drawbacks?

GladAllOver · 12/02/2020 18:09

Are you are still reading, OP?
Don't think that the company will get confused between you and your friend and give up. They will get their money and the longer it takes the more it will cost.

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