US visitors unknowingly leave behind traffic penalty

http://www.theguardian.com/money/2015/jul/25/us-visitors-traffic-penalty-liable

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I wonder how many of your readers are aware that they can be held responsible if they lend their car to a friend who subsequently gets a traffic or parking ticket – even though they are 3,000 miles away at the time?

We recently did a house swap with an American family, which included swapping cars. All went well until we returned home to a penalty charge notice from Islington council in London. It seems our swappers had mistakenly driven down a small road in the London borough, one that bans cars in one direction. They were caught on CCTV and the fine is £130 – reduced to £65 if payment is made promptly.

Assuming that we would simply be required to hand over the name and address of our US counterparts and that would be the end of the matter, we were surprised to be informed by the council that we were responsible – even though we can prove we were elsewhere.

Islington council’s response was: “If you don’t like it, contact your MP and ask him to change the law.” Can we really be held liable for the actions of another driver? If so, this seems incredible don’t you think? CB, Willian, Herts

When we looked into this case we too assumed there must be some mistake, but you are correct. The paperwork from Islington says that you can only get out of paying the fine if either the car didn’t belong to you, the user did not have your permission to drive it, or had rented it from you and you have a corresponding rental agreement.

We asked Paul Pearson, who runs PenaltyChargeNotice.co.uk, set up to help people fight “unfair” parking and other tickets, and he confirmed your liability. He says that if it went to court the council could hold you liable – however ridiculous it may seem to you. He also pointed out that the road in question is a notorious cash-cow for Islington council – he was well aware of it. Rather than putting a barrier up and closing off entry from that end of the road, he says the council appears to prefer filming people who make a minor mistake and keep taking their money.

It seems you will have to either ask your US guests to pay the fine, or draw up a car rental agreement – charging them a nominal £1 – and send a copy to the council and hope they accept it.

The moral of the tale for other house/car swappers is to do just that. You need to have an agreement in place that sets out that they agree to pay any parking or other moving traffic offences that councils enforce.

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