Can I be held liable if I name the driver?

From: jason

hi my question is regarding keeper liability..or driver liablity. i understand PoFa part of it.
so ntd given, driver not paid. if after receiving the Notice to keeper, the registered keeper names the driver and gives address to Parking company. sends it recorded delivery as proof of sent. therefore transferiing liablity. e.h borrowed car to friend/girlfriend/boyfriend for the day.
But the driver still ignores mail and doesnt pay. will the parking company then revert parking charge back to the registered keeper and claim they havent named the driver..what is the advice on such a matter.

Hi Jason, as described in our article on Schedule 4 of the Protection of Freedoms Act, keepers can be held liable for a parking charge they didn’t incur in the parking company meets specific requirements. The intention of this law was to stop keepers of vehicles denying they were driving at the time when they actually were.

In your case you are asking whether you can be held liable if you have named the driver, but they still ignore it.

Paragraph 4 of POFA says the keeper can be held liable on a number of conditions. The relevant condition for your situation is that in paragraph 5:

5(1)The first condition is that the creditor—

(a)has the right to enforce against the driver of the vehicle the requirement to pay the unpaid parking charges; but

(b)is unable to take steps to enforce that requirement against the driver because the creditor does not know both the name of the driver and a current address for service for the driver.

So, according to point (b), if you provide the name and a current serviceable address to the creditor, then the parking company would not meet this condition, and therefore you could not be held liable. It is irrelevant to you whether they pay or not. Remember, the intention of this legislation was to create liability, not ensure that charges are paid.

The definition of current address in the legislation is:

“current address for service” means—
…
(b) in the case of the driver, an address at which the driver for the time being resides or can conveniently be contacted;

So, that means you don’t actually have to provide the home address of the driver – it could be any address where they can receive their mail from.

As you mention, it would be a good idea to keep evidence of the letter so that you can later rely on this. I would also recommend in the letter that you demand that they delete your data from their systems. Since you have discharged your liability, they have no longer have reasonable cause to hold and process your data. This is known as a section 1o notice under the Data Protection Act. If they subsequently wrote to you, you could sue them for up to £750 as damages. Read more here… 🙂

Best of luck, PC