VIC: Help on Driving with expired Rego

[squala]

Alright, so here goes.

A family member of mine happened to borrow a car from a mate which turned out to have an expired registration, and he was pulled over by highway patrol and got serve the infringement. His details were all written on the ticket, and worse, a $700+ fine.

Naturally, we do not wish to take responsibility, so is there a way we can pass it on to the owner of the car? We tried the internet and found nothing helpful.

Thanks

PS: Is highway patrol allowed to apprehend motorists in small roads?

[DTGriff]

I would just talk to the owner of the vehicle and hopefully they'll accept responsibility.

But as Erin said, the fault 'Officially' lies with the driver I believe, not the owner.

Fingers crossed they'll be decent and agree to take the penalty, I would if it was my car. But then... I wouldn't knowingly lend a car to a friend without a rego :S Lol.

[Meaty]

I'm pretty sure Police can pull you over, stop you in the street or water for any reasonable means, ANY where, and these days they can sit on ANY road and have a camera beep at them when a license plate drives by that is unregistered/owned by fine skipper or other offenses.

IMHO your mate should not have been driving a unregistered vehicle.

If you borrow a car isn't it up to you to check that the brakes work, headlights work etc etc ? although unfortunate for your friend im pretty sure he was at fault here as much as the owner of the vehicle was for not telling him/ forgetting to pay.

[squala]

Thanks for the instant replies.

It's not like we have instant access to check whether or not a vehicle is registered. They seem to just fine at will but make it difficult for people to prevent any such occurrences. Yes, Erin, there are a lot of unfair things here. I don't recall the system being this corrupt one, two decades ago.

So there's no way we can pass it to the owner even if they take responsibility?

[RyanMK]

So theres no way we can pass it to the owner even if they take responsibility?

Do you get deducted points for that? If not, if they agree to share/take the responsibility, just get them to pay it?

If thr's demerit points involved, which I guess there is, the only thing you can prolly do is just the owner to pay up and cop the demerit.

That being said, I agree it kinda sucks for you. Yes, it is the driver's responsibility. But when I borrow a car from a mate, it would never ever occur to me to check if it's registered.

[DTGriff]

[quote:0b1cdf6cb4=squala] So theres no way we can pass it to the owner even if they take responsibility?[/quote:0b1cdf6cb4] Do you get deducted points for that? If not, if they agree to share/take the responsibility, just get them to pay it? If thrs demerit points involved, which I guess there is, the only thing you can prolly do is just the owner to pay up and cop the demerit. That being said, I agree it kinda sucks for you. Yes, it is the drivers responsibility. But when I borrow a car from a mate, it would never ever occur to me to check if its registered.

This is exactly what I meant, if there's no points involved just get them to pay or atleast part of the cost.

[robert43]

BTW HP can book you in a private car park as well.

[squala]

Erin, there are still stickers in VIC.

It turns out that the owner has been undergoing serious depression, so the rego wasn't paid (unintentionally of course) but sticker was stuck as he thought that it was, well, paid already. Being a good friend, naturally our family member wouldn't suspect that the rego has lapsed.

[kalt]

Gotta agree with Police Cadet Erin, offence committed + lesson learnt = empty wallet + swallow pride. Just like people who leave shoes outside overnight and don't bother checking them in the morning for critters and spiders before slipping them on then get stung and bitten, bitch and moan and get aggro about it as they rush off to hospital etc.

Squala, be thankful your family member didn't drug drink and drive and crashed and killed someone. Best outcome is your family member cop the penalty points and the best friend pay the $$$ (hope they get proper treatment for depression and STAY on treatment and not self medicate because that's just asking for trouble). I'm not sure it was that corrupt 20 years ago though, I've never been pulled over or tried to bribe a police officer.

It's a good lesson, as most normal people would assume a car lent to them / borrowed with permission is roadworthy and the tank contains petrol = going some where. Second thoughts would be insurance cover - if an incident occurred, is that person covered? Third thought might be, if incident occurred and one wanted to claim, is the car in a roadworthy condition and registration current - thus meeting insurance policy requirement. Keep in mind Most normal people believe they are invincible on the public roads.

Top tips when borrowing a car:

0. Car is not stolen.
1. Current registration.
2. Roadworthy vehicle
3. Insurance (optional if you think you are Fangio)
4. Petrol in tank & electrics work.
5. Valid drivers license
6. No live spiders in your shoes.

All the best to those involved

Edit: recommend thread title change wording "without rego" to "expired rego" as you can get temporary regos for unregistered cars and might fluff up search requests for people who search for that and get annoyed at reading threads that are completely irrelevant or contain completely irrelevant banter.

[squala]

Yeah, nothing to learn here but lessons. We do want to appeal the fine or somehow get it reduced, citing depression from the owner and the fact that the car is about a couple of years old (so basically not trying to evade rego fees deliberately unlike people in beat-up vehicles who cannot afford to pay).

[Dire]

You want to appeal something where your family member was at fault and waste taxpayer's money so they can save themselves a few bucks?
If you're appealing a fine you're not learning a lesson (other than covering your arse).

It wasn't an emergency, so the circumstances don't matter. They could have asked the owner or checked the sticker.

The only question is whether you can get the owner to pay. If they really are a good friend then they will. There wouldn't be any grounds to sue them though, because even if they lied to you, you can still check the sticker.

Why are you calling the system corrupt because of a failure of responsibility of the driver?

If your family member was in a crash, the insurance wouldn't pay up, which would be bad for all three parties.