Have you ever stopped to consider the risk involved in handing your keys over to someone else? As the registered owner of a vehicle, you have significant responsibility for it when someone else is using it. Even if you were not present, something nasty can still come back and bite you.
Responsibilities of a Registered Owner
The registered owner of a vehicle is responsible for any violation of:
- the Motor Vehicle Act (MVA) and Regulations
- the Transportation Act
- the Firearm Act when it involves the transport or use of firearms in your vehicle
- the traffic bylaws of a municipality
- the traffic laws of a treaty first nation
- prescribed parking laws
When your vehicle is unattended or not in anyone's possession, you are still responsible for it.
Shifting the Responsibility
The only way that you can shift the responsibility for this is to show that your vehicle was stolen at the time of the violation or that you had exercised reasonable care and diligence in loaning your vehicle to another person. That other person must also have been in possession of the vehicle.
If you are prosecuted as the registered owner, it is up to you to prove that you either did not own the vehicle or that the person using the vehicle at the time was not someone that you had entrusted the vehicle to.
Specific Exemptions
An owner will not be held reponsible when the MVA offence committed by the entrusted person involves driving without a valid driver's licence, driving while prohibited, driving while impaired or refusing to provide a breath sample.
You will be responsible for the vehicle impound that results from these offences however.
When the entrusted driver is convicted of an offence committed in the operation of the borrowed vehicle, the owner must not also be convicted of the same offence from those circumstances.
Red Light Cameras and Photo Radar
The MVA also places specific responsibility on the vehicle owner for intersection safety camera violations.
Duty to Provide Information to Police
What happens if the person you loan your vehicle to commits a driving offence that is reported to police by witnesses? You must provide all the information in your power to identify that driver if the police when asked. Failing to do so or giving false information is an offence.
Collision Liability
If the vehicle is involved in a collision while being driven by someone other than the owner it raises a whole new liability situation that is beyond my scope to explain. I don't have the necessary experience with civil law and you will need to consult a lawyer for this information.
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