There might be thousands of reasons when you want to lend your car to someone else. Perhaps, your roommate has to visit super-shop quickly, and his car is in the garage, or your cousin has come to visit you who wants to drive your car, and so on.
There can be plenty of other situations like those, but that doesn’t mean you have to lend your car. Maybe lending the car is harmless but do remember it could have profound financial implications.
The owner of the car is liable for an accident, whether the owner was driving or not. This article is all about lending your car to someone else and especially what is the liability risk of lending someone your car.
What Is the Liability Risk of Lending Someone Your Car?
At first, you have to know about vicarious liability as well as what are the consequences of letting a reckless person drive your car. Here are different liability
Vicarious Liability
Vicarious liability means the responsibility of the car owner at the occurrence of an accident, whether the owner was driving or not.
The owner of the car will be held responsible for the driver’s negligence action as long as the owner permitted the driver. The relationship between the car owner and driver can be parent and child, friends or acquaintances, employer, and employee, etc.
Liabilities of Letting a Reckless Person Drive your Car
If the car owner permits an unfit, incompetent, reckless person to drive the car, and in the meantime, any accidents occur, then the owner will be liable for all injuries, damages caused by that accident.
In such circumstance, the owner of the car will be held responsible under two criteria of law-
- Vicarious Liability
- Negligent Entrustments
However, not all the time owner will be held responsible. Based on the following circumstances liability of the vehicle owner will be decided-
- Negligence of the driver
- The acuteness of the accident
- Relationship of the driver and the owner
- Whether the owner had an idea about the driver’s incompetence, recklessness, etc
Why You Shouldn’t Lend Your Car to Someone Else
Let’s now elaborate on some reasons why you shouldn’t lend your car to someone else.
Insurance
You must have car insurance. So, you are lending the car, along with the car, you are also giving the insurance. If, in such a situation, the car meets with an accident, the financial risk can be excessive.
The insurance company won’t respond in that case. And also, it will impact on the insurance premium, and in most cases, it increases the premium. Eventually, you will be the only person responsible for all damages and financial liabilities to take.
Your Liability
So, what happens when you lend your car to your friend, and he runs over the car to someone?
You will be held liable for all the damages as you have had given your permission to the driver. Unless your car is robbed, you will be the responsible person for all accidents that occurred in your car.
Driving Reputation
Lending someone your car means lending him or her your good driving reputation as well. Any occurrences such as- collision, parking problems, racing, etc. can lead to degrading your reputation.
Legal Consequences
If your car has been found in a crime spot, you have to go through all the legal consequences, even if you weren’t driving the car. You may end up being in jail or any other legal hassles you can face.
Probability of Losing Car
Your automobile is precious to you, but it might not be to others. If you lend your car to someone else, he or she might not be as careful as you are, which can lead to an accident. You can even lose your car.
Final Words
As now you know, what is the liability risk of lending someone your car? Therefore, you will be more careful than before. Our discussion wasn’t meant to suggest you never lend your car to someone else, but it was meant to inform you of some vital liability risk, which will make you more conscious. Hire a Arizona Car Accident Lawyers.
We believe it’s always better to know about the future consequences of your action, and this is the main reason behind our motivation to write this one.
From this writing, you have got an idea of the liability risk of lending cars to other people as well as what problems you can face if you do lend. We believe this all information will be proved helpful in your practical life.
