Be Careful When Lending Your Car

Lending your vehicle to the wrong person in Massachusetts can have severe consequences such as the loss of your driver’s license. For example, if you lend you vehicle to someone whose license is suspended, the Registry may revoke the vehicle’s registration or your Massachusetts Driver’s License. Also, if you are convicted of knowing allowing someone who does not have a valid driver’s license to drive your vehicle, you may have a criminal offense on your record.

If you knowingly lend your car to someone who has an ignition interlock restriction on his or her license, and your car does not have an ignition interlock device (IID) it is a violation of Melanie’s Law and this carries a penalty of 1 year in the house of correction and a 1 year license and/or vehicle registration suspension.

Conversely, if you have an ignition interlock “Z” restriction on your driver’s license and you lend your vehicle to someone, the Registry’s Ignition Interlock Unit will hold you responsible for any alcohol readings, circumvention, disconnection, and/or tampering which occurs. You should definitely think twice before lending an ignition interlock equipped vehicle to anyone. Rolling re-tests failures and missed rolling re- tests often occur in these situations.

Finally, you must ensure that  only those household members who are listed on your policy as authorized drivers are allowed to operate your vehicles. If you let a driver operate your vehicle and he or she is not listed as a driver on your automobile policy, your insurance company may deny coverage. When your auto policy renews, you should carefully review it to confirm that it lists all authorized drivers. Lending your car to a household member who is not listed, especially an inexperienced operator, can result in huge consequences if there is an accident.

Be careful when lending your vehicle to someone to avoid the pitfalls listed above.