Parking ticket etiquette?

I would probably call my friend and just casually say, “Hey, did you know you got a parking ticket when you were using my car?”, and take my cues from how the conversation goes from there. Most likely, they’ll do the right thing and pay the fine.

If they don’t offer to pay, and the fine isn’t too much, and it’s a really good friend then I’d just pay it myself. If it wasn’t a good friend, I’d ask them to pay it.

I’m usually pretty laid back on stuff like this. I don’t like anything that makes the friendship about money or who owes who.

That said, it’s their ticket. You wouldn’t pay their speeding ticket or a ticket for not wearing their seat belt. To me this would be the same. I’m assuming it wasn’t some strange rule that only applies to the area around your house.

Do they put a copy of the ticket on the car in San Francisco? Here they’ll post a copy on your car and send you a copy in the mail, I’d be surprised if your friend wasn’t aware they got a ticket. They may even already be planning to handle it and just either didn’t want you to worry about it or they didn’t want to discuss it.

If it were me, I’d get in touch and present it as “hey, I got this in the mail, do I need to worry about it?” and take it from there. If they’re stuck financially, had no idea about it, or get defensive I’d offer to split it with them.

It doesn’t have to be awkward, just present it as you need more information. It seems unlikely that they’re completely surprised by the whole thing.

The judicial system, at least in the US, doesn’t care whose fault it was in a parking violation, as it falls on the shoulders of of the vehicle’s registered owner.

It might be prudent to talk to the friends. They may have paid the fine while the citation was in the mail to you. If they didn’t, I would think that they would either offer to or provide an explanation. You sound like a person who can figure out how to word the question properly so that it doesn’t cause any offense.

It might also be worthwhile to ask that the violation be removed from your record if you (or the friends) pay on time and you have proof that you were not in town and loaned your car while you were gone.

I would mention it to your friends.
You will find out what they’re made of pretty quickly.:)

Echo @lucillelucillelucille

Do it privately though. Don’t embarrass them in front of others. Any half decent friend will pay up.

Definately ask your friends. If for no other reason than to make sure it gets taken care of by someone. You don’t want to get put on the boot list.