OHTA.ca

Hey. First post - and hopefully not many more in the future!

Four months ago I rented a vehicle - later that night got pulled over, asked for my licence, handed it over and it was returned to me along with a ticket because the licence plate sticker was out of date. The officer said, 'take it to your rental company, they'll sort it, but I had to issue the ticket to you on your licence.'

I check when I'm home, and the licence plate sticker IS valid and in date.

Take the car to the rental place the next day, explain what happened and they say, 'it happens, give us the ticket we'll sort it.' So I do that.

Fast forward to Aug 7th and I get a letter saying my licence is now suspended as the fine hadn't been paid.

What are my next steps?

I've spoken to rental company who've said sorry, and are going to pay the fine and the reinstatement fee, but it seems a pain that a mistaken ticket, not paid by the rental company who said they'd sort it, means I have this on my record.

Does it impact insurance as well? A friend thought not, and I saw a couple of other posts that suggest it won't, but would love some clarity on it.

Thanks for any info folks.

Any ticket that you get may impact your insurance rates, depending on your driving record and your insurance companies policies.

Ultimately you, as the driver are responsible for ensuring the plate was valid and are also responsible for the fine.

Leaving this in the car rental company's hands was a big mistake. That ticket will now remain on your driving record.

Just curious how you determined that the sticker was valid?

The officer would usually check the MTO database for the exact expiry date.

Decatur wrote:Any ticket that you get may impact your insurance rates, depending on your driving record and your insurance companies policies.

Ultimately you, as the driver are responsible for ensuring the plate was valid and are also responsible for the fine.

Leaving this in the car rental company's hands was a big mistake. That ticket will now remain on your driving record.

Just curious how you determined that the sticker was valid?

The officer would usually check the MTO database for the exact expiry date.

The sticker had Dec 2015 on it - and when I returned to the rental place they checked it as well and said it was valid.

I realise now that, 'leaving this in the car rental company's hands was a big mistake', because the letter saying my licence was suspended really highlighted that for me

Just because the motor vehicle had a December 15 sticker on it, doesn't necessarily mean that it was the correct one for the plate on the vehicle.

You would have had to do more digging than that.

You may want to consider contacting you insurance company wit an anonymous "what if" question.

Being that it is part of a fleet being a rental vehicle the sticker could have been for a different truck in the fleet. It happens.

OPS

This car wouldn't happen to be a black Dodge Avenger would it? I got pulled over in a rental because of the same thing. I showed the cop my rental agreement, and he didn't charge me. Maybe the luck of the draw I guess. But ultimately, you should not have given the rental company the ticket. They could forget to pay it and have no repercussions to them. Just my 2 cents.