Can I be charged if I lend my car to someone with a suspended license?

Yes, if you let the person drive without first making a reasonable effort or inquiry into whether they had a valid license, or while knowing it was not valid. That violates Vehicle Code section 14604(a), and the Vehicle Code makes a violation a misdemeanor (Vehicle Code section 40000.11(k)). You are not required to check with the DMV. Separately, your car itself can be impounded for 30 days based on the driver’s own license status, whether or not you did anything wrong in lending it.

What the law actually requires of you as owner

Vehicle Code 14604(a) says you may not knowingly allow someone to drive your car on a highway unless you determine they hold a valid license that lets them operate it, but you are “required only to make a reasonable effort or inquiry,” and you are “not required to inquire of the department” (the DMV) about it. The statute does not list which steps count as a reasonable effort or inquiry. Section 14604 sets no penalty of its own, and the Vehicle Code lists a violation as a misdemeanor, not an infraction. Unless the Vehicle Code expressly sets a different penalty, its general misdemeanor penalty applies: county jail for as long as six months, a fine of as much as $1,000, or both (Vehicle Code section 42002).

The separate risk to your own vehicle

Whether or not you met the 14604 standard, if the person you lent the car to gets stopped and their license turns out to be suspended, revoked, restricted without a working interlock device, or nonexistent because they were never issued one, the vehicle can be impounded for 30 days under a different statute, one that turns on the driver’s status rather than what you knew (Vehicle Code section 14602.6(a)(1)). As the registered owner, you owe the towing and storage costs for that impound no matter who was driving (14602.6(e)). You can ask for a storage hearing, which looks at whether the storage was valid and at “any mitigating circumstances attendant to” it (14602.6(b)); you have 10 days from the date on the storage notice to request one (Vehicle Code section 22852). The statute does not say what weight a lender’s good faith carries there.

The early-release conditions in 14602.6(d)(1) also turn on the driver rather than on you. Among them, the agency must let the car go early if the driver’s suspension or revocation was for an offense outside the two groups of sections the statute names (Articles 2 and 3 of Chapter 2 of Division 6 of the Vehicle Code), or once the driver gets the license reinstated, or obtains one along with proper insurance. DUI-related suspensions generally sit inside Article 3 (the DMV’s suspension under Vehicle Code section 13353.2 for driving at 0.08 percent or above is one example). So a friend’s or relative’s DUI-linked suspension generally will not qualify under the first of those conditions, even though your own lending had nothing to do with alcohol. Early release also requires you, or your agent, to show a valid license of your own plus current registration, unless a court orders it (14602.6(d)(2)).

Before you hand over your keys

As a practical step, ask to see the license itself instead of taking someone’s word for it, and say no if the answer or the card raises doubts. That inquiry goes to the section 14604 question, but it will not protect your car from a 30-day impound if the person turns out to be driving on a suspended or revoked license anyway. If you know the person’s license is suspended or revoked, you cannot make the determination section 14604 requires, so lending the car risks the misdemeanor as well as the impound. And if the vehicle is a motorcycle (a class M1 or M2 vehicle) and you let the rider use it knowing the license was suspended or revoked, the court sentencing the rider for that driving may also order the motorcycle impounded, for as long as six months after the rider’s first such conviction and as long as a year after a later one (Vehicle Code section 14602.5).

Get help after an impound or citation

If your vehicle was impounded after you lent it out, or you were cited under section 14604, the Law Offices of David S. Chesley can look into why the driver’s license was suspended, whether your car qualifies for early release, and what the citation means for you. The firm’s number is (800) 755-5174.