Definition of a Responsible Person

Every person and legal entity that is the licence holder of a vehicle shall be deemed the Responsible Person by law.

A Responsible Person cannot be nominated for a vehicle; it is a definition to determine owner-onus.

Responsible Person Definition

From 1 January 2006, the Responsible Person for a vehicle will vary based on the specific circumstances and will be determined in accordance with the following hierarchy;

• The licence holder (if the vehicle is currently licensed):
  
  
• The new owner (if a change of ownership is received by DPI) this will not be applicable if the new owner disputes taking ownership: 
  
  
• The previous licence holder (if the vehicle is not currently licensed): or
  
  
• The person entitled to immediate possession of the vehicle (if there are several persons entitled to immediate possession, then the person whose entitlement is paramount).

An owner/licence holder will only be able to be nominated where the vehicle is owned jointly by more than one person.

Only an owner (or joint owner) of a vehicle can be the owner for licensing purposes.

In most cases the owner (purchaser) will be the licence holder for the vehicle, however when there is more than one owner all owners of the vehicle will need to nominate which is to be the licence holder, this will this will require the completion of a POI form (MR 186).

In the case of a business partnership when the owners of the vehicle have nominated which of them is to be the licence holder only that persons name will be appear on the licence, thus usually be the Responsible Person for the vehicle.  If the business is operating under a trading name and (is not incorporated and does not have an ACN) the trading name should not be recorded on the licence.

 Forms and publications

For any more information, please refer to our fact sheet (pdf 157kb or rtf 47kb) or contact us.