Colorado § 42-2-141 - Renting or loaning a motor vehicle to another.

§ 42-2-141. Renting or loaning a motor vehicle to another.

(1) Except as provided in subsection (4) of this section, no person shall rent or loan a motor vehicle to any other person unless the latter person is then duly licensed under this article or, in the case of a nonresident, duly licensed under the laws of the state or country of that person's residence except a nonresident whose home state or country does not require that an operator be licensed.

(2) Except as provided in subsection (4) of this section, a person shall not rent a motor vehicle to another person without first inspecting the driver's license of the person to whom the vehicle is to be rented and verifying that the license is unexpired. The inspection required by this subsection (2) may be performed through the use of an electronic device.

(3) A person who rents a motor vehicle to another person shall keep a record of the registration number of the motor vehicle, the name and address of the person to whom the vehicle is rented, the number of the driver's license of the person to whom the vehicle is rented or any authorized driver under subsection (4) of this section, and the place where the license was issued. The person who rents the motor vehicle may maintain the record in an electronic format and shall make the record available for inspection by any police officer or officer or employee of the department.

(4) A person may rent a motor vehicle to a person who is blind, as defined in section 26-2-103 (3), subject to all of the following conditions:

(a) The blind person is accompanied by at least one person with a valid license issued under this article or, in the case of a nonresident, a valid license issued under the laws of the state or country of such person's residence.

(b) The person renting the motor vehicle to a blind person:

(I) Inspects the driver's license of each person who accompanies the blind person and wishes to be authorized to drive the motor vehicle, which inspection may be performed through the use of an electronic device; and

(II) Verifies that the driver's license is unexpired.

(c) Only persons whose driver's licenses have been verified by the person renting the motor vehicle to the blind person are authorized to drive the motor vehicle, and the names of such persons must be listed in the rental agreement.

(d) The renter and the driver of the motor vehicle pursuant to this subsection (4) shall have the same financial or insurance responsibilities under Colorado law as other renters of motor vehicles.

Source: L. 94: Entire title amended with relocations, p. 2157, § 1, effective January 1, 1995. L. 96: Entire section amended, p. 136, § 1, effective April 2. L. 2019: (2), (3), IP(4), (4)(b), and (4)(c) amended, (HB 19-1321), ch. 385, p. 3442, § 1, effective August 2.

Editor's note: This section is similar to former § 42-2-133 as it existed prior to 1994.

ANNOTATION

Annotator's note. Since § 42-2-141 is similar to § 42-2-133 as it existed prior to the 1994 amending of title 42 as enacted by SB 94-1, a relevant case construing that provision has been included in the annotations to this section.

Civil liability. This section does not give a civil cause of action for damages in favor of third persons against one violating its provisions but simply imposes a criminal penalty for a violation of its provisions. Thus, an automobile renting agency is not liable to guest for injuries sustained while riding in a rented car on grounds that agency was guilty of negligence by renting automobile to driver who had no driver's license. Hertz Driv-Ur-Self Sys. v. Hendrickson, 109 Colo. 1, 121 P.2d 483 (1942) (decided under repealed CSA, C. 16, § 156).