Taxi licensing
The report your council wants, and the record behind it
If your vehicles are licensed in England or Wales, an accident that damages one of them has to be reported to the council that licensed it — by you, not by the driver, and within days rather than whenever the repair is booked in.
The Act
What the Act actually asks for
Section 50(3) of the Local Government (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 1976 puts the duty on the proprietor of a licensed hackney carriage or private hire vehicle: report any accident causing damage that materially affects the safety, performance or appearance of the vehicle, or the comfort or convenience of anyone carried in it, as soon as reasonably practicable and in any case within seventy-two hours.
It binds the proprietor rather than the driver, and it applies whether or not a passenger was aboard. Part II of that Act runs in England and Wales outside London — London licenses under its own order and Scotland under the Civic Government (Scotland) Act 1982, so neither of those is what this page describes.
Your council
Your council may want it sooner than the Act does
Seventy-two hours is the statutory ceiling, not the deadline you are working to. Licensing authorities set their own conditions underneath it and some are tighter — High Peak asks for forty-eight. Read your own licence conditions rather than this page: the requirements differ by authority, and the figure that matters is the one your council wrote down.
Photographs
And they will ask for photographs
Most authorities take it on an accident notification form that wants the date, the time, the place, the registration and a description of the damage — with photographs uploaded to it. That is the part nobody has when the deadline is tomorrow, because the photos were taken on the driver’s phone and are somewhere in a message thread.
The record
Which is the whole reason the record exists
A driver scans the sticker in the vehicle and files what happened with photographs, from where it happened. Each photograph carries its own timestamp and the name of whoever uploaded it, against that vehicle, on that date. When the form asks, the answer is already assembled — and one vehicle or the whole fleet exports as a CSV.
What we do not do
Curbed does not file anything with your council
There is no integration with any licensing authority, no deadline Curbed counts down for you and no reminder when one is close. Reporting is yours to do, on your council’s form, the way you do it now. What this changes is what you have to hand when you sit down to do it — and that is worth enough not to dress it up as more.
Questions
Do I have to report damage to the council?
If the vehicle is licensed and the damage materially affects its safety, performance or appearance — or the comfort or convenience of passengers — then yes, and within seventy-two hours at the outside. Failing to do so without reasonable excuse is an offence under section 50(5). Minor wear that affects none of those things is a different question, and one for your licensing officer rather than for us.
Does the driver report it, or do I?
You do. The Act puts the duty on the proprietor of the vehicle, which is why a firm cannot discharge it by telling drivers to phone the council themselves. What the driver can do is get the damage recorded with photographs the moment they see it, so the report you file is built on something.
What if I am licensed in London or Scotland?
Then these are not your rules. London licenses under its own order through Transport for London and Scotland under the Civic Government (Scotland) Act 1982, and both set their own reporting rules. The record is the same either way; the deadline and the form are not.
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