The Case of the Vanishing Parking Ticket

[Laura]

So, back in November for the Forum Freeroll, I parked in a little pay-parking place and didn't put the right amount of money in. At the end of the day, lo and behold - a parking ticket! Not that I was too annoyed, it was my fault, it was only $25 and I had recently come into $200 bucks No problem, I'll pay it. However, I forgot about it and the ticket stayed in the car until my partner cleaned it out and accidently threw the ticket out. I tend to forget when I have to fork out money that I'd rather keep for myself so I forgot all about the fine until 2 days ago when I had an "oh crap!" moment and a friend suggested I ring the council to make sure that my delay in paying hadn't resulted in a warrant for my arrest!

Today, I called, quoted my rego number, and was told by the lovely lady at Adelaide City Council that there are no outstanding parking tickets under my rego number, and there hadn't been since about 2004.

Not that I'm complaining, but WTF?

[bennymacca]

can't remember where, but i remember hearing somewhere that there is actually no legal requirement to pay parking fines. i might be talking out of my rear end here however.

[kentishgirl]

Laura,

I think you will find that the parking ticket you were given was not issued by the adelaide city council.

I have an idea of the carpark your talking about if you were at the Queens Arms and im pretty confident that is a privately owned carpark. So whoever gave you the fine was prob the owner trying to get some money from you!

I can also back this up as I recently got a fine from the Adelaide City Council that I forgot about and just got a reminder notice after not paying it for one day which is now up to $52.50!

So dont worry if you had got one, they would have reminded you!

[kentishgirl]

can't remember where, but i remember hearing somewhere that there is actually no legal requirement to pay parking fines. i might be talking out of my rear end here however.

LOL....yes you are talking out of your arse......you can actually get a really bad credit rating from not paying fines

[Laura]

Laura,

I think you will find that the parking ticket you were given was not issued by the adelaide city council.

I have an idea of the carpark your talking about if you were at the Queens Arms and im pretty confident that is a privately owned carpark. So whoever gave you the fine was prob the owner trying to get some money from you!

I can also back this up as I recently got a fine from the Adelaide City Council that I forgot about and just got a reminder notice after not paying it for one day which is now up to $52.50!

So dont worry if you had got one, they would have reminded you!

Thanks Vic, I don't know how privately owned companies do it, but the ticket looked like every other ticket i see issued to people, so assumed the council would be the way to go.

My first parking ticket was actually stolen by the person who tried to break into my car when i was on East Tce years back - at the time I was just focused on why my passenger door lock looked a lot different than it had a few hours before, and no light bulbs went off in my head when I discovered the leaflet from PJ O'Brien's saying "Damn, you got a parking ticket! Have a free drink..." or something to that effect. Actually, that's not true - I thought "huh? what parking ticket" and it wasn't until i got a letter from the council reminding me that what was once a $16 fine was now $48 that it clicked! I explained the situation and managed to get it back down to $16.

[Bacon]

there is a company called Adelaide city fines, or something close, that issues fines within the cbd. One of their carparks is beside ayres house. The tickets look very similiar to the acc ones.

However, they legally cannot access the motor reg database, so if u don't pay the fine they can't find you. They rely on people not noticing the difference and being ignorant to the laws.

Quite possible it was them. Or the garbo likes you

[Laura]

Mostly likely the garbo.

Maybe I should throw out my electricity and gas bill...

[bennymacca]

there is a company called Adelaide city fines, or something close, that issues fines within the cbd. One of their carparks is beside ayres house. The tickets look very similiar to the acc ones.

However, they legally cannot access the motor reg database, so if u don't pay the fine they can't find you. They rely on people not noticing the difference and being ignorant to the laws.

Quite possible it was them. Or the garbo likes you

can't remember where, but i remember hearing somewhere that there is actually no legal requirement to pay parking fines. i might be talking out of my rear end here however.

now i remember. this is what i am talking about - these fines that aren't council based are not legally enforceable.

LOL....yes you are talking out of your arse......you can actually get a really bad credit rating from not paying fines

[Bob B]

Bugga, you just reminded me of my ill-fated Forum day Laura.

I was just driving down king William street and crossed over North Terrace and put the auto in second possy to slow the car down as you seem to gain a bit of speed on the downhill run. I thought I kept the car within 50k range as I drove down the hill towards the the river but I was obviously mistaken.

Two weeks later a fine for $202!!!!!!! I hate that friggin road so bad.

[BigPete33]

That's very true about the fine not being chaseable if it wasn't issued by ACC.

They have no legal authority to chase you down and it sucks to be them if they think you should pay.

I recommend allowing yourself a chortle before you restick the ticket to the window of the business you parked outside of (NPL venues excepted).