how bad is an unpaid parking ticket? (1 Viewer)

[Randy Tennison]

Anyway, back to Anthony's original question. Yes, you could have a warrant issued for your arrest. Or your car could be towed, or booted.

Just go down to City Hall and pay the thing (they can tell you where to pay it if that isn't where you go). You might have to pay an additional penalty, but it's better than the alternative.

 

[Matt_R]

Actually... I've experienced an unpaid parking ticket to the fullest over the past few weeks.

Long story kinda short... My father got a ticket in his Jeep. $15 parking ticket during the end of summer at the Jersey shore. It flew off his windshield and forgot about it.

Fast forward to two weeks ago. I get pulled over in my car for "talking on cellphone" -- I actually wasn't, and showed the officer my call logs proving I wasn't on the phone. He apolgized. Then he ran my license and walks to my car and goes "Do you know that your driver's license has been suspended?"

He writes me a ticket for driving with a suspended license ($500 fine, up to 6 months suspension, 500/year for 3 years insurance surcharge, $250 in DMV fees, and 9 insurance points -- which if you get 10, you get thrown into a high risk pool here in NJ)

Why was MY license suspended?? My father's Jeep used to be mine. I gave it to him over 4 years ago, but never transferred title and registration info. Learned my lesson about that...

Apparently, they sent SEVERAL notices went out to my mailing address warning me of the impeeding suspension, but I never received them.

I went to court last week, spoke to prosecutor and had it dismissed. It did help that my Uncle is one of the biggest criminal defense attorney's in my county. Felt kind of silly name dropping, but certainly did help my situation. I brought a copy of the new title in my father's name to prove we had that taken care of.

Cost of this whole mess? Well the parking ticket was $55 with late fees added, and I had to pay $100 to reinstate my license. Of course, my father paid both.

So yeah, just pay the ticket... SOON.

 

[Law]

Depends who the parking ticket was issued by. We have a private parking company here called Impark, that owns and runs parking lots downtown as well as city owned metered parking. If I get a city ticket, I always pay it. I don't want unpaid parking tickets showing up on my driving record. But, if I get an Impark ticket, I don't even take the time to read it, it goes directly in the trash. They've called me once or twice about some of them, but that's it. No collection agency, no boot, nothing.

So that's my advice to people in Calgary at least, from the city - pay it, private - spend less time on it then the person who wrote it.

 

[Bill Slack]

I live on the border of Brighton (Boston) and Brookline (an independant enclave within Boston) -- Brighton, you need a resident sticker to park on the street, except for the Comm Ave and Beacon St, and select designiated visitor parking areas (which residents can also always park in -- usually only can get a spot during mid-day, since this a pretty residential area.)

I can't go the 5ft into Brookline to park though. There's no overnight street parking, at all. That's the majority of close places to park on the street by me.

So, I pony up the $125/month to park behind my building. Which is pretty cheap for Boston, but about average for the area I live in (a lot of young people to cheap to pay for a spot.) A lot of people just take public transportation to most places (including me), and including to work (not including me, which is why I pay.) It's not awful to find a space, but you might end up with a 10-15 minute walk if you don't plan accordingly. But, most of the cars just sit there all day, so a vast majority of street parking is always taken.

And once it snows and they go around ticketing 10,000 people to illegally parking, it's a little silly. There's just nowhere you can reasonably park your car. But, then we end up with only 1 lane plowed for a week or so, which makes for an interesting drive sometimes.

 

[JustinCleveland]

Story I just ran on the radio...

"Dateline - Madison, WI. About 300 parking violators in Madison got a 2000 dollar surprise in the mail. The violators got letters from the University of Wisconsin at Madison informin them they owed two thousand and four dollars for each past-due ticket. Fewer than 50 people called to complain or question the four-figure fines that are being blamed on a computer glich."

Now THAT's a bad parking ticket!

 

[Chris]

Years ago, I got a ticket in the KC Downtown that I did not know I received until about 12 months later. The ticket had, in the beauty of KC weather, been swiped away when I came out and cleared off the snow/etc. and didn't notice it stuck in there somewhere..

Anyway, they contacted me and explained that it was significantly late, I told them they had to have the wrong person, I didn't know of any ticket, and if I had a ticket for $12, I certainly would have paid.

After much discussion, I was able to go in and pay only $12.. so, best advice: if you have parking tickets, pay them. If you forget, talk to them, most of the time, they want to work it out.

 

[Randy Tennison]

I don't know about Calgary, but I would double check before I ignore private company parking tickets. In Kansas City, there are several private companies who have the power to write full fledged parking tickets (Plaza Security, I believe, is one). Also, if you have had several private parking tickets, and the private company is ticked enough, they can swear out a complaint on you, and have your car actually ticketed.

 

[dave_brogli]

In wisconsin......ive had many many many parking tickets.
The way they do it here is...
3.00 parking ticket
(pay within 3 days)
On the 4th day it goes to 6.00

On the 15th day (after a mailing) They give you to the 20th day to pay 20.00.
After the 20th day you still owe 20.00 and your car registration is suspended till you pay it.

I got pulled over on the 60th or so day after I got a parking ticket.
The police took my keys and told me I could pick them up as soon as I paid the city treasurer. I had to walk 6 blocks (treasurer) and then another 5 just to get my keys back (police) then another 5 blocks to get back to my car.

 

[MikeDeVincenzo]

Best way to avoid parking tickets is to befriend a local cop.

They can make tickets go away with one phone call. Believe me, I know.

 

[JustinCleveland]

Mike,

Yup