Here’s an interesting article about fighting city parking ticket from Vancouver Sun’s article:
Park your excuses at the door: The days of getting a break in traffic court are over
Read more: http://www.vancouversun.com/news/parking/Park+your+excuses+door+days+getting+break+traffic+court+over/1340088/story.html#ixzz0rIr0RCps
More stories of Vancouver parking are in Vancouversun.com/parking.
I live inside UBC of Vancouver, BC, Canada. From http://www.myuna.ca/2010/06/una-parking-bylaw-public-consultation/, until July 5, 2010, the UNA (University Neighborhood Association) will be accepting comments regarding the UNA Draft Parking Bylaw .
Since I just settled a parking ticket recently, I felt personal interest in this. So I went through the draft and found out they must copied a lot of terms from a parking company! Here’s my email to them, which you can see why I said so.
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Dear UNA Board of Directors, here are some of my comments.
I recently unfairly gave a tickets elsewhere and had to fight it off through BBB. I realized we need fair process for giving parking ticket. We should not use parking company's method to give out tickets. My comments are as following:
43. A Parking Ticket must be signed by the Enforcement Officer and must
contain the following information:
(a) the date and time of the alleged contravention;
(b) a statement of the alleged contravention;
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(c) a statement of the penalty for the alleged contravention and the early
payment amount (which is a 20% reduction of the penalty amount)
for payment of the penalty or fine if received by the UNA within 14
days of the person receiving or being presumed to have received the
Parking Ticket as provided under the UNA Enforcement and Appeals
Bylaw, and the consequences of failing to respond to the Parking
Ticket;
(d) a description of where and when the penalty must be paid;
(e) the identity of the Enforcement Officer issuing the Parking Ticket;
and
(f) the address at which a Dispute Notice may be delivered.
I suggest to ask the enforcement officer to take photos for evidence before giving out any ticket. This will reduce the error and prevent possible mis-behave of enforcement officer. The photo should include the car window which does not show parking permit, license #, parking sign, and evidence that the vehicle did not park correctly.
44. The Enforcement Officer may issue a Parking Ticket in any of the following
ways:
(a) by placing the Parking Ticket on the Vehicle concerned;
(b) by handing the Parking Ticket to the driver of the Vehicle; or
(c) by mailing the Parking Ticket to the registered owner of the Vehicle.
I disagree on 44c. If a ticket is not issued to the car, the enforcement officer should not mail the ticket out, unless photo evidence is present. My case with the other parking company is exact this. Their mis-behaved officer did not give tickets, but mailed them a month later. You can imagine I've thrown away receipts that can prove my innocence.
53. A person may dispute a Parking Ticket, fine or other penalty issued by an
Enforcement Officer for a contravention of this Bylaw pursuant to the process set out in the
UNA’s Enforcement and Appeals Bylaw for appealing an Infraction Notice
I do not know where to find this document. And I think we should lay the whole process out specifically for parking tickets.
54. Residents of the Community are responsible for ensuring that their Guests
comply with this Bylaw. In the event that a Resident’s Guest fails to comply with this
Bylaw, the Board or its delegate, may impose any penalty provided for under this Bylaw
against the Resident and in the event that the Resident fails or refuses to pay the penalty, the
Board or its delegate may use the collection methods provided by this Bylaw in respect of
collecting penalties from Residents.
This does not sounds right. 1st, it's almost impossible to prove guest relation with resident. What if they don't really know each other? e.g. a realtor who's visiting client? a insurance broker visiting client? Or even a health clinic visiting client? How can a resident pay for penalty that they did not use? What if a person visited 2 or more residents at the same time?
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June 1st, 2010, I received an email from BBB with following content:
The Better Business Bureau (BBB) has received a response from the business regarding your complaint. Please review the response and advise us, in writing, of your position in this matter. You should attach supporting documents.
If you are not satisfied with the business response, we may be able to offer further assistance, if both parties agree, through a dispute resolution process which is legally binding. Alternatively, please provide us with another offer we can present to the company in an effort to resolve this dispute.
Note that if we do not receive further correspondence from you by June 15, 2010, we will trust that you are satisfied with the company's response and our office will close the file.
We encourage you to use our ONLINE COMPLAINT system to review the response and to respond to this complaint. The following URL (website address) will take you directly to this complaint. You will be able to enter your response directly on our website:
https://mbc-web.app.bbb.org/complaint/view/xxxxxx/c/xxxxxx
If you are unable to respond using the Internet, then please respond in writing to the address above, by fax to 604-681-1544 or by email to xxxxx@mbc.bbb.org.
Thank you for using the services of the BBB.
Sincerely,
xxxxx
604 681-4282
xxxxx@mbc.bbb.org
Better Business Bureau of Mainland B.C.
Dispute Resolution Department
I checked the url, and see the following response from Diamond Parking:
We have voided both tickets because we have no other tickets on file for either vehicle. We will not cancel any future tickets for either vehicle.
This is good, Diamond Parking voided both tickets! I then went to the website to indicate I’m satisfied with the resolution. I got another email June 2nd, 2010 from BBB:
Based on the information that we have received from both parties, this complaint appears to be resolved.
This case is now closed as Resolved.
The Better Business Bureau (BBB) develops and maintains Reliability Reports on companies across Canada and the United States. This information is available to the public and is frequently used by potential customers. This resolved complaint will now become reflected in the report that we give to consumers.
If you do not feel that this matter is resolved, please contact the BBB immediately in writing indicating your position.
You can view the details of this complaint at the following Internet site: https://mbc-web.app.bbb.org/complaint/view/xxxxxx/c/xxxxxx
I’m very satisfied with BBB’s help. Thank you, BBB.
Here’s my previous blog links about this whole story:
May 27th, 2010: BBB started to process the case
May 19th, 2010: Diamond Parking reply on 5/19/2010
May 18th, 2010: Talking to Collection Agency on May 18th, 2010
May 13th, 2010: Get a notice from debt collector
April 26th, 2010: Debt collector’s nightmare article
April 22nd, 2010: Get the Final Notice for Diamond Parking Ticket
April 12th, 2010: Wrote a letter to Diamond Parking Ticket
April 11th, 2010: I’m going to fight Diamond Parking Ticket
