Any grounds for dispute on City of Van Parking tickets?
 

Hello,

Just curious if anyone has ever successfully disputed a parking ticket from the City before. I made a pretty dumb mistake and forgot to add more time for the duncan head meters. Basically the timeline was like this:

Paid for parking at 1:05PM for one hour expiring at 2:05PM
Meter expired at 2:06
City of Vancouver patroller comes and tickets my car at 2:20
Parking ticket issued at 2:20
Topped up for more parking using pay by phone at 2:21 remotely

I know that the city of vancouver by-law was absolutely fair as right at 2:20 the time did indeed expire

Just curious if anybody has experienced this situation or if there are any sort of lenience that would be given? Like a reduction of the $ or anything like that?
The fine was $35 if paid within 2 weeks, which I'll probably just end up biting the bullet and paying anyway since I was in the wrong

call the city and ask

In the past if it was your first offence on those plates you were given a free courtesy cancellation.

Pretty sure they dont do this anymore. I called in a few months back on my first offence ever and they dont even listen to the reasoning on the phone anymore. They will tell you to file an official dispute and they you can have a chance to tell your side of the story.

It will take weeks/months before this time so the fine will be the full amount and you'll pay an extra $$ if you dont win the dispute as a "dispute fee" or w/e.

That was just my experience.

^I guess it depends on the person on the other side of the phone. Friend of mine had it successfully cancelled about 6 months ago as a courtesy cancellation.

how can you forget that used to be your job =P

I pretty much had the exact same experience as you did, like paid for an hour, forgot about it for 15 minutes, then paid again, all via PayByPhone. Just so happens parking enforcement came by in those 15 minutes.

I did try calling in to see if I could get any leniency, but no dice.

I guess it's understandable though.

This was last year sometime, but I parked at about 8:15pm, I dropped all the change I had with me into the meter and it read like 1.5 hours. I thought about it for a second, and I was like man the patroller would have to be a major asshole to give me a ticket between the 10 minutes that my time expires and the exclusion period of 10pm kicks in.

Much later that night when I returned to my car there was a ticket on my dash, I just laughed, my meter expired at like 9:49pm, the ticket was issued at like 9:55pm.

I found it funny, so the next week I phoned them up and told them my story, and as I expected, they told me to fuck off. So I paid the ticket knowing it was my fault and there was no leniency.

So I doubt they will give you any sort of courtesy cancellation.

doesn't pay by phone send you txt messages notifying you when your meter is about to expire?
:suspicious:

^ People aren't always checking their phone every second.. if I'm out for diner or something, it wouldn't be uncommon for me to miss a text by 10+ minutes (if not by 2 hours)

I would think that after one or two tickets, checking your phone would become a bigger priority?

In the end, it's still your responsibility.

It's also worth mentioning that some spots won't let you park for more than 2 hours, and they'll check for that as well.

Not directly related, but if you use PaybyPhone for meter parking, you can park for up to 4 hours after 6pm. Meter parking in Vancouver has either 2 hour or 3 hour limit typically.

9:55 and they were still checking meters...damn

I think it was on a friday night as well. Believe me I had a hell of a laugh about that ticket, cause when I parked the car I joked to my buddy about how I would probably get a ticket within the 10 minute window.

The best time to check

Get em when their guard is down

The most you can do is 6hrs if you use the 4pm loophole as well

I disputed tickets and won as it took the courts too long which is an unreasonable amount of time for a Canadian citizen to be tried as. Look up Charter of Right section 11b it will explain everything! Hope that helps

people complain about city workers being lazy. then complain that this guy is out there bustin his ass until he clocks out. cant catch a break

Personally I just use PayByPhone instead of using coins. It really helps being able to not walk all the way to your car to renew parking, and the "courtesy text" that lets you know your meter is expiring soon is super helpful.

And FYI the "courtesy cancellation" is a discretionary thing, really depends on who you get on the phone and whether they are willing to hear you out or not. Kinda like calling Rogers retentions ;)

Serb GT - won't happen again if you're referring to Vancouver. They haven't been using the court system for a couple years now so now disputes go through adjudication which a lot of other municipalities have been using for a long time.

Courtesy cancelations? No its not like calling detentions, it simply does not exist anymore and hasn't for about 4 years. Was true before not anymore.