Are Toronto private company parking tickets enforceable? | Page 2 | GTAMotorcycle.com

Are Toronto private company parking tickets enforceable?

Thanks for the update. Good for you for following through and not "filing it in the shredder", because then you would have been convicted and had to pay a MUCH higher penalty when you went to buy your vehicle tag.

The MLEO's often don't show up, they get paid to write tickets the company doesn't want them sitting in court. It is sort of like telemarketing they may ticket 100 vehicles in a day, of those 70 pay up without question, or don't show up and get convicted, 20 go to court and plead it out, the remaining 10 fight it and win, so overall the city makes $30 from 90% that is a REALLY good return.

micelli.i said:
So, brief update on this thread. I decided to fight the "park on private property without permission" $30 ticket, issued by the private parking enforcement company through the City of Toronto.

It's not an issue of money; I was genuinely curious to see what the private company rep. would say, at trial. Well, nobody showed up, so the ticket was withdrawn. My ticket was one of a number of private property tickets thrown out. I guess there's not much enforcement for these kinds of tickets?

The one private parking enforcement person who showed up on another matter, ended up making a mistake (i.e. had someone charged who had permission to park there) so they threw his ticket as well. It felt like amateur hour, at the people's court.

Meanwhile, the ppl who had obvious language difficulties were pleading guilty to whatever offence was thrown at them and requesting 12 months to pay $60 tickets. Jeez :/
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Hi perhaps I can add to this thread since I own and operate parking lots within the GTA and I also am a MELO . First off private lots all operate slightly differently but most work as follows : Private tickets are not enforceable therefore there are no repercussions if you don't pay it to thesaid parking operator THE FIRST TIME . Most operators including myself and if the car / bike has eluded payment will receive a "private tag"requesting payment if the car/ bike is noted eluding payment again and has notpaid the first private notice most including myself will then issue a city"yellow tag". We prefer not to write city tags as we do not receive any revenue and if we have to go to court we receive nothing from the city.Also contrary to what was mentioned prior, private MLEO's MUST attend court when requested to do so by the city and we the private operators once again receive nothing from the city if my employee spends all day in court. If we do not attend court the city can and will pull our right to issue city tags on our private property. If the car / bike is found on ANY of our lots for a third time eluding payment a city tag will be issued and the car or bike towed. With parking software we now all use keeping track of violators is very easy and also includes plate / picture and vehicle recognition features for court or legal purposes. Most lots keep violator records for five years and the mistake most violators make is they park unknowingly a second or third time on a private lot and then get their rides dragged. Long and skinny is if you park on a private lot pay the rate as we are a business like any other. Also "courtesy tickets" are normally less than city issued tickets and we normally give much longer grace periods when tickets expire than the city. HOPE THIS HELPS .
 
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Yeah, well. I also have worked for a private parking lot operator in the past, and the people who have been issued tickets may have very well paid to park there. Private tickets were marginally less than city tickets... if you paid them early, to get the "discount". If you attempted to contest the private ticket, 99% of the time the company would never get back to you fast enough for you to remain in the window.

Reasons I saw people get tickets in bad faith:
-People attempted to pay for parking, machine out of operation
-People paid for parking, machine issued illegible parking permit
-People paid for parking, agent did not see displayed parking permit
-People paid for parking, got someone else's violation for a similar yet different plate # in the operator's database
-People getting multiple bad faith tickets in the same day

Also if people had known about the extreme PCI violations, they probably would have never have used any kind of electronic payment to pay the fines, either. Towing was generally an empty threat, as operator would prefer to stack tickets on one vehicle, then try to collect the full amount of the account with threatening letters.

Not saying you can't make an honest living running a parking lot. Just that there are a good many reasons why people will contest the tickets. Also, this was a while ago, before PPEAs could even issue city tickets.
 
Thanks for the info. So does the three strikes also apply if you successfully fight each and every parking ticket in court? As in, can the parking lot operator tow away your car/bike the third time, regardless if the other tickets were thrown out?

I think I may have brought this point under another thread, but what happens if the tow operator damages your vehicle, in the process of towing it? It's one thing if they damaged an older car, but quite different if it's a six month old granturismo. :/
 
Tow operators all carry liability insurance, the tough part is proving they caused the damage, (becomes a she/he said type scenario). I guess one could take full photos of their vehicle every time you park it, but seems a bit impractical, especially on days like today when it is snowing.

micelli.i said:
Thanks for the info. So does the three strikes also apply if you successfully fight each and every parking ticket in court? As in, can the parking lot operator tow away your car/bike the third time, regardless if the other tickets were thrown out?

I think I may have brought this point under another thread, but what happens if the tow operator damages your vehicle, in the process of towing it? It's one thing if they damaged an older car, but quite different if it's a six month old granturismo. :/
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TwistedKestrel said:
Yeah, well. I also have worked for a private parking lot operator in the past, and the people who have been issued tickets may have very well paid to park there. Private tickets were marginally less than city tickets... if you paid them early, to get the "discount". If you attempted to contest the private ticket, 99% of the time the company would never get back to you fast enough for you to remain in the window.

Reasons I saw people get tickets in bad faith:
-People attempted to pay for parking, machine out of operation
-People paid for parking, machine issued illegible parking permit
-People paid for parking, agent did not see displayed parking permit
-People paid for parking, got someone else's violation for a similar yet different plate # in the operator's database
-People getting multiple bad faith tickets in the same day

Also if people had known about the extreme PCI violations, they probably would have never have used any kind of electronic payment to pay the fines, either. Towing was generally an empty threat, as operator would prefer to stack tickets on one vehicle, then try to collect the full amount of the account with threatening letters.

Not saying you can't make an honest living running a parking lot. Just that there are a good many reasons why people will contest the tickets. Also, this was a while ago, before PPEAs could even issue city tickets.
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When I used to park regularly at an Impark lot, the 'private ticket' was something like $85.00. I once got hit for it when both ticket dispensers were dead, even though I had a 2+ year history of paying for parking. Called, disputed, and cancelled the same day. Tried calling to inform them that the machines were down when I arrived on-site but the office was on the West Coast, with no voicemail.
 
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