Fined For Three Old Parking Tickets!

[SanFrancisco97]

What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? CA

Hello: I'm hoping someone can help me. I just received a letter from a collections agency informing me that the City of San Francisco issued three parking tickets in 2008 for violating street cleaning rules (July 1, July 15, and August 1) that were unpaid. I live in the city and park on the street, so I've certainly had my share of parking tickets - however, I've always paid them and I would remember receiving that number of tickets in the space of a month.

I do not have records of these tickets, and never received the 30 or 60 day reminders to pay them. So, I don't have the time/date stamp. I checked my own records and found that on all of those days, I had driven my car to my office, which means I left the house earlier, beating the street cleaning rules.

My questions are whether I have a case to fight these tickets - and if so, the process you recommend. Thank you!

[patstew]

Originally Posted by SanFrancisco97

I just received a letter from a collections agency informing me that the City of San Francisco issued three parking tickets in 2008 for violating street cleaning rules (July 1, July 15, and August 1) that were unpaid.

Son, those aren't old. They're positively juvenile.

I live in the city and park on the street, so I've certainly had my share of parking tickets - however, I've always paid them and I would remember receiving that number of tickets in the space of a month.

If I had a nickel for every time someone told me "I always pay my tickets," I'd have a WHOLE lot of nickels.

I checked my own records and found that on all of those days, I had driven my car to my office, which means I left the house earlier, beating the street cleaning rules.

You keep records of when you drive to work???
What are the street cleaning days and hours?

My questions are whether I have a case to fight these tickets - and if so, the process you recommend. Thank you!

Have you called the issuing entity to check the registration and description of the vehicle on the tickets? If they're your plate and the description matches, you're pretty much SOL.

[SanFrancisco97]

Hi Patstew:
I do keep records of when I drive to work because I own my business and have to keep those records for billing clients and tax purposes - depending on the time the tickets were issued, I could be able to show that I was parked in the garage at work, as they charge by the hour, and the time is noted on the receipt.

I don't have the tickets because I never found any on my car, so I don't know the time they were issued, whether the VIN is correct, etc. The other suspicious thing is that I paid a ticket in November, and when I ran a check through the DMV, there were no outstanding tickets on my record. I am trying to get copies of the tickets, and working with the collections agency to do that.

Thanks for your help.