Old parking tickets surfacing now...

I recently received notice from the San Diego, CA Office of the City Collector that I owe $793.51 for principal and interest ($380 principal, $50 misc., and $363.51 interest) on past due parking tickets. To the best of my knowledge, I don't recall receiving these.

I asked for some clarification, and the investigator read off former addresses and past vehicles that owned some 7-10 years ago. She also agreed to send copies of the tickets and reduce the cost to $630 if I paid by a certain date. I agreed, but never received the copies so that I could verify the vehicles and nature of the citations. That date has since passed and I still have not received proof of these citations.

Also, she claimed these have already been sent to collections and many have since dropped off of my credit report. The continued collection attempts are the following: (from the notice I received)

1. Reporting of the delinquent debt to the credit reporting agency.
2. Notification to the state Franchise Tax Board to have the amount withheld from your state income tax return
3. A detailed investigation of your income and assets in preparation for possible legal action.

If these tickets are valid I have no problem (and would have had no problem) paying them. However, because I never received any notice, it seems extravagant to be liable for $413 in miscellaneous and interest charges from approx. 10 years ago.

Also, the collector is not cooperating with giving me the documents I need and is unwilling to extend deadlines (even though they have already waited 10 years) to allow for my review.

What can I possible do to combat these or avoid the excessive penalties?

Thanks!!

There should be a hearing and an appeal process in this mess ... look into that.

Alternatively, consult an attorney. Since these are civil matters, you will not be provided an attorney to defend you so you will have to deal with the matter on your own.

It can be an ugly mess, and I have heard contradictory information on the legitimacy of these past due citations, so I cannot say for sure what the story is.

However, usually a lien is placed on the offending vehicle and assessed at the time of registration. So they may not have tried too hard to deal with it in collections or through the DMV.

- Carl