Geek!
I’ve gotten notice from the City of Chicago that they will now boot my vehicle because I have 11 tickets dating back to 1991.
I am in bankruptcy and foreclosure and cannot afford to pay the tickets even on their “Hardship Program”. What about parking in garages and parking lots and never on the street? Will that work? What can I do? Please help?
Lea
Lea-
My first advice would be to talk to your bankruptcy attorney and see what they can do for you. I’m not an attorney and I’m not sure if even a bankruptcy can discharge a parking ticket from your debts. But it would be worth at least a phone call with your attorney to see if there are any options open to you.
Your strategy of only parking on private property or in private parking lots will work as the city cannot boot on private property or outside the city limits. But one slip up and you’re screwed.
One strategy would be if you’re married, to “sell” the car to your husband or perhaps to a close trusted relative. Sell it for $1 and transfer the title. The new “owner” will get a fresh plate that is not on the boot
list.
Of course, you will be the only person driving your husband’s or family member’s car, but that car won’t be boot eligible.
The thing you have to really be worried about is having your driver’s license suspended. If you have 10 unpaid tickets or more, the city can move to have the Secretary of State suspend your driver’s license.
I would advise paying the least costly two tickets ASAP! No kidding. Do it today. With only 9 tickets on your record, your driver’s license remains intact.
Sorry about all your troubles. It’s rough out there. I’ll keep a prayer for you.
Good luck. Things will get better.
Your friend,
The Parking Ticket Geek
Hi PTG,
Last Sunday I parked in a metered spot on Winthrop just south of Bryn Mawr. The rate was listed as $1.00/hr.
I tried to pay for my time with quarters, but the machine just dumped them in the coin return, so I tried to use a debit card.
The first time, I punched the $1 button once, and the $.25 button twice. The meter said I had entered $15.00, so I canceled the transaction and tried again, this time punching the $.25 button 6 times. Again the meter said I had entered $15. I figured I was just reading the display wrong, and completed the transaction.
The receipt showed a $15.00 payment, and gave me an expiration time 1 1/2 hours from the time of purchase. When I checked my bank account the next day it listed a transaction of $15.00 to LAZ Parking.
I called the phone number listed on the receipt, and was told that they had no mechanism for issuing refunds for overcharges, and that I would have to dispute the charge with my credit card company.
I then called 311 to register a complaint, and was told that I would have to contact LAZ, and that the city had no involvement in parking meter disputes.
I found a number online for City of Chicago “Parking meter complaints” (312) 742-6998, and when I called I got an answering machine asking me to leave a message, which I did.
I am curious if you have had other reports of this kind of overcharge, and what advice you have on how to deal with this situation when it occurs.
Thanks for your time,
Matt
Matt-
That’s a pretty crazy story. What the hell! That’s one screwed up parking meter pay box.
It seems like it’s charging $10 per hour instead of $1 per hour. Perhaps it’s wishful thinking on Chicago Parking Meter LLC’s part.
But, seriously, please, PLEASE, at the very least, dispute the charge with your credit card company.
Considering you called pretty much every number you could possibly call, I think you did a great job of trying to cover your bases.
The only other thing I would have advised would to have called the Chicago Parking Meters helpline (877-242-7901) at the time of the incident to report the broken meter.
Obviously, it’s malfunctioning. In fact, by a factor of 10.
In general, I think CPM/LAZ’s “No Refund” policy is a load of crap.
I understand they need to be careful of scumbag scam artists trying to rip them off. And that’s a legitimate and understandable concern for any business.
However, in your case, they can obviously view the transaction on the machine and on their merchant account statement.
The company needs to figure out a way refund money for legitimate problems quickly, instead of putting the entire burden on the motorist and making them jump through hoops to dispute a charge.
Look, if you want, amongst the piles of crap on my desk, somewhere I have phone numbers and e-mail addresses for all of CPM and LAZ’s upper level muckety-mucks. Do you want me to send you that info?
Maybe if the top level people start getting an earful from people just trying to get a refund for legit issues with their parking meters, perhaps they’ll change their policy.
Keep us posted Matt.
The Geek
Hi Geek,
I’m not a Chicagoan (yet), but I’ve always wondered about this.
Suppose you return to your car just as a ticket-writer is pulling out their trusty Book of Tears. If you get into your car and drive off before they have a chance to write the citation, can you get in trouble?
Would the situation be different if the person in question was a sworn officer and not just a “meter maid”?
Thanks,
L.W.
Hey L.W.
Here’s the thing.
It may depend on what part of the ticket writing process the ticket writer is in, if and when you pull off.
If the ticket writer just whipped out their ticket book, or just started up their handheld computer, you may avoid a ticket altogether. Operative word is “may.”
But, more likely than not, if they’ve already started filling out the ticket or have completed issuing the ticket and you pull away before they hand it to you or slap it on your vehicle, don’t worry, you’ll still get the ticket. The ticket will come in the form of a “Notice of Violation” via the mail. They’ll even make notes on the ticket that you pulled away.
As long as they have your license plate, they know where you live.
In either situation, you won’t get in any additional trouble for doing that.
So, while it would be really cool if it were as easy to avoid a ticket by just burning rubber and pulling away from Boss Hogg ala’ an episode of The Dukes of Hazzard. But don’t assume you’ve just slipped through the clutches of the city–because you haven’t.
I tried that once 20 years ago when junkies outnumbered yuppies in Wicker Park, but it was no dice even then.
BTW: We don’t call Parking Enforcement Aides “meter maids” anymore. At least not here. And in fact, anyone from the city writing parking tickets IS a sworn officer.
Thanks,
The Geek
Ask The Parking Ticket Geek is a semi-regular parking ticket advice column.
If you have a question for The Parking Ticket Geek, please e-mail the Geek with your query at: askthegeek@theexpiredmeter.com
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Re: the $15 charge, if you’re going to write a letter, it might as well be to your credit card company to dispute the charge and include some documentation of city parking rates. The CC company will then contact LAZ, LAZ will have no way of finding documentation, let alone justification of the overcharge, and your CC company will credit the overcharge.
Writing to LAZ may just get you nothing but headaches and you’ll STILL have to write to the CC company.
Selling any asset to avoid debt to a “close trusted relative,” especially for inadequate consideration ($1), could be deemed a fraudulent conveyance by a court. I’d be careful providing legal counsel in this regard and would stick to your earlier advice to Lea: see an attorney!
A few years ago, I got a ticket at Midway. I literally pulled to the curb to wait for my sister in law, as she had just called and said she leaving the baggage claim and was walking out the door. Because she wasn’t actually at my car at that moment, the grumpy PEA told me to move. I said my sister in law was walking to the car, but screamed at me to move. I pulled ahead about 50 feet and picked up her up, and drove away.
About 3 weeks later I got the notice in the mail. I had no idea what the address was, and looked in my datebook to see what I was doing that day and where I was and finally realised the address was Midway.
I had a hearing and the hearing threw it out without me even having to explain anything. She said the standard practice is to pretty much dismiss all tickets written at the airports, because the area is so enormous the airport address on the ticket isn’t precise enough be used to determine the location of car at the time the ticket was written.
I am sure most people have no clue about this and just pay it.
Greg-
That’s good info to know about airport tickets.
However, before DoR or Ticketmaster corrects you, I believe it’s TMA/OEMC out at the airports, not PEAs.
Facts-
Good point. I’m sure you are technically correct. But, from a practical standpoint it would most likely work. UNLESS, there’s something in the bankruptcy about transferring a large asset.
re $15 rip-off, have your CC company issue a “chargeback”, which you can do when you do not receive the services you paid for (i.e. you did not receive 15 hours worth of parking!) look on the website consumerist.com for more information about initiating chargebacks, how they work, and how companies who have taken your money really REALLY do not like to deal with them.
Mike..you are correct….the large majority of Parkers written at Midway and Ohare are by TMA’s.
I was actually talking to a former Ohare TMA the other day and asked them with such a large area…how do they prove where the violation occurred so that the Hearing officer has a clue.
She told me that they were instructed to write in the comments the level and closest Door location…Like
T3 LL D (terminal3 Lower Level door D in shorthand).
I received two tickets (within 7 hours) for expired tags on November 2. My car had been parked for four days on the street, and I simply forgot to put the damn sticker on the plate.
I’m assuming they can’t BOTH be dismissed, if I had proof that I had the sticker. However, can at least ONE of them be dismissed since they were for the same incident on the same day and the car had not been moved?
Thanks for any advice.
Raul
Raul-
Follow me here.
Fight both. At the hearing for both tickets, explain you are indeed on the hook for the first one, but you don’t feel you should have to pay the second ticket. The reason is, the muni code restricts how many times a day you can be ticketed for this particular violation which is once every 24hours.
Go this route and you at least won’t have to pay twice.