[Merged] parking ticket in York University

[Leonard L]

I just got a statement for $450. I lived on res this year and have been parking in the restricted lot. At first I figured that it was private property so I threw the tickets out, but it seems it's iffy on the credit rating subject, I definitely don't want to ruiin my mom's rating so I payed. But it definitely beats the $900 they're charging for a year pass

[JP79]

I have tickets from York U dating as far back as a year and a half ago. I have since sold my car, bought a new one, and renewed my license plate. Like others have said, they can't really do anything to force you to pay, besides threaten to withold transcripts. They'll just send a monthly statement showing how much you owe, adding a $5 admin fee each time.
The Bylaw in Toronto which states that these tickets are illegal STILL HOLDS TRUE. There's been battles back and forth, decisions in courts made, and then overturned, and overturned again. What York U is doing is still illegal, which is why the councillor voiced his concerns.
They can't send you to collections if the basis of the "debt" is ILLEGAL. You can't take somebody to collections for something that isn't even legal in the first place.

York U is merely using bully tactics. Don't pay.

[tjayl]

I have tickets from York U dating as far back as a year and a half ago. I have since sold my car, bought a new one, and renewed my license plate. Like others have said, they can't really do anything to force you to pay, besides threaten to withold transcripts. They'll just send a monthly statement showing how much you owe, adding a $5 admin fee each time.
The Bylaw in Toronto which states that these tickets are illegal STILL HOLDS TRUE. There's been battles back and forth, decisions in courts made, and then overturned, and overturned again. What York U is doing is still illegal, which is why the councillor voiced his concerns.
They can't send you to collections if the basis of the "debt" is ILLEGAL. You can't take somebody to collections for something that isn't even legal in the first place.

York U is merely using bully tactics. Don't pay.

I certainly hope they do withhold your transcripts. Then you can explain to potential employers that you can't show them transcripts because you feel you shouldn't have to pay to park your car.

[JP79]

I'm not a York U student.

[connzz]

Heyyy, I recently got a ticket from york for the most ridiculous thing and I would like to take them to court.. maybe get a little court experience :P
It would be great if someone who has dealt with yorku's stupid ticket supported this and possibly appear as a witness? XD

[xShaelx]

So here it is, I'm going to try and give you the facts and make as few assumptions as possible. Having been a student at York, I've dealt with just about every scenario regarding this parking stuff. I've been ticketed. I've been towed. I've paid parking fines, and I've also not paid parking fines. While I have not done any research outside of what I already know to have happened (ie. I have not read over what the exact laws and regulations are, however they have been quoted in this thread and commented on already), I think there is sufficient information to provide a few guidelines for how to deal with the parking fines.

So I'll provide you the most extreme case I know, who happened to be my good friend through my entire university career. He amassed a whopping $4K in parking fines. If it isn't obvious enough, to clarify for those a little slower than others here, a majority of the fines here are issued due to parking in a designated pay and display lot and not paying. Not for taking up 2 or 4 or 6 spaces, or parking in a handicap spot without a proper permit. Since many students feel the prices are outrageous (I do have to PARTIALLY agree - I'll explain soon), the solution tends to be: Park in a pay and display lot, not pay, get a ticket, not pay the ticket, and then rinse and repeat. With a $5 admin fee per month on unpaid fines and $40/ticket (undiscounted after x many days), this adds up fairly quickly.

So what happened to my friend? Big surprise... NOTHING. He has graduated and got his diploma. A few more facts, he was not the registered owner of the vehicle. And perhaps a slightly more important fact, the registered owner of the vehicle (parent) called in to state that they were using the vehicle while it was parked at York. In response to that (over the telephone), York claimed that they were going to sue. The final important fact. This was 3 years ago. Did a court trial ever take place? NO. It did not.

I happen to know 2 such cases so far. The one mentioned above. And another good friend of mine who also accumulated an amazing $6K in fines and graduated happily. This 2nd friend never had the registered vehicle owner phone in and claim they were driving the vehicle while it was on campus. Rather he went to his convocation, got his diploma, and never even heard anything about outstanding fines. But I happen to know that to date, for the latter case, mail from York is still coming demanding payment. The former case, I am not entirely sure, but *my first assumption of this post* is that he is also receiving mail asking for payment still. And I can confirm this if anyone finds it to be a crucial piece of information.

Now, having been provided 2 extreme cases of York students getting parking tickets and graduating, I think you can make a few solid conclusions, at least about the bit of having your diploma held. And make a clear note, that neither were owners of the vehicle they were driving. If you ARE THE REGISTERED OWNER, you may actually have your diploma held, this is indeed true.

As for me, well I like to apply a little bit of logic to this situation. Last I checked, private companies were allowed to issue tickets to vehicles. *Assumption #2*. However, what stops such a company from issuing an outrageous fine of say... $5000 for something as dumb as occupying 2 spaces? Would you pay such a fine, even if you know that you commited that infraction? I don't imagine so. Now there may be some sort of limit on fines for particular infractions. But I don't see why it should exceed your typical traffic ticket given by an actual parking enforcement officer. If your normal fine for not paying at a meter is $30, why is York charging $40? That just adds a fake feel to the whole thing in that they generated their own set of rules and regardless of it being fake or not, you can fight a ticket issued by a private company just as much as you can an actual ticket issued by the city. Additional points that add the fake feel of the york parking fines: After being towed, I was not forced to pay to have my vehicle released. In fact, my vehicle wasn't locked in any form. It was just relocated to a different lot. And in a separate event I phoned in to complain about a larger fine I had and had it removed entirely after a half hour long argument on fairness.

So I can tell you this much, without a doubt. You can park at york, get tickets, and you (the driver of the so called vehicle getting tickets), can get away with it so long as you are not the registered owner. Whether or not something happens later is unknown to me. But you think that after 8 years or more years of discussions on York's parking tickets, there would have been a documented court case in which York has sued an offender for outstanding fines. If someone can actually find such documentation, and I do encourage you to do so, that would reveal a lot.

And finally, the last part of my enormous post, I'm sorry for paining you with so much information. Why I partially agreed with parking prices being outrageous? I now purchase a parking permit to use the lots at york. I simply don't want annoying mail coming to me every month. Yes I could definitely save both on parking and toilet paper by not paying, but we can all agree that the constant mail gets annoying. Unreserved lot permits are currently at $348 or so after taxes. If you do some quick math (account for days you actually park at york, etc etc..), your daily cost for parking comes out to just under $5/day. At least that is my case for being at york 5 days a week. I do not see how this differs much from rates at other universities. I find this to be more than reasonable. As posted earlier, lots do need to be maintained, especially the open lots in the winter. And the garages as well. So dishing out $5/day to have a usable spot for me seems appropriate. And don't tell me they are too far. All outer lots are a 5 - 10 minute walk form campus walk. You have legs, use them. If you're that lazy, ask york for a transport from your lot. They actually do offer that service. The only part of I find brutal is $2 / 30 mins at the regular pay and display lots. I'm not sure what the justification for that rate is, but the solution for you is written above quite clearly. If you don't feel you would get your money's worth using a permit due to the short hours you have to park for, then park in the york village. You have up to 3 hours of free parking there. 4 or 5 hours if you want to press your luck as you might get tagged for parking more than 3 hours. If you will claim that $348 is STILL unaffordable, ask yourself if you applied for a bursary this year. If it's so difficult, why not have the university pay YOU to pay for your parking permit. Clearly you fall under the financial needs category, and have a just reason for needing money. So at least for York students, click on your damn financial profile, and apply for a bursary.

I would encourage any further posts on this matter to build on the the facts revealed here. So if you can find any documentation of court cases. Or perhaps know someone that was not the vehicle owner and had their diploma held. It would help.

Otherwise, at least to me, it appears that York parking tickets are bogus.

[YorkU_economics]

So here it is, I'm going to try and give you the facts and make as few assumptions as possible. Having been a student at York, I've dealt with just about every scenario regarding this parking stuff. I've been ticketed. I've been towed. I've paid parking fines, and I've also not paid parking fines. While I have not done any research outside of what I already know to have happened (ie. I have not read over what the exact laws and regulations are, however they have been quoted in this thread and commented on already), I think there is sufficient information to provide a few guidelines for how to deal with the parking fines.

So I'll provide you the most extreme case I know, who happened to be my good friend through my entire university career. He amassed a whopping $4K in parking fines. If it isn't obvious enough, to clarify for those a little slower than others here, a majority of the fines here are issued due to parking in a designated pay and display lot and not paying. Not for taking up 2 or 4 or 6 spaces, or parking in a handicap spot without a proper permit. Since many students feel the prices are outrageous (I do have to PARTIALLY agree - I'll explain soon), the solution tends to be: Park in a pay and display lot, not pay, get a ticket, not pay the ticket, and then rinse and repeat. With a $5 admin fee per month on unpaid fines and $40/ticket (undiscounted after x many days), this adds up fairly quickly.

So what happened to my friend? Big surprise... NOTHING. He has graduated and got his diploma. A few more facts, he was not the registered owner of the vehicle. And perhaps a slightly more important fact, the registered owner of the vehicle (parent) called in to state that they were using the vehicle while it was parked at York. In response to that (over the telephone), York claimed that they were going to sue. The final important fact. This was 3 years ago. Did a court trial ever take place? NO. It did not.

I happen to know 2 such cases so far. The one mentioned above. And another good friend of mine who also accumulated an amazing $6K in fines and graduated happily. This 2nd friend never had the registered vehicle owner phone in and claim they were driving the vehicle while it was on campus. Rather he went to his convocation, got his diploma, and never even heard anything about outstanding fines. But I happen to know that to date, for the latter case, mail from York is still coming demanding payment. The former case, I am not entirely sure, but *my first assumption of this post* is that he is also receiving mail asking for payment still. And I can confirm this if anyone finds it to be a crucial piece of information.

Now, having been provided 2 extreme cases of York students getting parking tickets and graduating, I think you can make a few solid conclusions, at least about the bit of having your diploma held. And make a clear note, that neither were owners of the vehicle they were driving. If you ARE THE REGISTERED OWNER, you may actually have your diploma held, this is indeed true.

As for me, well I like to apply a little bit of logic to this situation. Last I checked, private companies were allowed to issue tickets to vehicles. *Assumption #2*. However, what stops such a company from issuing an outrageous fine of say... $5000 for something as dumb as occupying 2 spaces? Would you pay such a fine, even if you know that you commited that infraction? I don't imagine so. Now there may be some sort of limit on fines for particular infractions. But I don't see why it should exceed your typical traffic ticket given by an actual parking enforcement officer. If your normal fine for not paying at a meter is $30, why is York charging $40? That just adds a fake feel to the whole thing in that they generated their own set of rules and regardless of it being fake or not, you can fight a ticket issued by a private company just as much as you can an actual ticket issued by the city. Additional points that add the fake feel of the york parking fines: After being towed, I was not forced to pay to have my vehicle released. In fact, my vehicle wasn't locked in any form. It was just relocated to a different lot. And in a separate event I phoned in to complain about a larger fine I had and had it removed entirely after a half hour long argument on fairness.

So I can tell you this much, without a doubt. You can park at york, get tickets, and you (the driver of the so called vehicle getting tickets), can get away with it so long as you are not the registered owner. Whether or not something happens later is unknown to me. But you think that after 8 years or more years of discussions on York's parking tickets, there would have been a documented court case in which York has sued an offender for outstanding fines. If someone can actually find such documentation, and I do encourage you to do so, that would reveal a lot.

And finally, the last part of my enormous post, I'm sorry for paining you with so much information. Why I partially agreed with parking prices being outrageous? I now purchase a parking permit to use the lots at york. I simply don't want annoying mail coming to me every month. Yes I could definitely save both on parking and toilet paper by not paying, but we can all agree that the constant mail gets annoying. Unreserved lot permits are currently at $348 or so after taxes. If you do some quick math (account for days you actually park at york, etc etc..), your daily cost for parking comes out to just under $5/day. At least that is my case for being at york 5 days a week. I do not see how this differs much from rates at other universities. I find this to be more than reasonable. As posted earlier, lots do need to be maintained, especially the open lots in the winter. And the garages as well. So dishing out $5/day to have a usable spot for me seems appropriate. And don't tell me they are too far. All outer lots are a 5 - 10 minute walk form campus walk. You have legs, use them. If you're that lazy, ask york for a transport from your lot. They actually do offer that service. The only part of I find brutal is $2 / 30 mins at the regular pay and display lots. I'm not sure what the justification for that rate is, but the solution for you is written above quite clearly. If you don't feel you would get your money's worth using a permit due to the short hours you have to park for, then park in the york village. You have up to 3 hours of free parking there. 4 or 5 hours if you want to press your luck as you might get tagged for parking more than 3 hours. If you will claim that $348 is STILL unaffordable, ask yourself if you applied for a bursary this year. If it's so difficult, why not have the university pay YOU to pay for your parking permit. Clearly you fall under the financial needs category, and have a just reason for needing money. So at least for York students, click on your damn financial profile, and apply for a bursary.

I would encourage any further posts on this matter to build on the the facts revealed here. So if you can find any documentation of court cases. Or perhaps know someone that was not the vehicle owner and had their diploma held. It would help.

Otherwise, at least to me, it appears that York parking tickets are bogus.

Wow - great post! This is all you really need to know about parking at YorkU. I have still have one question, though. I was hoping you were going to talk about your car being towed because the exact same sh*t happened to me yesterday. I was late for tutorial and unknowingly parked along a fire route, I came back an hour later to find that they towed my car to a different lot. Now, here is where it gets tricky. I went to Parking and Transportation services at the William Small Centre and some dude came about 10 minutes later (I'm assuming he works for parking and transportation) and told me to sign this document after having written down all the relevant information, ie)name, license plate, driver's license number, owner of the vehicle, phone number, etc.. Now, he asked me who the owner of the car was and I said my dad (which he is). After that, he called someone to find out exactly where my car had been towed and it was towed to another lot. So, do you think I can still get away with not paying the ticket since they know who the owner is and who was driving the vehicle at the time during the infraction? Will that document that they made me sign have any effect? Thanks in advance, please reply back!

[e46_323]

I don't think you can get away with free parking now that they will have your information tied to the fact that you were driving your dads car and they now know it is you.

My friends always told me that as long as the car is not under your name, do not pay any of the parking tickets york issues to you. However, if you paid one of the tickets, they will now know that you are specifically tied to that plate and if you repeat again, they will with hold your diploma until you pay your parking fines.

I got sick of all these parking bs @ york and now rent a spot in the village right behind the brown apartment on sentinel road (very close to scott library and osgoode)

the village is 1 hour parking limit now instead of 3hrs and 8PM-8AM is free parking for those who didn't know

[xShaelx]

Wow - great post! This is all you really need to know about parking at YorkU. I have still have one question, though. I was hoping you were going to talk about your car being towed because the exact same sh*t happened to me yesterday. I was late for tutorial and unknowingly parked along a fire route, I came back an hour later to find that they towed my car to a different lot. Now, here is where it gets tricky. I went to Parking and Transportation services at the William Small Centre and some dude came about 10 minutes later (I'm assuming he works for parking and transportation) and told me to sign this document after having written down all the relevant information, ie)name, license plate, driver's license number, owner of the vehicle, phone number, etc.. Now, he asked me who the owner of the car was and I said my dad (which he is). After that, he called someone to find out exactly where my car had been towed and it was towed to another lot. So, do you think I can still get away with not paying the ticket since they know who the owner is and who was driving the vehicle at the time during the infraction? Will that document that they made me sign have any effect? Thanks in advance, please reply back!

When my car was towed I had to do pretty much what you did. Unfortunately this was so long ago that I have no idea what information I provided to have my car released. I do remember, 100%, having to fill out a form to be taken to the lot where it was moved to, I just don't remember what information I provided. All I remember is that they asked me to pay them and since this happened right when I started going to York, I really had no money on me. So they just told me the fine total and let me go. Obviously, following that, I either paid, or would have started getting that monthly crap mail from them asking for payment. Either way it was very silly when I think about it now, an actual car impound would not release your vehicle until they receive payment. Yet York somehow returned my car without payment, smells fishy (with the legalities perhaps?), but you make what you want of it. Either way, I don't think I can tell you whether you are safe or not from having to pay York's parking fines since I'd only be assuming things. But if we look at this logically, then you might find that you haven't really struck out. One thing, it seems that York having your information gives them the 1-up on you. However, if you have dealt with the towing fees and whatever happened that day, it does not make a clear indication as to who is driving the vehicle at any given point. So while they know that you do in fact drive that car, and you do go to York with it, it does not really allow anyone to assume that all future parking violations are your doing. However if you do happen to gain some large sum of parking fines and York decides it's time to go to court with all those people owing money (which to my knowledge has yet to happen), you can see how them having proof of your parking violation will work against you quite well.
As for having your diploma held, well it all goes back to who the registered owner is. If they try to hold it, you can claim you were not driving the car. In your particular case, they might say, well you had a violation on this day, so you DO drive this vehicle. But of course, that doesn't pin you to any outstanding fines beyond the day you were towed. So then it's really up to them to prove you are responsible for any outstanding fines, and they might, they might not. I really don't know. Perhaps whether they can or can't depends on how much hard disk space is available for their CCTV cams to record to. And I suppose it also comes down to whether or not the parking fines York dishes out are even legal. But that route doesn't seem to be the preferred one I find, and I'm really not sure how that might even turn out.
Hopefully that helps a bit. Just be cautious. You might find all this isn't worth the hassle or the headache once you want to graduate. But use your own judgement.

[mjaman]

I don't go to York but I still receive these letters. I also own the car, is it safe to say that I can call York and tell them I have nothing to do with the claim and what they are doing is illegal?

[kiasu]

I don't go to York but I still receive these letters. I also own the car, is it safe to say that I can call York and tell them I have nothing to do with the claim and what they are doing is illegal?

+1

same here...

[sky_touch]

+1

same here...

Another +1... same here too lol. I have a $300 fine but i never went to York (brother used the car and got a ticket there). Been receiving letters for the past 2 years.

[tsxnation]

I used to go there 7 years ago and I have 4 years of unpaid tickets. The car was not registered to my name at the time though so maybe that's why.