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SFU will impound vehicles violating parking regulations

edited April 2009 in General
Just got this in my email...
SFU was not involved in the recent lawsuit brought against the University of British Columbia concerning the validity of parking fines at UBC. However, in light of the judgment in that case, SFU wishes to take this opportunity to clarify its position on parking enforcement on its Burnaby campus.

SFU is entitled to enforce, and will continue to enforce, its parking fee
and enforcement regulations on an ongoing basis. Fees for parking must be
paid without exception. While the court decision restricts the ability of
universities in B.C. to charge fines, SFU continues to be able to impound
vehicles parked in contravention of the parking regulations.

- Effective April 1, 2009 SFU will no longer issue parking infraction
notices or ³tickets²; nor will it collect any outstanding fines.

- Instead of issuing ³tickets², up to two warning notices will be issued,
provided you have no history of parking infractions on campus.

- For infractions other than those enumerated below, SFU will continue to
enforce parking regulations with immobilizing devices. A fee related to the
cost of applying and removing the device must be paid before the device will
be removed.

- Where a vehicle is parked in an unsafe location, such as a fire lane or
emergency exit, it will be towed, and towing and storage charges must be
paid before the vehicle will be released to its owner.

- Where a vehicle is improperly parked in a reserved parking spot,
including spots reserved for drivers with a disability, it will be towed,
and towing and storage charges must be paid before the vehicle will be
released to its owner.

- For a first such infraction, the vehicle will be towed to an on-campus
site. Thereafter, it will be towed to an off-campus towing operation.

- Any further infractions may result in the permanent withholding of
parking privileges.

These parking controls are consistent with existing parking regulations and
with the decision of Goepel J. in Barbour v. UBC.

Parking is a limited resource at SFU. Safety and the orderly flow of traffic
remain paramount concerns.

J. Osborne, VP Legal Affairs
April 2, 2009
Damn... this sucks. Towing is like worst than a ticket.

Comments

  • edited April 2009
    vonnie;52524 said:
    Just got this in my email...



    Damn... this sucks. Towing is like worst than a ticket.
    like totally
  • edited April 2009
    sweet you can get up to two "warnings" before you have to change your license plate
  • edited April 2009
    Just keep one of those special wrenches in your trunk in case you get booted.

    They'll only tow you if you're parked in a reserved spot.
  • edited April 2009
    Jimmy;52538 said:
    sweet you can get up to two "warnings" before you have to change your license plate
    Are parking tickets attached to a specific license plate? If you get rid of the plate, you get rid of the tickets? I have about $400* of parking fines that I'm not going to pay since I was wrongfully ticketed. If I switch my plate, will the debt go away?

    *it was one ticket, but "service fees", and interests jacked it up from $90 to $400.
  • edited April 2009
    Well I guess you don't have to pay them now anyway since they were not legally issued to begin with.
  • edited April 2009
    randomuser;52551 said:
    Well I guess you don't have to pay them now anyway since they were not legally issued to begin with.
    What do you mean by "legally"? Can you elaborate on that a bit?

    I did park on their lot, but I didn't exceed the posted time limit. I technically agreed to their contract by parking on their property.
  • edited April 2009
    Well from what I gather from the circumstances, UBC and SFU did not have the right to issue monetary penalties for parking infractions.

    The only way they will be doing this now, is through recouping costs from towing related costs, and boots etc


    - Effective April 1, 2009 SFU will no longer issue parking infraction
    notices or ³tickets²; nor will it collect any outstanding fines
    --

    Or were you just talking about tickets in general, from somewhere outside of SFU and if changing your licence plate gets rid of those against you?
  • edited April 2009
    Agentbob;52552 said:
    What do you mean by "legally"? Can you elaborate on that a bit?

    I did park on their lot, but I didn't exceed the posted time limit. I technically agreed to their contract by parking on their property.
    Only municipal gov't and law enforcements have the ability to issue legal payable parking infractions.

    With SFU/UBC's ticketing, they're just banking on most people not knowing the proper guidelines, which is, nobody can force you to pay. Now UBC's fiasco has been made public, SFU changed their policies to cover their ass.
  • edited April 2009
    randomuser;52555 said:


    Or were you just talking about tickets in general, from somewhere outside of SFU and if changing your licence plate gets rid of those against you?
    Yeah, it's outside of SFU. Sorry, I should have mentioned that earlier. It's a third-party company that patrols the lot at SFU Surrey.

    They occasionally send a letter getting me to pay and threaten to take me to court (which clearly is a bluff). From what I've gathered, they don't have any evidence against me, so their claim won't stand. Another thing is that the cost of taking me to court far exceed the payment that I'll have to make.

    Does anyone know the "time window" for the parking ticket debt? Will the fine be voided after a certain period of time?
  • edited April 2009
    Well if they sued you civilly they don't need a large burden of proof to have you held liable. I doubt they would ever stretch their resources that far though.

    The only thing I would worry about is this could reflect negatively on your credit report possibly.

    The fine will still stand against for as long as they persue it. I think it will become statutorily barred if they make no efforts to collect for something like 2 to 5, or 5 to 10 years though. It gets really tricky though when creditors gain property over a debt, cause it often gets resold to other credit companies.
  • edited April 2009
    The flaw is they don't record your VIN number. Even so, I have electrical tape that i use to tape over my vin number on my windshield just for security reasons anyways.

    The rest you guys should have already figured out yourself already.
  • edited April 2009
    Your VIN is on the windshield? Mine's on the inside of my door.
  • edited April 2009
    if you're looking at your windshield from the front of your car.
    it's along the lower portion of the windshield is.
  • edited April 2009
    yeah... parking staff are a-holes :(
    they once gave me a parking ticket b/c i 4got 2 register my new license plate, and when i went to pay the fine @ security office, they told me that they had no record of the ticket. (?I'm thinking taht the lady who ticketed me just did it b/c she was mad that i was laying around in my car?)

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