Flat rates can mean being charged as much as an extra 50% on top of the cost of a car park (Image : Tina Tiller)
Flat rates can mean being charged as much as an extra 50% on top of the cost of a car park (Image : Tina Tiller)

MoneyJanuary 21, 2021

PSA: You might not need to pay that parking fine

The Bulletin editor
Flat rates can mean being charged as much as an extra 50% on top of the cost of a car park (Image : Tina Tiller)
Flat rates can mean being charged as much as an extra 50% on top of the cost of a car park (Image : Tina Tiller)

Pinged $65 for overstaying 10 minutes in a parking block? Put away your hard-earned cash and read this first.

Hopefully, by now, I’ve already established myself at The Spinoff as the resident tightarse, determined to avoid all unfair and unnecessary punishments (see: oversize baggage charges). Today, I’m focusing my attention on a similarly evil institution – the parking fine. 

I have to make clear from the outset that while I have a law degree, I am most definitely no lawyer, so this is assuredly not legal advice. Secondly, if you’ve been pinged by the local council or the police you should probably just pay up (unless you genuinely have an objection). My issue is with private car parks, whether it be a 10-storey eyesore or an empty lot surrounded by high rises.

The most important and continually useful part of my five years studying law (you can see why I pivoted into journalism) was the moment when I learnt that private companies cannot fine you unfairly for a parking infringement. 

The keyword, though, is “unfairly”. 

When you enter a parking building you form a contractual agreement with the company to pay the amount stipulated on the terms and conditions. So, if it says $5 for an hour you are contractually obligated to pay $5 for every hour you stay there. 

If you overstay your hour and are slapped with an exorbitant fine, you are only obliged to pay what you reasonably should have paid for the amount of time you overstayed. 

That means the private company can only recoup the amount it missed out on by you not paying, along with maybe the administrative cost of pinging you for it. If the hourly rate for parking was just $5, it’s hard to see how staying an extra half an hour warrants a $65 penalty. How much would the parking wardens have to be getting paid for that to be cost of recouping expenses!?

Consumer NZ’s Jessica Wilson agrees, saying that private car park operators “can’t just impose any rules they want”. Under the Fair Trading Act, the terms and conditions have to be fair. “They also have obligations under the Consumer Guarantees Act to carry out their services with reasonable care and skill,” says Wilson. 

“Complaints we get typically involve situations where the consumer has attempted to do the right thing – they’ve paid the parking fee and parked where they thought the signage indicated they should park – only to find they’ve been stung by a $65 breach notice.”

Wilson says that private car park operators will often claim that you have accepted the risk of being ticketed if you choose to overstay in their car park since there were clear signs warning this would happen if you didn’t observe their rules.

“Payment demands may also put people off making a complaint. These demands can look like official fines but car park operators have no legal authority to impose fines. They can only really claim damages for breaches of their terms and conditions,” explains Wilson.

Wilson’s advice is simple: first, try and fight your case directly with the parking company if you think you’ve been unfairly stung. If that doesn’t work – although from experience it should, –you can always take the matter to the Disputes Tribunal. 

“The downside is there’s a $45 filing fee to lodge a claim,” Wilson says. “This can deter people with legitimate claims – paying $45 to dispute a $65 breach notice may not seem worth it.”

She adds: “We think it should be much easier for consumers to dispute fees. Making the $45 tribunal fee refundable would be a good start.”

This information is all well and good, but does it actually work? Where’s the proof, I hear you ask. I put my car on the line for research purposes and have the receipts to show (eg about two years ago I got a parking ticket and I managed to track down the email response).

More Reading

    I had forgotten (I promise) to register my number plate in a free car park, ending up with a sweet, sweet $65 threat.

    Justice (Image : Supplied)

    So, there’s the public service announcement: you might not need to pay that parking fine. If you think you’ve been hard done by, try and fight it first. Email the company that’s threatened you and if that doesn’t work you can always escalate things higher up.

    Although, if you’ve been pinged by Auckland Transport for parking too long on a public street, well, it’s probably time to cough up.

    Keep going!
    feature

    MoneyJanuary 10, 2021

    The New Zealand $10 note that you can sell for $88

    Senior writer
    feature

    Summer reissue: Alex Casey goes on a hunt to find the rarest $10 note in the land. 

    First published February 10, 2020.

    I’ve always been really good at finding money. Not in the useful, fiscal hole kind of a way, but in the literal, frequently picks up bottle caps thinking they are 50c coins kind of a way. Last year, a car nearly backed over my head because I was retrieving a $2 coin from a drain. I nearly caused an accident recently after spotting $5 on the side of the motorway. I’ve found a $20 note in the middle of a school field and a $50 note in a pile of autumnal leaves. 

    The pursuit has become a bit like my own personal Pokémon Go. For example, my mouth waters at the idea of finding the commemorative $10 note released at the turn of the millennium. If you’ve ever seen one, you’ll know of it’s unbridled beauty already. The vivid blues and purples, splash of yellow and swirling seas can be spotted across a crowded room, which is exactly what happened when my colleague walked in holding one he received as change from a cafe last year. 

    Designed by Wellington’s Cue Design Limited in 1998, the polymer note features oodles of easter eggs. If you fold the note while looking through the clear window at the map of New Zealand, you’ll see “Y2K”. “The bank note has a diffraction optically variable device, which is an aluminium coating in the shape of two silver ferns within the window area,” the RBNZ annual report reads. “This feature reflects rainbow colours when the bank note is tilted to the light.”

    Another snazzy fact is that the note does not feature a single portrait. “Instead it depicts a Māori waka (canoe) sailing towards the sun on the obverse side, with the words ‘The dawn of a new era lights the way for New Zealand’s perpetual voyage of innovation and discovery’ within the clouds,” the Te Ara site reads. On the flipside you’ll find people surfing, skiing and kayaking, with the achingly optimistic phrase ‘Celebrating New Zealand’s free spirit and quest for adventure in the new millennium’ weaved in between.

    A collector’s edition (red serial numbers) were released on 11 November, 1999, with the circulating note (black serial numbers) released on 2 August, 2000. With over three million notes released into general circulation, the Reserve Bank encouraged the public to “keep these notes as millennium souvenirs if they wish.” According to Trevor Wilkins at Polymer Notes, the Reserve Bank began withdrawing the notes from circulation in 2002.

    But, evidently, not all made it home to roost. 

    A simple Trade Me search reveals a plethora of millenium notes in all their oceanic splendour. “While some collectors’ items appreciate a lot over time, others are a labour of love and are collected for the thrill of the chase,” Lisa Stewart, head of marketplace at Trade Me tells me. There are currently 26 listings for millennium banknotes, ranging from individual notes to a whole uncut sheet of 35 notes. Just last month, two sold for $88. 

    So what should you do if you find one? And how long should you hold onto it “If you happen to come across a $10 millennium banknote you could be holding on to a lot more than $10,” Stewart says. “If you want to cash in, there are plenty of keen Kiwis looking for these collectible notes onsite.” It proves to be becoming a more populated market too, with the sale of collectable banknotes on Trade Me in 2019 increasing from the previous year by 68%. Overseas sites feature the note for as much as $60 US. 

    Look, spending your whole life looking for one of these pretty notes may not be a get rich quick scheme by any stretch, but it is a fun, decades-long national treasure hunt that you may not have even known you were involved in. Rummage through your old boxes, open up those old tea-stained envelopes from the ancient year of 2000, and you might even find you’ve still got one yourself. Excited at the thought of having my colleague’s $10 note valued and potentially resold, I contacted him to see if he still had it. 

    Oh, my tenner?” he said, “I think I blew it on some Hobnobs.” 

    So, there’s at least one still out there. Game on.

    Independent journalism depends on you. Help us stay curious in 2021.  The Spinoff’s journalism is funded by its members – click here to learn more about how you can support us from as little as $1.