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Old 04-12-2010, 06:06 AM
 
2 posts, read 3,956 times
Reputation: 10

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Hi everyone!

I am from Europe and recently came to California for a few days. I was unlucky and my rented car was towed by the police.

We had to go to the sheriff, pay $200 and get it. According to the guy there, this was the end of the matter as he couldn't have given us the vehicle back unless the full amount was cleared.

4 months down the road, I received a letter for the city of west hollywood saying that I owe them $85 for parking at the wrong place. But what is that? Haven't I already paid more than enough and wasn't the matter cleared? Can they arbitrarily re-calculate things like that and issue new fines for old , already paid, parking tickets? Isn't that utterly weird?

I of course opted no to care about it, because I think they are just greedy, unlawful and capitalising. However, can someone confirm that there are indeed no implications for foreign nationals avoiding these citations? As far as I can see, their jurisdiction is very limited and has nothing to do with federal law.

Thank you
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Old 04-12-2010, 06:12 AM
 
4,483 posts, read 9,258,235 times
Reputation: 5769
Probably it had nothing to do with luck, and a lot to do with illegal parking.

The $200 was the fee for getting back your impounded vehicle, not the fine for parking in the wrong place.

The $85 was for illegal parking.

Your last question is whether visitors to a country can be held accountable for laws they break?
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Old 04-12-2010, 06:14 AM
 
1,016 posts, read 1,927,658 times
Reputation: 171
Ditto problem is that these people never make it clear as to what is and what is not covered. and bingo a new fine comes around......I agree that it is greedy.
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Old 04-12-2010, 11:00 AM
 
2 posts, read 3,956 times
Reputation: 10
Oh!! That could be right, although they knew I was on my way to the airport in a few hours and didn't ask me to pay anything else nor informed me there that what I paid was not in fact the fine itself. Nor did I know where to go to pay that... that's a bit messy.
I don't want to have an unpaid parking ticket anywhere as I like to pay my bills on time, but now they have more than doubled the fine and paying it would involve calling California from Europe which is messy as well
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Old 04-12-2010, 11:48 AM
 
Location: Los Angeles
8,468 posts, read 10,883,721 times
Reputation: 10717
We have a saying in this country, "Do the crime, Do the time".
In your case it is, "Do the crime, pay the fine".
Bob.
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Old 04-12-2010, 12:13 PM
 
Location: South Bay
7,226 posts, read 22,128,684 times
Reputation: 3626
my understanding with fines and rental cars is that the rental company would incur the fee and charge the credit card that you had on file while you were in possession of the car.
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Old 04-12-2010, 12:57 PM
 
3,550 posts, read 6,470,520 times
Reputation: 3506
Quote:
Originally Posted by CALGUY View Post
We have a saying in this country, "Do the crime, Do the time".
In your case it is, "Do the crime, pay the fine".
Bob.

In LA that's "Do the crime, do the time...unless your'e a celebrity."
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Old 04-12-2010, 05:12 PM
 
Location: Los Angeles
186 posts, read 609,472 times
Reputation: 125
I dislike people saying that in THIS country, we have that saying. Implying that in other countries, criminals are just let loose to do whatever they want...
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Old 04-12-2010, 07:51 PM
 
Location: Los Angeles, CA
425 posts, read 1,951,224 times
Reputation: 300
Quote:
Originally Posted by nkomp18 View Post
Oh!! That could be right, although they knew I was on my way to the airport in a few hours and didn't ask me to pay anything else nor informed me there that what I paid was not in fact the fine itself. Nor did I know where to go to pay that... that's a bit messy.
I don't want to have an unpaid parking ticket anywhere as I like to pay my bills on time, but now they have more than doubled the fine and paying it would involve calling California from Europe which is messy as well
They are the impound people, they more than likely assumed you knew about the fine from the ticket itself. It's not within the scope of their job to tell you about the ticket or collect it.

And yes, you are responsible one way or another for that ticket since you incurred it. Visiting another country means you follow their laws. I can't go to Mexico and break the law and expect to get away with it because I'm not a Mexican citizen.
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Old 09-23-2010, 01:58 PM
 
1 posts, read 1,689 times
Reputation: 10
The first thing I did is cancel the credit card I gave the rental car company. The dispute is between me and The City of Las Angeles. I did not ask the rental car company to represent me or pay my fine. If the rental car company is stupid enough to work collections for The City of Las Angeles they need to get stuck with the bill. I am not going to Los Angeles again. We changed our Disneyland trip to Disney World in Florida.
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