NYC Parking Tickets
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Ok. I know what you’re thinking. I thought this site was supposed to be about reasons to love New York. How do parking tickets relate? Well, they don’t. Not really. But what better way to get things started than with a money and time saving tip that I’ve picked up since living in this fair city of ours.
I’m going to go out on a limb here, parking tickets are no fun. That being said, if you dare to venture into Manhattan with a car more than once in your life, chances are you’ve received one of these delightful gifts from the government.
Now, I’m not offering a magic bullet to make your ticket disappear, but you should know that not all hope is lost. If you were so inclined, you could request a hearing and spend the better part of your vacation day languishing in the Manhattan Business Center. A few hours later, you’ll be the proud recipient of a settlement offer, saving you up to a cool 35% off the total of your fine. Not really the greatest return on your time investment.
What you may not know is that you can achieve the same effect by filling out a simple form on the nyc.gov website. Enter your contact information, the ticket information and in the Defense text area simply write “Looking for settlement.” You should receive a letter from the Adjudication Division of the Department of Finance in 2-3 weeks with your reduced fine.
I have done this a number of times and always had success, granted these are for simple alternate side of the street parking violations. If you’ve got something more serious (e.g. parking in front of a fire hydrant) I’m not sure how well this method would work. By all means, try it out and let us know how you fare. If you happen to have any tips of your own for beating parking violations, please do leave them in the comments.
Just tried this for a hydrant ticket. I’ll let you know how it goes.
Look for errors on your ticket and online. For a while they were mistaking Maryland for Massachusetts and I got out of several tickets that way. The law states that if there are any mistakes on the ticket at all, the ticket is null. I’ve also gotten out of some tickets because my car was listed as “Grey” when it is actually blue. Hooray evening when colors get confused! Sent in a pic of my car which is clearly blue and the tix were thrown out. Gotta love nyc.
Oh my. Had I only knows about the color thing. They always call mine grey, but it is champaigne!
Color is not a basis for ticket dismissal in New York City. You must have beat it on something else!