northern parking ticket shock

denialfiend76

Hi there,
Don't know if anyone has any experience of this but I just simply went home to visit the folks as I haven't been home in a while. Anyway I sat in front of the fire going through letters addressed to me that I found when to my horror I received a sternly worded letter and worse still for £135stg. It was in relation to parking in Belfast earlier in the year. Anyways, its an awful lot of money and I found a number of letters sent to me about this already increasing all the time. There is even a mention of a debt collecting agency. I would love to pay it as I wouldn't want the thought of it chasing me to the grave. HELP???

biko

Get in touch with whoever sent the last letter?

Wexfordian

denialfiend76 wrote: »

I would love to pay it as I wouldn't want the thought of it chasing me to the grave. HELP???

So pay it?

btkm8unsl0w5r4

Try registering you car to where you live and you will get more timely notice of your transgressions. And you get to pay your VRT and motor tax as a bonus.

keithclancy

Juliette Damaged Bathroom wrote: »

Try registering you car to where you live and you will get more timely notice of your transgressions. And you get to pay your VRT and motor tax as a bonus.

Don't really know the Circumstances now do you ?

Its perfectly fine to have a car registered to a place where you have your primary ties.

Hell, if he's a student, it wouldn't even be possible to register his car.

Our man in Havana

Hell, if he's a student, it wouldn't even be possible to register his car.

Why not? The government will happily mug everyone for VRT.

btkm8unsl0w5r4

I don't know the full story, but I can guess the general jist of it. If you can afford to run a car you can afford to pay a fine. If that's a high horse then so be it, and if paying your fair share is a higher horse get me a ladder for that too.

Our man in Havana

Usual HH nonsense.

Tragedy

Our man in Havana wrote: »

Why not? The government will happily mug everyone for VRT.

If you reside temporarily in the State primarily for the purpose of pursuing a course of studies you may bring a foreign registered Category A vehicle (e.g. a saloon, estate, hatchback, convertible, coupé, MPV, Jeep, etc. a minibus (with less than 13 permanently fitted seats including the driver's seat)) or a motor-cycle into the State provided it is registered in the country of your normal residence. The same conditions mentioned in paragraph 2 above apply and the 12 month time limit will be extended until you have completed your course of studies.

Also

3. What is meant by "State resident" and "non-resident"?
A "State resident" is a person whose normal residence is in the Republic of Ireland and a "non-resident" is anyone whose normal residence is outside the State. "Normal residence " means the place where a person usually lives (for at least 185 days each year) because of personal or occupational ties.

If a person's occupational ties are in a different country from his/her personal ties, then the country of personal ties is taken as the normal residence provided the person returns there regularly.

Rodin

Tragedy wrote: »

Also

How regularly?

Every day?
Every year?

Tragedy

Rodin wrote: »

How regularly?

Every day?
Every year?

Discretionary.

doopa

Tragedy wrote: »

Discretionary.

I thought with the VRT it was for a set number of days per year! However, when I mailed them they rather opaquely said that it was discretionary. By saying things like you don't intend to live here permanently but an indeterminate amount of time you can say you intend to return to the country you have personal ties hence in theory you can get round the VRT. In practise however, if you mention that the place you have personal ties with is the UK instead of say Germany then they tend to want more information on the exact nature of those ties.

Tragedy

doopa wrote: »

I thought with the VRT it was for a set number of days per year! However, when I mailed them they rather opaquely said that it was discretionary. By saying things like you don't intend to live here permanently but an indeterminate amount of time you can say you intend to return to the country you have personal ties hence in theory you can get round the VRT. In practise however, if you mention that the place you have personal ties with is the UK instead of say Germany then they tend to want more information on the exact nature of those ties.

You might have gotten confused between the two cases here:

"Normal residence " means the place where a person usually lives (for at least 185 days each year) because of personal or occupational ties.

If a person's occupational ties are in a different country from his/her personal ties, then the country of personal ties is taken as the normal residence provided the person returns there regularly.

The former is absolute (>185 days per year), the latter is discretionary (returns there regularly).

Rodin

Tragedy wrote: »

You might have gotten confused between the two cases here:

All ye need to do is have the car registered in the north for a year and no VRT needs paid if transferring it across

doopa

Back on topic - I got a parking fine (wasn't me driving/parking) from the north delivered a while back, since it was the first contact (not the inflated charge) I just paid up. Wasn't particularly clear to me that they could follow up, but since I visit regularly figured it wasn't worth the hassle.

Apparently it is worth querying the extra part of these fines, giving them a sob story etc and you may get away with the original fine - 40stg or whatever it is.

repsol

doopa wrote: »

Back on topic - I got a parking fine (wasn't me driving/parking) from the north delivered a while back, since it was the first contact (not the inflated charge) I just paid up. Wasn't particularly clear to me that they could follow up, but since I visit regularly figured it wasn't worth the hassle.

Apparently it is worth querying the extra part of these fines, giving them a sob story etc and you may get away with the original fine - 40stg or whatever it is.

You were better off paying up. With the number plate reading technology available to the police now,the chances of being caught next time you are up North is quite high.I found a speeding fine from Florida that I forgot to pay in a suitcase last year.It was about 6 months old at the time.I emailed them and admitted that I forgot and they were surprisingly nice about it and just charged me 40 dollars extra on top of the fine (about $120 I think).I subsequently found out that if I had not paid I would have been in big trouble if I got stopped again(I go there most years).|They would have arrested me,I would have got a large fine and then I would be unable to enter the USA any more.Plus if its a weekend they lock you up until court opens on Monday.Its easy to think a fine from another jurisdiction can be ignored,but its not advisable if you intend going back,ever!

denialfiend76

Hey guys
Thanks for the replies. I think I'll simply pay up.