French Parking Ticket on Rental Car

luketitz

Bit of an odd one for ye legal eagles!

We were in France last month and parked our rental car for an hour or two in a large carpark near a scenic marina, didn;t see any signs or other people fretting over meters, etc, so left the car and wanderered away for a bit of sightseeing.

Upon our return to the car, there was a little orange slip under the wiper, which using my 12 year-unused C- Ordinary Leaving Cert French, I roughly translated as 'you've parked illegally'.

I shrugged it off and got on with the holiday.

Anyway, to the actual point of this rambling story.. I got in from work today to a very official-looking French letter, citing me for an infringment and asking me to cough up the rather odd (and refreshingly low, to be fair) amount of 17euro for the infraction, and it mentions the particular carpark of the town we visited that day, so it adds up.

My question is, basically, what, if anything can/will/may happen if I just toss the yoke in the bin and pretend I never received it? Will they bother harassing me or taking this further? Is there any legal jurisdiction for that (I'm assuming there's EU-wide legislation for it)

It seems mad to me that they obviously contacted the car rental firm who duly obliged with my home address, how thoroughly efficient and worryingly loose with personal data they appear to be!

Pre-empting 'just pay the fine' and 'we can't give legal advice' responses; yes, I probably will pay it after next pay day but would like to know the implications of not doing so, based on anecdotal evidence or opinion, as not paying would be my preferred choice, given current financial situation - keen to know if anyone else has ever experienced similar and what action they took.. thanks for reading!

Bepolite

I'm surprised you weren't charged for it by the rental agency.

I suspect the legal implications would be nothing until you get pulled over one day, probably a few years from now on holiday with a few bottles of wine and a baguette in the boot, and find there's a warrant for your arrest and a €1000 fine outstanding.

hullaballoo

The rental agency probably didn't know by the time the car was returned but they do hand details over to Govt departments for any offences committed while driving their rentals. It's always in the agreement you sign to rent the car.

Anyway, as above, ultimately, failure to pay can result in the potential for you to be arrested and dealt with on your return to the country. I don't think there's a pan-EU warrant available for traffic offences but I could be wrong, I haven't looked specifically. It may be that there is one under the EAW scheme but they wouldn't be sought for something so minor.

It happened to me in Spain, I didn't realise that even a slight exaggeration of the speed limit (i.e. 122km/h in a 120 zone) was something they'll do you for there but they do. Standard €50, going up to €100 if you don't pay within a certain amount of time. It wouldn't surprise me if a similar regime operated in France.

Look out for Portugal, they don't have many speed cameras but if the policia catch you, you have to pay them a cash amount (that they decide on, then and there) on the spot. If you don't have the cash amount with you, they take you to the nearest ATM. If you have insufficient funds... their cells are not air conditioned!

Pay the fine.

Pat Mustard

I'm not 100% on this, but apart from reciprocity between Ireland and the UK for penalty points, I don't think that there are reciprocal arrangements between Ireland and other European countries for traffic offences.

If this is accurate, it may be helpful:

Only the UK, Ireland and Denmark refused to sign the cross-border treaty, which could see an extra €100million being collected by the French government – pushing its total take from motoring offences to nearly one billion euros a year.

Apparently, reciprocity could be coming down the pipeline:

If the penalty is not paid the police force will send repeat notices with increased fines but there is no formal procedure to force payment at the moment.

The European Commission will move to introduce a system after 2016 when the application of the treaty is reviewed.

Foreign countries can ask for help from the offender’s home country, but any enforcement proceedings could see the fine going into that country’s coffers rather than the host’s.

The ultimate sanction for fine-dodgers would be that their names would be on a black list in the host country and being stopped there for any reason in the future could see their vehicle impounded and a heavier fine imposed.

I got a speeding fine previously, and my rental agreement specified that if I didn't pay it, the rental company would have to do so, and would apply the amount to my credit card.

Zambia

Chances are the fine will just keep going up. They will send the odd letter.

Is there Le Boards site you could ask on?

luketitz

Nice set of responses guys, thanks.

Yeah sure I guess I'll just pay it - mainly to avoid that potential future wine/baguette exportation embargo!

Still pretty annoyed at the lack of signage in the carpark outlining the fact that there were parking restrictions; never one to shirk obligations if I'm made aware of them in advance!

Beware if visiting Boyardville anyone, savage little town otherwise!

hullaballoo

You're talking about France, though. The land of "that's not my job", there isn't going to be a sign. You're just expected to know intuitively whether you need to pay. Or do some research before you go - there might be a prepay system!

barman linen

I was in NL and hired a car and seemingly was caught by a speed camera. Hertz charged me 25 euro admin fee on my credit card which I expensed to my company.

Two years later while transiting Schipol my passport was scanned and a chap came out of a side door and told me to follow him. He told me a fine of 140 euro had been tagged to my passport.

I got no ticket as I had moved house and the address on my licence was my old address.

I asked him what was to happen....he said nothing - all he could do was advise me to pay the fine and gave me the number of the agency. I asked could he detain me and he said no so I went on my way. He did advise that this would happen every time I entered NL.

I called the agency and got a Dutch language IVR and after 10 minutes of hitting zero or # I gave up.

I havent been back yet but assume that it is still on my file....

Fred Swanson

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