City of Toronto going after unpaid tickets from the past

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City of Toronto has a stack of outstanding tickets dating back as far as 1990 and doing everything it can to collect their money. But instead they are collecting a lot of angry drivers.

Kevin Conway of Toronto received a notice from Canadian Bonded Credits Ltd. stating he owed $510 for unpaid tickets dating back to 1990. Hope Brake found herself in a similar situation when she discovered she owed money for tickets from 1991.

All this started in 2001 when the city hired collection agencies to collect any fines larger than $5000, after they were done with this project money hungry politicians decided to go ahead and keep collecting regardless of the amount of money owed. Yes, this means that if you have an outstanding fine from 15 years ago you're not "over the bridge" yet.

There is no bylaw at the moment which would "expire" these unpaid tickets. Councillor Rob Ford also said that these people who have outstanding tickets they should pay regardless of when the tickets were issued.

For any further questions please contact:
416-397-TAGS (416-397-8247)

Comments:
	From:	Kev (3/13/2007 5:54:29 PM)
	Comment:	Where has the city been for last 15-20 years. Were they sleeping? City of Toronto should be ashamed of admiting to doing nothing for last 15 years. Me as a business owner would never chase anyone after such a long period of time.

	From:	Marc B (3/13/2007 6:48:26 PM)
	Comment:	I had a ticket (7 years old), after collection agency harassed me for couple of weeks I demanded to see the ticket, had to go to court. I got to see the ticket, bits and pieces of information, the only thing they had was my name, no license plate or driver's license. I ended up paying the ticket anyway just to get the collection people off my back.

	From:	J. Anderton (8/10/2007 1:11:47 PM)
	Comment:	I am being hounded by the collection agency for unpaid parking tickets in my name. Unfortunately my ex-husband was the culprit. I will pay the fines and hopefully get the money back from my ex who insists I am just trying to get money out of him. This has just brought back bad memories. What else will resurface after so many years.

	From:	r.lopez (1/15/2008 7:48:47 PM)
	Comment:	I have received endless amount of phone calls from a collection agency stating that I owe $1600 in unpaid parking tickets. I no longer drive a car because my license was taken away due to my glaucoma. I do not intend to pay 1 cent back to the city. They should be embarrassed to ask for outstanding payments from 1991. why doesn’t the statue of limitations apply to them? Sounds like just another cash grab from the city politicians

	From:	Brian in the lower 48 (6/9/2008 3:10:31 AM)
	Comment:	This is to all people that owe outstanding fines. Pay them. You broke the law, now you got to pay the piper for doing so. Your lucky you didn't have to pay before now.

	From:	Gary (6/11/2009 9:46:21 PM)
	Comment:	Years ago I was on bicycle ride. The police led us through a no left turn. I was the last person through and a nutty cop gave me a ticket for the offense he led us all through. My driver’s license was suspended but I got it back as they can't suspend it for a bicycle offense. Since then various collection agencies have phoned numerous times daily for the last two years. Now they are sending scarier messages saying they are from the provincial offenses office and then I must contact them immediately. I won't and will never pay that ticket. I'm going to see how long it goes on.

	From:	Paul (10/25/2009 2:21:06 PM)
	Comment:	I owed $13,700 in parking fines, accumulated during 2005 - 2006. After getting out from under a huge debt load, I walked into the Ministry office, and paid the entire amount. I now pay tickets religiously, like the reformed scofflaw I am. Now - what is interesting is this: When I paid the whopping amount, I asked, as an aside, whether any collection agency had been contacted on behalf of the City. Would you believe it, NO collection agency had yet been given my file. Any other business owed that kind of cash would have been on me, like white on rice. I was amazed.

	From:	Martin (11/23/2009 2:39:35 AM)
	Comment:	It is very unfair that they pretend to let you off the hook for so many years and then hit you hard with interest decades later. At least i get visa bills every month knowing how much i owe.

	From:	Cristian (12/27/2009 11:21:24 PM)
	Comment:	i have 2 tickets that are both of 110 dollars and i want to know if theres interest in each ticket if u dont pay them their about a year and a half old i intend to pay for them

	From:	Linda (1/26/2010 7:45:55 PM)
	Comment:	I have a parking ticket, the officer misspelled my license number (couple of letters are reversed), will they find me or should I pay the ticket?

	From:	howard (3/17/2010 8:20:43 AM)
	Comment:	can someone recommend legal help re the city's attempt to collect on alleged parking tickets from 25 y.o.?

	From:	Dave (4/13/2010 12:02:51 PM)
	Comment:	Can your license be suspended for not paying parking tickets? If so how long and/or at what amount? I know someone who had to get a new car and the ownership had to be under someone else’s name b/c they could not afford to get the car and pay the parking tickets.

	From:	jan (5/19/2010 9:11:06 PM)
	Comment:	How about clamping the wheels of cars parked illegally? Find your car clamped, call the phone and number and return at the arranged time. Credit or debit card required to pay total cost of all tickets owed on the plate # to remove the clamp or your vehicle gets towed and charges accrue daily. It would clear up some old debts and with the amount previously owed plus new revenue it would pay for the clamps. (Suspending someone's licence does no good because of the huge # of people driving around with suspensions already.)

	From:	Brian (6/10/2010 7:38:18 AM)
	Comment:	I have a ticket issued by the city and not the Provincial Offenses. It is from 1993 for failing to produce my lics. I dont remember getting this ticket and the collection agency has said for the last five years that my lics will be suspended for it. I have checked with provincial offenses and they say it cant be suspended... it was issued as a city ticket and not a provincial offense....

	From:	kim (8/8/2010 8:57:00 AM)
	Comment:	I am now getting harrassed by a collection agency but they have taken my licence away many years ago...what more can they do? not a question...go pay your tickets..i am going to tell the collection company to beat it

	From:	joe (2/27/2011 3:34:57 PM)
	Comment:	I know someone that got pulled over 5 years ago and they had no licence on them and no insurance at the time. They went to court and they didnt have to pay. Now 5 years later they take the persons licence away and the person has a $6500 fine to pay but they wont pay it and still driving. what will happen to the person? who can help this person? they dont have the kind of money to pay for a lawyer or court. Who can help them out?

	From:	joana (3/16/2011 12:53:31 AM)
	Comment:	my husband got pulled over too 5 years ago for driving without insurance and the police took his license and car away. Now he can't drive coz he don't know who to approach. Collecting agencies keep on calling him early morning sometimes midnight, so he replied to one agency and ask him to pay little by little every pay check. after 4 months they stop taking money from his account and stop calling him. They promise him that after he finish paying the said amount they gonna reassess him in order to take a new driver's license's sad that they don't even answer his call. can help us pls.

	From:	Cdnauto (3/16/2011 9:57:02 AM)
	Comment:	Joana, collection agency can not reinstate your husband's driver's license. Their only purpose is to collect the money owed. In your case your best bet is to go and visit ministry of transportation and ask what is needed to get your husband's license back. Hope this helps.

	From:	Tito (5/24/2011 8:23:57 AM)
	Comment:	I owned some parking ticket over 20 years . I heard some people said that it will clear after 5 years . It's true ?

	From:	shelly (7/7/2011 9:44:47 PM)
	Comment:	No that is not true, anything in your name stays, forever until you pay it. At the end of the day your credit rating goes down when you dont pay things off.

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