Drivers with unpaid parking tickets: has the boot come down on you?

Posted July 9, 2012 By Gianna Palmer

In Pei Shan Hoe’s story about New York City’s move to expand its use of private debt collectors, she shows how collections firms hound people with unpaid parking tickets and other fines, in exchange for receiving a share of any proceeds debtors pay back to a city. Representatives from one company up for a major contract with the city Department of Finance send out threatening letters, make repeated phone calls and, consumer attorneys allege, issue unfounded warnings about consequences of failing to pay.

With parking enforcement set to get tougher than ever, we want to ask drivers how you’ve fared until now. If you’ve ever let parking tickets go unpaid, what happened? Was your car towed or booted? Did you hear from the city or a collections company? If so, what did they say? Share your comments here.

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<h1>Drivers with unpaid parking tickets: has the boot come down on you?</h1><p>In Pei Shan Hoe’s <a onclick="javascript:pageTracker._trackPageview('/outgoing/www.thenewyorkworld.com/2012/07/09/collections/');"  href="http://www.thenewyorkworld.com/2012/07/09/collections/">story</a> about New York City’s move to expand its use of private debt collectors, she shows how collections firms hound people with unpaid parking tickets and other fines, in exchange for receiving a share of any proceeds debtors pay back to a city. Representatives from one company up for a major contract with the city Department of Finance send out threatening letters, make repeated phone calls and, consumer attorneys allege, issue unfounded warnings about consequences of failing to pay.</p>
<p>With parking enforcement set to get tougher than ever, we want to ask drivers how you’ve fared until now. If you’ve ever let parking tickets go unpaid, what happened? Was your car towed or <a onclick="javascript:pageTracker._trackPageview('/outgoing/www.nyc.gov/html/dof/html/pdf/12pdf/booting_faq.pdf');"  href="http://www.nyc.gov/html/dof/html/pdf/12pdf/booting_faq.pdf">booted</a>? Did you hear from the city or a collections company? If so, what did they say? Share your comments here.</p>

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