Posted by
riverman
17 yrs ago
How does someone protest a parking ticket in HK?
I parked on a small dead-end spur in Stanley Market (Stanley New St) for an hour at 9:30 pm one night...it is signposted 'No Stopping' for 7am-7pm, and cars park there every night. This particular night, there were 7-8 cars besides my own. But when I came back to my car an hour later, I was ticketed and I was the only one!
I went to the Stanley police station, and they were very vague about 'the officer uses his discretion' and 'maybe someone complained' and 'getting tickets is the normal thing in HK', but I think it was arbitrary. I also still see no evidence at all that it was illegal parking.
I want to contest this ticket, but the Stanley police said to just pay it, they will file a form on my behalf, and the Government will refund my money if they rule in my behalf. However, he would not let me see the form, nor tell me explicitly what it said.
So again, how does one pursue this?
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190k
17 yrs ago
Read the ticket there are appeal procedures in the small print.
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Thanks. I see it now...it says to wait until I recieve the 'official' ticket in the mail and appeal through that.
Does anyone know if these appeals actually work, or what I can do to improve my chances. One thing I have thought of is to take a picture each night, time-stamped at the same time as my ticket was written, and show that cars park there EVERY night and don't get ticketed. I could produce pictures from two or three weeks straight....
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190k
17 yrs ago
That won't work as your car was there that night. Also did you read the small print if you wait till the letter in the post comes the fine will be double. Send off a letter to the Central Traffic Prosecution Unit asap quoting the ticket number, date of offence, time, offence code etc even a photocopy of the ticket in the letter.
Is fishing so bad in Stanley that yopu were only there for 1 hour????
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dbg
17 yrs ago
HK's like that - you can park in a particular spot for weeks and be fine, and then you'll get a couple of tickets in a week. You're basically taking your chances by parking in an area that is not a "designated" parking spot - sometimes you get lucky, other times, not so much...
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Well, my protest isn't only that it was a legal parking spot (because they can argue, as you state, that its not a 'designated' parking spot), but that the other 6 cars parked right beside mine didn't get ticketed. That seems a bit prejudicial.
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I thought if you didn't park in a designated parking space it is deemed to be illegal parking. Are you sure the 6 other cars beside your car when you left are the same ones which were there when you arrived?
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Yeah, I'm sure. Also, I have the driver's law book, and it does not prohibit parking where I did...it was beyond a zone that was labeled "No Parking 7am-7pm", it was also after 7pm, it was not next to a yellow curb line, I was at the end so I was not blocking anyone, and all businesses were closed so I was not blocking a business, and cars park there every night. Most importantly, the cars next to mine were not ticketed.
In most any country I have ever lived in (with the exception of some African countries), there is a sense that there is a Rule of Law and protesting tickets that are ungrounded stands a reasonable chance at success. I'm just wondering if that is the case in HK, or is it pretty much a broken system where the police act independantly and the courts back them up.
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You would be better off letting go of the "argument" that there were other cars there at the same time that didn't get ticketed. Unless you have "proof", it's just your word against the officer's. I can tell you, having lived in Los Angeles for a long time, where parking tickets are a source of income for the city that your "defense" won't work. Either pay the ticket, or contest it using the parking ordinances and see what happens. And stop fretting over it. I'm sure (or I hope) you have better things to do with your life than stressing over a parking ticket issue. Focus on what's important to you and don't sweat the small stuff.
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Going back to the police officer's suggestion to wait for the "real" ticket in the mail; i've been fined for illegal parking in Hk a few times and never received such a thing. Only relied on the ticket on my windshield for payment.
Also, what you say about other cars not being fined is very strange. The unwritten rule in HK is that although the Police tolerates "illegal" parking in unosbtructive places, they will fine every car in a street if somebody complains. I think that's the only way for you to go at protesting your fine. But then how do you prove your point?
(Police officers will use their discretion, as stated, and won't automatically fine every car that's not parked in a designated space, but they are not living proof that mankind is gifted with common sense in my experience)
From the road rules book, I understand that the only non-designated spaces were you can park legally is on the street (not half-way over the pavement) where public lights are 200m apart. Even then, though, if some a**hole neighbour complains, you CAN be fined. It basically means that everywhere in Hk IS illegal parking unless it is a designated parking space and you paid to use it. Mind blowing, but there it is... this means that even though you parked after 7, it is likely that the space is still illegal.
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Maybe, just maybe, the police offers had slapped a ticket on your car, which, as you say was 'at the end', and was therefore the first car they approached? An unlikely scenario I know, but perhaps they were just about to do the others when they were called away to an incident?? (Or they suddenly realised the canteen was about to shut and belted back to the station for last orders!) Rather than your car having been singled out, perhaps it was just a simple case of bad luck for you that they didn't start at the other end of the group of 8-9 vehicles during that hour you parked there that night.
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Old thread, i know, but this just happened to me in Pottinger Street. The paid carpark was full so i parked on the street across from it, no yellow lines..no 'no parking' signs, plenty of other cars park there all the time. Can anyone confirm the above posters' comments that parking anywhere outside a meter or paid parking site is basically illegal in Hong Kong?
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Hi missprincepessa:
I'm the original poster on this thread, and let me share what I learned. First of all, you should know I lost. I paid the fine, filed the paperwork to protest the case, and was informed that the court would look into it and that I would be notified. I expected to be contacted with a date to come in to see a judge or something and present my facts, but instead about 5 weeks later I received a brief letter informing me that the courts had contacted the police, who maintained that "they had a reason to write me a ticket" and so I was guilty and would not get a reimbursement of the fine. There was nothing else....no explanation of precisely what law had been broken, no specification of what their reason was, and no opportunity to confront my accuser or present any evidence. Their word that they had done nothing wrong was sufficient.
Further, as I poured over the laws concerning parking, it is obvious that there are two sets of laws (I don't have the paperwork here, but it's pretty transparent). There are a set of rules specifying where you CANNOT park (No Parking signs, beside yellow lines, blocking people, etc), and a set of rules specifying where you CAN park (designated parking spots). But there are naturally a host of places that are not in either category, and while there are no laws PROHIBITING parking there, they are also not specifically PERMITTED. Therefore, as the letter from the government said to me: "to prevent getting tickets in the future, we advise you to only use designated parking spots".
So to answer your questions, unlike what you may have encountered in other countries (where something is either legal or illegal, and things that are not specifically stated as one are inferred to be the other), parking outside a designated or metered parking spot is neither legal nor illegal, but if you get ticketed in such a spot, it will be indefensible.
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Unless there is a sign saying you CAN park here/there... don't.
It may not be today or tomorrow - but you will eventually get booked. Once parked the car in the middle of nowhere (25 years ago) - no signs - no lines - no people or buildings - no traffic wardens...
Came back less than 15mins after dropping child off at the old Jubilee sports ground - ticket on windscreen posted by the unseen magic menace of HK.
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