Private parking lots in Ottawa can now issue city parking tickets on their properties as a result of new regulations that came into effect Feb. 1.
Under the new regulations, drivers who violate parking terms will receive a city parking ticket from a private parking officer.
The new regulations are partly in response to the many complaints made by Ottawa residents to city councillors about tickets issued at private parking lots.
Rideau-Vanier Coun. Mathieu Fleury says the majority of these complaints resulted from confusion over private tickets resembling city tickets.
“People would come to pay their tickets at city hall or a service centre and realize they couldn’t pay those there.”
Under the new bylaw, Fleury says residents will be able to settle tickets in a fair manner, using a streamlined process.
“We now have an expectation about how these tickets are being handed out,” he says.
Previously, private parking lots could issue only their own tickets. Unpaid fines could be pursued through collections agencies or in small claims court.
Denis Condie, owner of Ottawa Parking Services, a private parking enforcement company, says the new bylaw will provide private companies with a more effective collection method.
“At this point we are collecting about 70 per cent of our tickets on our own, and then (we) give it to a collection agency to collect about five per cent on top of that.”
Condie says his company issued more than 20,000 tickets at approximately 200 sites last year. Of those tickets, about 17,000 were paid.
He estimates the city collects on 98 per cent of valid tickets.
According to an email statement from the City of Ottawa, the city will cover all costs associated with processing tickets issued and providing ticket dispute mechanisms. “Eligible Private Parking Enforcement Agencies may enter into cost recovery agreements through which they will receive essentially 50 per cent of the fine amount on paid tickets.”
Although private companies will now share the $55 fine collected, Condie says the new bylaw will provide private agencies with a number of efficiencies. It will eliminate the costs of collections agencies and small claims court cases.
For the city, the new regulation means more parking ticket revenue, with few additional costs. The city will train private property officers and issue badge numbers allowing officers to write parking tickets using City of Ottawa ticket machines.
Of his more than 100 employees, Condie says 32 will train to be private property enforcement officers.
“Within the next 30 days, the city will have 32 more bylaw officers on the road generating revenue for them,” says Condie.
The city’s statement indicated that licensing and regulation of private parking enforcement agencies “offers important consumer protection for residents who receive a parking ticket on private property.”
Condie says the new process will impose consistent standards, allowing residents to handle all parking tickets in the same way.
“There will be no confusion in regards to whose ticket is whose, where to pay and what the legal process is going to be. Now, it is one process.”
Unpaid tickets issued by the city could result in drivers being unable to renew their license and vehicle registration. The same is now true of tickets issued on private property.
“We now have that clout that we didn’t have before. People will have to pay our tickets,” says Condie. Tickets will be paid directly to the city, with revenue distributed to the private companies upon payment.
City-appointed parking enforcement officers will continue to patrol public city property, while institutions such as hospitals and universities employ officers trained by the city, and receive a percentage of the fine collected.