A friend of mine (yeah, yeah, I know what you are thinking, but you would be wrong!!) just got a local council fine for parking his car over his own driveway. OK, I understand that the inspector would not have known that it was the car owner's driveway.
Do you think my friend would/should be successful in asking for it to be waived under these circumstances?
no, actually, he had only parked there for an hour or so! So probably just some drive-by council parking inspector!!
but the title says Wednesday, Thursday, Friday
That would of been more perfect with some bold text
sorry, I missed the ?, should have been WTF?
absolute gold!
I don't get it?
@cya: …wow woke up at 6am……so slow today…..I guess that's why you don't use acronyms so sparely assuming everyone knows what you mean and need to spell it out for them……
Genuinely funny
Respect!
Bravo LOL
Why is stating the obvious so funny on ozb? The lamest jokes get so much hype.
Take this to the hall of fame!
Nando’s WTF 1/4 chicken + chips $11
Plus 4 Chicken ribs
If he doesn't get it waived under those circumstances let me know because I'll have to go move my car.
Good question, I have just SMS'd him to ask where it was!, will advise.
Yep, all it takes is a tiny part of his vehicle to be on the council property. Tow ball sticking out?
Normally, council won't investigate and issue fines unless complaints have been made. It's not like they're going around suburbia looking for ratepayers to fine. ;)
Perhaps a disgruntled neighbour? A pass-buyer that regularly has to walk around his car? Someone in a gopher that has to go on the road? A pregnant woman pushing a pram having to go up and down curbs / over grassed area?
NEWS FLASH******* He just replied to me and he said quote "…on the road, no part was on the pavement whatssoever..
Ahh, I see - he parked on the road over his own driveway, not on his own driveway. I should learn to read carefully..
Yep, that's illegal ;)
@rompastompa: Correct, but it seems unfair and unreasonable for the fine to be blocking the driveway (which I assume it was), since how can you block yourself?? To me a bit like like invasion of your own private personal space surrounding your body by yourself!!.
@GOCAT9: There are a few factors:
1) They don't know it's your driveway, nor do you own the road / footpaths in front of it;
2) Depending on the layout of the road, they may need driveway clearance to enable street parking. You don't want to create a long stretch of road with only the centre available for both traffic directions;
3) Obstructing clearance / view from neighbours, pedestrians, service vehicles.
Do you think my friend would/should be successful in asking for it to be waived under these circumstances?
You can definitely try if your friend states with proof that they live there (and therefore rate payers), and was stopped for a very short period of time.
@rompastompa: How dare the inspector not use his phychic powers to determine that the car being parked belonged to the house occupant! That’s outrageous
@GOCAT9: Has to be kept clear in case any emergency vehicles need to access the property, think of each driveway like a no parking zone (the sign with the P crossed out) or a loading zone, you can stop there to drop someone off or pick them up in a reasonable time frame, like 2-3 minutes, but anything after that is deemed parking and you can be fined for it
@GOCAT9: Don't bother explaining anything on oz-b. Why are you even trying? Have you ever read any thread here where people give any consideration to the grey area in situations where fines are given? They always say "it's illegal just pay the fine" and will always do that. You're better off spending your time and energy talking to the council/authorities and see if they have any leniency if this is your first offence or whatever. If not, pay the fine. It's still better than strangers considering you stupid for wondering if leniency is expected.
@rompastompa: Yeah I thought the same until I read your comment, thought driver was parked in the driveway of the property, not on the road in front of the property.
End of the day it doesn't matter if theres sound reasoning for why the law is there or not, it won't change the fact that your friend got the fine and now it will be enforced. You need to have a legal reason to get around it, not a factual one (like your friend is driving an ambulance and theres an emergency).
In saying that, i assume the laws in place so that emergency services can get better access to property close by (and so that no one parks across your driveway boxing you in and they can't tell whose car it is).
Is fineable in NSW? (profanity) down the street has part of his boat trailer doing the same.
Some councils in NSW now have online reporting. Check with your council website.
https://online.cityofsydney.nsw.gov.au/ReportIssue/IllegalPa…
Thanks, our councils one is terrible. Says submit for parking then only has options for things like weeds when you go to actually submit it. I will give it a go anyway.
Here we go with the boat trailers. I count 2 boats and 12 box trailers on my road. What is the bigger nuisance?
Would they be in Fairfield City (NSW) by any chance? Happened to me. I was parked in front of my electric gate for a minute …
no, Adelaide, SA. I think he said fine was $79.
Cheap. Mine was $263.
Hmmm… that's why it is cheaper living in Adelaide ;-)
@GOCAT9: I'm more surprised one doesn't have to be paid TO live in Adelaide… it's just so damned boring.
@TheSmegger: Meh. I lived there for 5 years. I explored every inch of the city and surrounds. Nothing. Nothing ever happened outside of the fringe. The best part about Adelaide was leaving Adelaide.
whatttttttttttttttttttt , that's madness.
Literally just opened a fine in the mail because my Mrs parked over the pedestrian ramp thing to the footpath on our street. $263 due 24 December. Merry Christmas!
Cumberland council, just up the road.
@cainen: It's surprising you couldn't appeal such a huge fine for what is an innocent mistake. Lodge an appeal if you can, then go to the local community newspaper and see if they'll help apply some pressure.
Time to create a “deal” for cheap parking fines?
Cheap. Mine was $263.
For that kind of money, you could block your own driveway 3 times, and then have enough money for 4 lattes in Adelaide. :p
this is amusing to me because while i had 4 people living in the same house we had 4 vehicles sometimes and parked infront of our own driveway for atleast 2 years without any fines etc. guess we're just lucky.
*Also in Adelaide.
I think he said fine was $79.
I'm glad I read this first. I was going to type you up a long comment advising how to dispute this in court and pead guilty with extenuating circumstances.
But this fine is less than court costs! Your friend made a poor parking decision, infringed a road rule and the ranger did their job correctly. So your friend should suck it up and milk it as a funny pub story.
Not possible, you are allowed to stop in front of ANY driveway for up to two minutes. Unless you minute is one of those "honey, I'll be ready in one minute"
Nice find dave999! Looks like his goose may be cooked from that article. I was AMAZED to read that actually!!
Looks like his goose may be cooked
Hate when that happens.
It's really not that surprising is it..?
Yeh the reasons are perfectly valid, you do not own that piece of the road as well. Seems like a cheap fine.
Never knew this and certainly some valid points. Will it make me change my parking habits? We will have to find out soon.
Do you know if the bit of driveway that is from the mailbox/fence border that leads to the road
is that owned by the council?
So we can't park a second car on that bit of driveway behind our main car?
Anything beyond your property boundary is owned to someone else.
When you say property boundary
are you referring to the fence/mail box?
you mean it is owned by council..
that sucks since many family nowadays have more than one car (some families have like 4 or more cars)
then where are we suppose to park then?
if you can't
-double park within your own driveway (ie one car after the first)
-park on the grass/lawn/median strip in front of our own house..
And the road in front of our house would not be big enough, maybe can just fit 1 car, before it is the neighbour's
road in front of their house (which they may be parking their own cars)
where are we suppose to park now?
A lot of these councils rules did not take into account that many family homes nowadays would have like 4 or more cars.
@pinkybrain: Property boundary means your land boundary, i.e. up to but not including the foot path. The foot path and drive way connecting the road and the footpath is property of the council and technically you are not allowed to park on it, even if it can fully fit a car without protruding either into the street or footpath.
I believe there are 2 reasons given, 1 is for emergency vehicle access and 2 is to allow pedestrians a path from the road to footpath (esp. if they are disabled or with a pram and cannot mount a kerb or go over the nature strip) or to avoid anything obstructing the footpath.
In reality this is rarely enforced unless someone makes a complaint - perhaps be mindful if any of your neighbours have movement disabilities and park accordingly. I've found a lot of people simply park on the nature strip, which is equally rarely enforced and also least likely to get a complaint from a pedestrian. But if you have 4 cars and only space on your property for 1 then many would say it's your reponsibility to find somewhere to live which meets your lifestyle requirements :)
then where are we suppose to park then?
You may legally park your registered vehicles on the road or road related areas as long as you follow parking restrictions.
@whooah1979: Yes, I am aware of that you can park on the road
but I talking about realistic getting four or more cars park in front of your own house…
At most you might be able to park one car on the road in front of your house
before you are deemed to be parking in front of your neighbor's
which they mostly also could have parked their car already..
Don't tell me you are going to drive to some other road somewhere 5 to 10 minutes away and park there
then walk back to your house..
And yet when I asked them to mow their lawn they thought I was crazy.
That's bizarre. Heaps of times on my street with limited parking space I've told tradies they're welcome to park just there, and now I've learner it's apparently illegal
tradies
It depends on the type of tradie. Some tradies are exempt from parking restrictions.
Parking across the footpath is a shitty move. Why should someone have to move off the footpath and potentially get into traffic because you can't be bothered to park correctly? I have seen people pushing prams and in mobility scooters having to do this and in busy areas. I think the trouble is we don't ever consider the effects of our actions.
agree with you there, but in this case there was no blocking of the footpath as the car was parked on the street!!
agree with you there, but in this case there was no blocking of the footpath as the car was parked on the street!!
The car was parked on the street, blocking access to and from the footpath.
For instance, it blocks someone in a mobility scooter (or someone pushing a pram) who wants disembark from the footpath onto the road in order to get to the footpath, or into a house, on the other side of the road. Or the other way round.
Pushing a pram while in a mobility scooter would be difficult.
hold my beer…
It is actually pretty handy once you get a bit of practice in.
It really is a pain when people block driveways, and it is rightly illegal. It causes havoc for people with mobility issues, and other traffic if you're actually on the road.
Bzzt try again. OP's friend was on the street in front of, (not over or on) his own driveway. Only thing he was blocking was any cars parked in his driveway (or garage).
And emergency services
I mean… unless they were parked in his driveway, not really?
@HighAndDry: So the emergency vehicle has to drive over the top of OP's friend's car to get to the house?
@Quantumcat: Yes, but how far away is the street itself from OP's house? I doubt he lives in a manor with its own private road.
@HighAndDry: So the ambulance needs to drive over the garden now? Or through the fence? Generally the driveway is the only easy access for a vehicle. I guess you could have the ambos climb over fences and gardens with their equipment and try to get patients out on stretchers over fences etc but it can't be the best way to do things.
@Quantumcat: Why does the ambulance need to drive up the driveway? Where does it say that the driveway is the only way for people to access the property?
@HighAndDry: Many people have fences and gardens. Maybe you only have a lawn or concrete and nothing else, that doesn't mean other people don't. The ambulance needs to drive up the driveway to get close to the house so the equipment and ambos can get in easily and a patient can be taken out easily and easily loaded into the ambulance.
@Quantumcat: I'm not seeing the issue - the door of the house is going to be the bottleneck to any equipment going in or out of the house. There must be some kind of people footpath leading to that door, other than the driveway.
So again - why does the ambulance need to go right up the driveway?
So again - why does the ambulance need to go right up the driveway?
It's for their safety. Loading and unloading next to traffic is dangerous work. Having the choice of parking off the road reduces the risk of getting hit.
@whooah1979: This actually makes more sense. I still disagree that this is a reason why you can't block your own driveway (in my opinion, the fact that council workers can't be expected to check whose driveway is blocked before issuing a penalty is a better reason).
@Daabido: The length of the driveway apron has no bearing in regards to road rules 198. The driveway apron may be considered to have similar parking restrictions to a clearway without the tow away zones.
http://classic.austlii.edu.au/au/legis/qld/consol_reg/toumrr…
MSPAINT
/\ _____ _____ | | | | | | \ ,——-, / \____/|___ ___/|_ |__|_____|_____|____||___\ ,—'—-:—---, / | _ || | | | | | | \ ==(o)-----(o)==J(o)———-(o)= (o)------(o)'—(o)(o)———————(o)—' “““““““““““““““““““““““““““
have you been watching the movie "Arrival"or something?
I'll admit, i lol'd haha
Now, add cars on either side, and a faulty power line on the pavement zapping someone while an emergency vehicles are stopped in the middle of the road holding up traffic, and a stretcher not being able to go between the parked cars. ;)
Perspective and everything
I nominate this for Ozbargain MsPaint diagram of the year
that plate though!
he was parked there for 3 days. the council thought the car was blocking the driveway and fined him.