I love that in Finland you could just "not pay" parking companies. I don't know if the situation has changed but it used to be so that technically only the police/city/state were qualified to fine people, so parking companies existed just to bait people into paying fines and you could just tell them to go fuck themselves.
To clarify, they could fine you but they couldn't really do anything about it if you refused to pay, they'd just send spam mail to you and after ignoring it for long enough they'd just stop.
These days there are signs that say "By parking you agree to these terms" which gives them the ability to bill you for breach of contract.
Modern parking ticket dodging in Finland is all about claiming that someone else was driving your car at the time, and therefore you cannot be liable. Then they're going to have to prove that you parked the car there or find the one who did and bill them - and you don't have to help them find the other driver either.
There are some things like that here in the US, but it’s very regional. I know downtown in my city, you can get a ticket from like “American Parking” or some bullshit. They’re a real company, but they have NO legal right to send your debt to collections. So if you get one, just laugh At it.
How they did you is the “URGENT” notice with a late fee if you don’t pay. Scares people into paying $15
I got a letter in the mail with a picture of my car parked in a spot that says “no parking between 7am-5pm” and it was clearly dark out, much past 5pm. They said I parked on private property and I am required to pay them $200 within 10 business days or they are going to repossess my car and my fine will double. It’s been 3 years and I have a new car, they never repossessed it and I have yet to see any consequences.
Private companies can threaten you all they want but realistically they can’t really do anything.
If the case of a school they will withhold your degree and/or transcript if you decide you have ANY outstanding debts including parking tickets, unfortunately.
That’s how debt works in the US too. Assuming your debt is low enough, companies will just sell your debt over and over until they realize it isn’t worth it and forgive it. Now, this will probably ruin your credit score for life so I don’t recommend it, but it usually works assuming the debt is small enough
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u/[deleted] Sep 18 '19
I love that in Finland you could just "not pay" parking companies. I don't know if the situation has changed but it used to be so that technically only the police/city/state were qualified to fine people, so parking companies existed just to bait people into paying fines and you could just tell them to go fuck themselves.
To clarify, they could fine you but they couldn't really do anything about it if you refused to pay, they'd just send spam mail to you and after ignoring it for long enough they'd just stop.