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| This is a map of the 5 boros of New York City and its suburb, the counties of Nassau and Suffolk that make up the rest of Long Island, New York, about 115 miles total. Our reader is concerned that the City of New York will go out to the Island to tow her boyfriend's car for scofflaw tickets issued inside the city. I will explain to her why that theoretically can happen: |
I got your email from
your Blog site. I read several entries there . . .
My boyfriend has several
parking tickets in judgment from New York City. He lives on Long Island [the
suburbs outside of the New York City jurisdiction in either Nassau or Suffolk
Counties]. He received a letter from the New York City Department Of Finance
two days ago, warning him that he's in danger of being towed and that there are
six parking tickets in judgment [this means he was found summarily guilty and
now has to pay a fine for each one]. So, I hope he pays them soon.
I don't believe they'd
come out here just to tow his car. The letter did say they would take
legal action such as preventing renewal of registration and restraining bank
accounts.
Do they really freeze
accounts? Can they tow his car from Long island for NYC tickets? He will be
paying them in next two weeks, the parking tickets. Thanks for the quick reply!
/s/
--LONG ISLAND PARKING SOUND
DEAR
L.I.P.S.:
UPDATE 9/20/14: Continue reading my response below as it still applies, but I recently learned this information to give your questions an even better answer: Although the NYC Department of Finance cannot directly have your car towed from one of its government enforcement arms I listed below outside the city of New York as I explain below, they recently acquired the capability of having a private collections agency do their dirty work that the Marshal, Sheriff, or NYPD can't do: according to this article by the New York Daily News, the city just recently hired a collections agency called Law Enforcement Systems, which specializes in collecting out of state vehicle registration databases and going after the vehicle registrants who have outstanding NYC parking violations with balances due. The City of New York after all these years of not being able to collect scofflaw fines from millions of people who illegally park their out of state cars inside the city, now will have to pay the piper, including being subjected to the risk of having their cars towed even when parked out of the city, even out of New York State.
According to the article the number of cars towed in the past 6-1/2 months as of this blog post date for NYC parking ticket scofflaw were 21 from West Virginia (?? of all places, this is scary), 65 from Vermont, 166 from Rhode Island (you would think there were only 166 cars total inside RI), and 243 from Ohio. Pennsylvania and Connecticut seem to be the most vulnerable to out of state tow (New Jersey obviously shouldn't be a surprise as well), and for now it seems that Delaware and New Hampshire are the collection agency's weak spot, as according to the Daily News, no one has been towed from those states as of yet as they are not able to access those databases. But I'm sure it won't take long before they are able to . . .
SO if I were you, I would still follow the advice below, tell your boyfriend don't park his car on the street or in a public lot (park it in a privately owned garage), and pay those tickets ASAP. I hope this new info helps all of you.
Humbly Yours,
/s/
(ONCE AGAIN) DEAR L.I.P.S.:
Greetings to you, my former Long Island neighbor, wherever you live on the Isle of LONG. I’m a Los Angelino now no doubt, but I never forget where my roots took hold. Hope you didn’t freeze to death last winter and hope the recent summer rainstorms didn’t drown your home. We sure could use some of that wetness here in Los Angeles, although it’s been sunny and warm year round. I can’t complain, we’re just dry and thirsty way over here.
According to the article the number of cars towed in the past 6-1/2 months as of this blog post date for NYC parking ticket scofflaw were 21 from West Virginia (?? of all places, this is scary), 65 from Vermont, 166 from Rhode Island (you would think there were only 166 cars total inside RI), and 243 from Ohio. Pennsylvania and Connecticut seem to be the most vulnerable to out of state tow (New Jersey obviously shouldn't be a surprise as well), and for now it seems that Delaware and New Hampshire are the collection agency's weak spot, as according to the Daily News, no one has been towed from those states as of yet as they are not able to access those databases. But I'm sure it won't take long before they are able to . . .
SO if I were you, I would still follow the advice below, tell your boyfriend don't park his car on the street or in a public lot (park it in a privately owned garage), and pay those tickets ASAP. I hope this new info helps all of you.
Humbly Yours,
/s/
SERGEANT AL
(ONCE AGAIN) DEAR L.I.P.S.:
Greetings to you, my former Long Island neighbor, wherever you live on the Isle of LONG. I’m a Los Angelino now no doubt, but I never forget where my roots took hold. Hope you didn’t freeze to death last winter and hope the recent summer rainstorms didn’t drown your home. We sure could use some of that wetness here in Los Angeles, although it’s been sunny and warm year round. I can’t complain, we’re just dry and thirsty way over here.
Thank
you for your great questions. Generally, no, the sworn NYC enforcement services cannot tow your BF’s car if he
keeps it out on Long Island, but if I were him I’d be careful coming into the
city leaving it parked on a NYC street. I’d park it in a garage and a private
one at that. Since the geographical area of employment (GAOE) of the enforcement
arms of the NYC Parking Violations Bureau of the Department of Finance includes
the NYC Sheriff, the NYC Marshal, either of their deputies or agents, the DOT Enforcement,
or the NYPD, all of which have a GAOE within the five boroughs of NYC and not
anywhere else (because of civil process the Marshal has a little more latitude in his/her authority to pursue scofflaws), that means their authority to ticket, boot, and/or tow parking
violation vehicles, are only within the City of New York, and no where else.
Very much like an NYPD officer who cannot just simply take a cruise in a NYPD
radio car on the LIE (Long Island Expressway) to Nassau or Suffolk counties (trust
me this has been done before to the NYPD brass’s chagrin) to start tagging
parked cars in, say Mineola, NY, or issue a red light ticket in, say Riverhead,
NY, then head on back into the city (because Nassau and Suffolk are not the
NYPD’s GAOE), an NYPD officer cannot issue a traffic ticket outside NYC unless
he/she, for example, observed a speeder in Queens and then chased that speeder “in
hot pursuit” all the way out to, say Exit 70 on the LIE, to finally stop that
speeder there in Manorville NY to finally cite the motorist. So it goes for the
arms that reach to tow your boyfriend's car: the furthest they (the government enforcement arms) can usually go to
tow is at the NYC border and no further.
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But
I'd be careful parking it anywhere on a NYC street, however, as either the NYC
Sheriff, NYC Marshal, either of their deputies or agents, the DOT, or the NYPD and their traffic agents could tow
it depending on the circumstances. I would also be careful ANYWHERE IN NEW YORK
STATE as depending on how many NYC parking tickets he has or how long they been
unpaid, as his NYS registration may become suspended if they go unpaid that
length of time. The NYC Department of Finance cannot DIRECTLY have a law enforcement
agency tow an out-of-city registered vehicle for scofflaw outside the city or
for a parking violation outside the city, but they do have the authority to
interrupt your registration validity statewide (thus nationwide), or levy your
checking account for fines past due from scofflaw. I'd also be careful ANYWHERE ELSE INCLUDING OUTSIDE NYS. They now can hire a private collections agency to tow your parked car outside the city, including outside New York State. Your BF would get a notice
by mail first to warn him, if that were to happen (he got a warning letter about
the judgment so the good news is that his DMV mailing address is up to date . .
.).
If
the IRS or a state tax agency can levy a checking account for unpaid taxes, youbetcha
they can levy an account for unpaid tickets, in fact you can say that they
probably have gotten more aggressive at revenue collection given the state of
government finances of late (see my PS above). They could also withhold registration renewal at
expiration time, which unresolved could lead to things such as a registration
or even a driver’s license suspension. If his registration or driver’s license
gets suspended then any law agency throughout the state up to the NYS Police
can tow him if he gets pulled over or tagged for illegal parking
anywhere in the state of New York if they stop him and run his license plate. If you read my PS note above, you also now know that the NYC Department of Finance can now also hire a collections agency to do what the City once couldn't: tow your car from out of state and collect unpaid parking ticket fines while you are out of state.
BOTTOM LINE: Just make sure he
pays the tickets, and keeps a receipt, preferably inside the car in case he gets
towed accidentally after payment (this does happen). If he does all this he should be
in good shape, and back in your good graces, once again, if he is not. If he isn't, kick him in the pants
to make sure he doesn't do this again, and make it look like you're really mad
at him so he can take you out on a nice dinner date to make up with you (wink).
If this storyline is more complicated than what you write here, then I suggest
you speak to a traffic attorney to iron this all out . . .
LONG ISLAND PARKING SOUND: the arm of the NYC Parking Violations
Bureau is a large and long one no doubt, to levy your checking account and
effect your registration, maybe even your driver’s license, AND NOW long or
strong enough for a private tow truck company working for a collections agency to just hop on the LIE and find your BF’s car to tow
it way out there on Long Island. There was a time that only the AAA can do that. NOT ANYMORE. I
hope this answers your question, and may you never need towing for any reason
at all . . .
Safe Driving and Parking,
/s/
SERGEANT AL
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Hi Sargeant Al,
ReplyDeleteIn regards to owing parking tix in NYC.........What if my vehicle is titled in my son's name and registered to me since he bought his first car to get his permit and license but I registered it and insured it. I am a single mom and cannot afford to pay my tix at this time. They are around $500 dollars in total.
Dear Mom:
DeleteI hope it wasn't your son who got you Into this trouble because I myself would go out there to lop him over the head for putting his mom in harm's way.
Unfortunately the rule of thumb goes that regardless of whomever the car is titled to, if you register and insure it, you basically are responsible for it when you drive it as well as park it. The title holder is someone they can legally pursue after they've exhausted themselves going after the registrant.
My advice is still the same as it was with Ms. Long Island Parking Sound: go to court and plead your case, but whatever you do, don't bury your head in the sand. Try to work something out with either the court attorney or the judge so that you don't find your car repo'd by the sheriff or repo man. I know money is tight here, but a lawyer would be worth the extra expense to get a better result. Good luck to you as well.
Sgt. Al