Last October, I was parked at York University in Toronto for about 30 minutes while I was dropping my son at the track and field centre for a workout with his coach.

About a month later, I received a letter/statement from the York University Parking and Tranportation services department informing me that I had "Failure to display a valid permit, pass or daily stub" charge of $40 along with an administrative charge of $5. Life went along and a month later, I received another statement adding another $5 administrative charge. This went on for another couple of months until I had accumulated $20 in administrative charges.

Since York University is private property, they cannot issue parking tickets that are administered by any level of government. They must send statements and try to collect the fees by either refusing to let people graduate, withhold transcripts or take the offender to small claims court. No one in my family attends York University at this time, so I am not worried about transcripts or graduating. The fear of being sued in small claims court does not scare me, however I thought it might be prudent to contact the parking services department to work out the issue.

In February 2006, I spoke with an agent of the parking services department. I explained that I was only dropping my son off at the track and field centre and that I did not receive any ticket of my offense at the time. She was helpful and agreed to reduce my fine to the normal charge on a Saturday, which is $7. I agreed to pay this amount in order to clear up the account. However, she said that I would also have to pay for the 4 months of "Administrative Service Charges" of $20. I refused to pay this on the grounds that the charge of $5 per month is excessive and may in fact be illegal. She said there was nothing she could do and that I would have to speak to her supervisor who was busy at the time.

Instead of getting into another discussion explaining the law to a parking services employee who might not have enough education to understand, I decided to take the following action. I have written the following letter:

March 28, 2006
York University
Parking and Transportation Services
222. William Small Centre 155 Campus Walk
4700 Keele St.
Toronto, ON M3J 1P3

RE: Account No. 141941

To Whom It May Concern:

I have received a statement from your department informing me that I owe a fine of $40 for failing to display a valid permit. I spoke with one of your agents and informed her that I was only dropping off my son at the Track and Field centre for a training session with his coach on Saturday October 15, 2005 and I had not received a ticket. She said that she would reduce the fine to the charge of $7 which is the normal charge for parking on a Saturday. I agreed to pay this amount, however, she then told me that I would have to pay the administrative service charges which had accrued to that date. However, according to Section 347 of the Criminal Code of Canada, it is an offence to:
• Enter into an agreement or arrangement to receive interest at a criminal rate, or
• Actually receive payment or partial payment of interest at a criminal rate.
A "criminal rate" is defined as an effective annual rate of interest that exceeds 60% on the credit advanced under the agreement or arrangement. For the purposes of the Criminal Code, interest includes fees, charges and expenses whether in the form of a fine, penalty, commission or other similar charge or expense.

Therefore, York University Parking services is committing a criminal code offence by charging this administrative fee. Since my charge was reduced to $7, this administrative fee is equivalent to an annual rate of 857% interest. This is clearly beyond the legal maximum rate. Also, since I never signed any document indicating that I would pay any administrative service charges or interest, these charges are exorbitant as well as being illegal.

I have sent this letter along with a cheque for $7 to pay my account. If this cheque is cashed, it will be considered my full payment for the offense committed and no other charges will be paid. If however, you choose to not accept these terms, then this cheque must be returned to the address above by registered mail.

By using this method, I am ensuring that I have made every effort to settle this matter, and if they decide to sue me, I will have either the cancelled cheque to prove that I paid the charge, or the refusal of my settlement offer. Small claims courts prefer that adversaries work out their differences without actually taking up the court's time.

I will add to this post once I find out if they cash the cheque.

Followup:
The university has cashed my cheque and I have not received any more notices from them.