Traffic Tickets in Italy Save Hotel Receipts if driving in restricted areas
Sep 13th, 2011, 05:45 PM
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Traffic Tickets in Italy Save Hotel Receipts if driving in restricted areas
If you have a rental car and are required to drive into a zone to get to your hotel that is located in an area where only local residents are permitted to drive--meaning those automated cameras that take pictures of your car tags will snap one of your vehicle, and possibly resulting in a ticket being mailed to you a year to two years later--keep your hotel receipt and credit card receipts too for your stay and carefully file them away realizing in a year or two you may need them to prove you were lawfully allowed to drive into the restricted area.
First order of business, however, when you have made your hotel reservations, confirm in advance that the hotel will advise the police on check-in of your arrival and departure dates and of your rental car's license tag number, which the hotels are supposed to do to keep you from getting a ticket, when you otherwise must drive into a forbidden zone to check-in and check-out with your luggage. Then, at the actual time you check-in and check-out, remind the hotel that it should providethe police with your car tag number.
On our facts, while we did get a ticket, we don't know if the fault rests with our hotel: it may not have provided the police our tag number when we checked in and out; or, the fault may be with the police: they may have been provided the tag number but failed to record it properly. Either way, save your receipts and you should be able to get the fine dismissed.
We stayed at a hotel inside the old city walls in Siena in 2007. Our hotel was to have provided the police our rental car tag number. I confirmed this when we made reservations and asked when we checked in and out if they had provided the police our tag numbers. Almost two years later, we received a notice in the mail, advising we had been sent several letters before (which we did not get) and with a very stiff fine in Euro for driving in a forbidden zone. With extraordinary effort and a bit of luck too, we were able to find our hotel receipt and our credit card receipt and documented we were guests at the hotel. The fine was officially dismissed.
For those who may get a fine in the mail and for an offense that they in fact owe the fine and think they will just ignore the fine, I leave it to your judgment on your risks. However, if you think you will return to Italy and will want a rental car, it is my understanding (perhaps wrong) but that if the fine is not collected from the renter, that ultimately, the rental agency is fined. My understanding then is that your name may appear on "black lists" and you will not be able to rent a car in italy in the future. Whether that is true or not, I don't know; however, if you get a ticket as I did and can document you were lawfully allowed to drive in an otherwise restricted zone, you should get your fine dismissed.
First order of business, however, when you have made your hotel reservations, confirm in advance that the hotel will advise the police on check-in of your arrival and departure dates and of your rental car's license tag number, which the hotels are supposed to do to keep you from getting a ticket, when you otherwise must drive into a forbidden zone to check-in and check-out with your luggage. Then, at the actual time you check-in and check-out, remind the hotel that it should providethe police with your car tag number.
On our facts, while we did get a ticket, we don't know if the fault rests with our hotel: it may not have provided the police our tag number when we checked in and out; or, the fault may be with the police: they may have been provided the tag number but failed to record it properly. Either way, save your receipts and you should be able to get the fine dismissed.
We stayed at a hotel inside the old city walls in Siena in 2007. Our hotel was to have provided the police our rental car tag number. I confirmed this when we made reservations and asked when we checked in and out if they had provided the police our tag numbers. Almost two years later, we received a notice in the mail, advising we had been sent several letters before (which we did not get) and with a very stiff fine in Euro for driving in a forbidden zone. With extraordinary effort and a bit of luck too, we were able to find our hotel receipt and our credit card receipt and documented we were guests at the hotel. The fine was officially dismissed.
For those who may get a fine in the mail and for an offense that they in fact owe the fine and think they will just ignore the fine, I leave it to your judgment on your risks. However, if you think you will return to Italy and will want a rental car, it is my understanding (perhaps wrong) but that if the fine is not collected from the renter, that ultimately, the rental agency is fined. My understanding then is that your name may appear on "black lists" and you will not be able to rent a car in italy in the future. Whether that is true or not, I don't know; however, if you get a ticket as I did and can document you were lawfully allowed to drive in an otherwise restricted zone, you should get your fine dismissed.
Sep 13th, 2011, 07:19 PM
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Thanks for sharing your experience! I assume that upon returning from your trip, you cancelled your credit card that was used for your rental car. I have heard of many instances when the tickets were automatically charged on the same credit card.
Sep 14th, 2011, 10:33 AM
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No. We didn't cancel our card. But, in some interval before we received the notice of violation the expiration date was reached and then the card renewed for some new expiration date. Possibly they attempted to charge the card but were unable to do so for that reason.
Sep 14th, 2011, 12:01 PM
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We recently were in a hotel in Orvieto. And we did drive into a restricted zone because we got turned around.
The hotel filled out a form and said they faxed it to the police with our information about the rental car.
They gave us a copy of the form.
What I would like to know is did you just mail the information to the sender of the tickets? And thanks for reminding me about the long turn around time. I made a file with everything in it and obviously I must put it in a very safe place.
The hotel filled out a form and said they faxed it to the police with our information about the rental car.
They gave us a copy of the form.
What I would like to know is did you just mail the information to the sender of the tickets? And thanks for reminding me about the long turn around time. I made a file with everything in it and obviously I must put it in a very safe place.
Sep 14th, 2011, 01:24 PM
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Sher, I like your info on the hotel fax copy to the police. I wonder if that's the proper police reporting mode that they always use instead of a mere phone call. Which hotel in Oriveto if I may ask? It's also nice that the hotel cares that much about their tourist guest.
Sep 14th, 2011, 01:29 PM
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Capri, I'm surprised, because I heard that the car rental contract includes the renter's obligation to pay for any traffic tickets so you can't dispute it with the cc company. I suppose I would just use a card that I will cancel to be safe.
Sep 14th, 2011, 01:34 PM
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They are supposed to mail tickets within a year. My understanding of hotels is it's good only for arrival and departure, not day trips. A friend owns a house in Umbria and is there multiple times per year. She always rents cars, gets dozens of tickets and never pays them.
Sep 14th, 2011, 08:08 PM
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DAX. It was the Hotel Virgilio. It is directly beside the Duomo. Lovely hotel by the way. When we checked in they explained to me that the fax was good for any violation while we were staying there. So on the day that we got turned around it was the second day we were there and she still took the information and sent the fax (she said).
Wish me luck.
kybourbon. I always thought that the premise that they were sending a fourth or fifth notice or whatever was a scam kind of a way to up the fees. Why wouldn't the first three or four get there if the fifth did?
Wish me luck.
kybourbon. I always thought that the premise that they were sending a fourth or fifth notice or whatever was a scam kind of a way to up the fees. Why wouldn't the first three or four get there if the fifth did?
Sep 15th, 2011, 01:15 PM
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DAX, I do not know if they attempted to charge my card or not;however, as noted, the card's expiration date came around before our notice. If they attempted to charge the card, they would have failed to know the new expiration date.
The letter we received came from EMO - European Municipality Outsourcing - a Nivi Credit Division, which appears to serve as a collection agency for municipalities. It said we had been sent other letters. We had not seen any prior to this one. The letter actually provided a case number and a web page where you could go online and see a picture of your car tag in the forbidden zone! There was an email address to which to correspond. We did our business by email. It took quite some time to get the first response--maybe 6 weeks or so. I don't recall exactly.
However, the lady with whom I was corresponding was very nice, very helpful, and wrote in good English.
Please note that my first reaction on getting the letter was one of anger. It had been so, so long before that this had occured. Thinking it through, I just said to myself that I was angry with the delay, and that it was a camera operation too, but, I then concluded that had I in fact broken their traffic laws, I should pay the fine. But, if I had not broken their laws, I would not pay the fine. Once I documented my stay at the hotel, the problem was resolved in my favor. Do note, however, that when I go to Italy again, I will have a printout of the email from the agency advising me the charges were dismissed. You never know!
The letter we received came from EMO - European Municipality Outsourcing - a Nivi Credit Division, which appears to serve as a collection agency for municipalities. It said we had been sent other letters. We had not seen any prior to this one. The letter actually provided a case number and a web page where you could go online and see a picture of your car tag in the forbidden zone! There was an email address to which to correspond. We did our business by email. It took quite some time to get the first response--maybe 6 weeks or so. I don't recall exactly.
However, the lady with whom I was corresponding was very nice, very helpful, and wrote in good English.
Please note that my first reaction on getting the letter was one of anger. It had been so, so long before that this had occured. Thinking it through, I just said to myself that I was angry with the delay, and that it was a camera operation too, but, I then concluded that had I in fact broken their traffic laws, I should pay the fine. But, if I had not broken their laws, I would not pay the fine. Once I documented my stay at the hotel, the problem was resolved in my favor. Do note, however, that when I go to Italy again, I will have a printout of the email from the agency advising me the charges were dismissed. You never know!
Sep 15th, 2011, 02:29 PM
#12
>>>And what if the rental car company pays the fine, then automatically bills you PLUS their 30-40E Administration FEE? What a mess.<<<
I've never seen anyone post that a rental car company paid their fine. In your rental agreement is a clause that you can be charged a fee if the rental car company has to provide your info to police. In Europe the fee in the contracts seems to range from 35-50€.
>>>Hopefully they would reverse it but in the states they use a collection agency and don't even let you try to pay the fine yourself or contest it.<<<
Italy outsources their collections to an agency also.
I've never seen anyone post that a rental car company paid their fine. In your rental agreement is a clause that you can be charged a fee if the rental car company has to provide your info to police. In Europe the fee in the contracts seems to range from 35-50€.
>>>Hopefully they would reverse it but in the states they use a collection agency and don't even let you try to pay the fine yourself or contest it.<<<
Italy outsources their collections to an agency also.
Sep 16th, 2011, 04:54 AM
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was charged a fortune and contested it by a rental car company in the USA. I accidentally passed through a toll booth only for pass holders. I pulled over. walked to a manned booth and asked how to deal with the fine.
Unfortunately, the fellow didn't advise me that i could have gone online to pay it within a few days with little or no penalty. He just told me it would eventually go to the rental company, not to worry.
So when i returned the car, I wanted to up front PAY for my fine to avoid a huge collection agency fee.
I was told by the agent NOT to worry about it because "they don't do that".
Wrong. They DO do that. They obviously give someone your credit card number so they can charge you the administrative fee as well as the fine.
I was later billed by a collection agency or the car rental administration itself, not sure, a hefty fee ($35 0r $40..don't remember exactly) for processing my $3.00 fine.
I called and told them of my conversation with the rental agent and what he said and how I was not allowed to pre-pay the $3.00 fine I knew I would get. They finally reduced their administration fee to 50% of what it was since I had the fellow's name, etc.. but a lesson learned.
I had plenty of time to have been able to deal with paying this fine but I couldn't figure out how to do it and no one was able to give me the correct answer.
Not paying attention while driving in cities and on highways can be very costly.
Unfortunately, the fellow didn't advise me that i could have gone online to pay it within a few days with little or no penalty. He just told me it would eventually go to the rental company, not to worry.
So when i returned the car, I wanted to up front PAY for my fine to avoid a huge collection agency fee.
I was told by the agent NOT to worry about it because "they don't do that".
Wrong. They DO do that. They obviously give someone your credit card number so they can charge you the administrative fee as well as the fine.
I was later billed by a collection agency or the car rental administration itself, not sure, a hefty fee ($35 0r $40..don't remember exactly) for processing my $3.00 fine.
I called and told them of my conversation with the rental agent and what he said and how I was not allowed to pre-pay the $3.00 fine I knew I would get. They finally reduced their administration fee to 50% of what it was since I had the fellow's name, etc.. but a lesson learned.
I had plenty of time to have been able to deal with paying this fine but I couldn't figure out how to do it and no one was able to give me the correct answer.
Not paying attention while driving in cities and on highways can be very costly.
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