According to the “removal” companies, municipal sanctions are easy to appeal since, in many cases, the city council is unable to present the incriminating evidence within the deadline.
The more crises, the more fines or, at least, that seems to have been what the Spanish city councils have thought in recent years, according to statistics. The most common sanctions? Those for parking -in a limited area or for double rows- which account for up to 65% of the fines, followed by those for speeding and talking on the mobile.
To find out how to avoid paying the penalties, we have spoken with experts from the best-known ‘appeals’ companies, with police officers, time controllers…
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What do the experts advise?
Elena Grande (Back)
“All sanctions must be appealed, in any way: in the administrative one -during the appeals-, in the executive one -during the claim of the amount once the sanction is final- or, even, in the courts. In any of these ways, we can get rid of a fine for procedural errors such as prescription, expiration, erroneous attribution…”.
Ana Maria Amador (CEA)
“Faced with a fine from your city council, you have two options: first, accept it and pay it with a discount, or if you think you are not guilty, appeal it. Many people, due to lack of time or ignorance, let them pass and that is nonsense: you lose the right to defend yourself or the right to a reduction in payment”.
Álvaro García (No fines)
“Each city council is different, but our experience tells us that the resources of fines are won by ‘moving’ the file by the Administration and forcing procedural errors – that the deadlines are exceeded, that the requested evidence is not presented-“.
You will be released from the fine if…
1. They communicate it to you after the deadline.
By law, the Administration has three months to notify the offender of minor sanctions -for example, limited parking-, six months for serious ones -talking on the mobile- and up to one year for very serious ones -exceeding by more 50% speed limit. If they arrive at your home later you can claim that they have prescribed and you will not have to pay them.
What does the expert say? “Some councils -the largest ones- are ‘at the top’ of work and, frequently, they notify the fines after the deadline”. Most of the fine removal companies point out that around 40% of the sanctions they process prescribe for this reason. The trick? “Extend the deadlines as much as possible: for example, rush the 15 business days you have -by law- to appeal, rush the other 15 you have to answer when they send you the evidence that incriminates you, the month you have to present allegations” , indicates Álvaro García, from Sinmultas.
2. They do not collect the penalty on time.
Both the DGT and the municipalities have one year, from the time the sanction is final, to start the process of collecting the fine. If they do not meet this deadline, they will no longer be able to do so because the sanction will have prescribed.
What does the expert say? It is usual for municipalities, given the great administrative workload they have, not to collect the fine -if you refuse, they can seize your account- in the established time: a period of one year- that from May, will be expanded to four.
3. They assume that you are to blame.
If you were not stopped at the time you committed the infraction and the penalty is sent home, by law, the first thing you have to receive is the request to identify the driver -sometimes, this request is included in the fine you receive at home-. If this request does not arrive -then the city council assumes that the owner of the vehicle is the offender-, you can appeal requesting that the sanction for ‘arbitrary attribution of responsibility’ be annulled.
What does the expert say? “This is a mistake that large municipalities rarely make: it is more frequent in small towns,” police officers we have consulted indicate.
4. The fine has incorrect data.
You must check very carefully if the data of your car is correctly collected in the sanction -registration, brand, color…- and the exact time and place of the infraction.
What does the expert say? Before, if the details of the fine were incorrect, it was invalidated, but now the city councils send it back to you corrected. For this reason, “‘catch’ those errors only serves to buy time, although it can help the fine prescribe,” explains Elena Grande, head of the legal area of Dvuelta. you could request that it be annulled,” he adds.
5. The agent who gave you the sanction does not ratify his version.
If you have been fined, you can appeal it by asking for the evidence that incriminates you. In some sanctions, the only thing that blames you is the word of an agent who has to corroborate, in a new report, his version of the facts. In many cases, the agent does not get to ratify his version -normally, due to loss of the file; you can appeal again for lack of evidence – or you do not do it in a timely manner and, then, the fine ‘expires’.
What does the expert say? “It is a ruling for which enough resources of fines are earned,” says Elena Grande, from Dvuelta. If the council does not present this proof, “we can appeal and the fine will be invalidated.”
6. All fines should be ‘equal’ and they are not.
All the sanctions committed in identical circumstances -for example, parking in double row- must be sanctioned with the same fine -in money and points-.
What does the expert say? On many occasions, and faced with the same sanctions, one city council deducts points for an infraction and another does not, or they impose different fines. “Then, they are appealed for violating the principle of equality before the law and although they normally do not withdraw the sanction, it is possible to reduce its amount,” says Grande.
You don’t get rid of the fine if…
1. They give you a fine for parking badly.
If a municipal police officer or a mobility agent signs the fine, they always abide by the principle of truthfulness: that is, between their word and that of an individual, theirs will prevail. For this reason, you will only successfully appeal these fines if they have formal defects – for example, an error in the vehicle’s registration, in the location of the place of the sanction -, or the agent does not confirm his version of the facts.
If it is imposed on you by a controller in the ORA zone: They have no presumption of veracity, so their complaint is ‘from individual to individual’. For this reason, always resort to requesting that the controller be ratified and present a photo as possible proof. You can also help yourself with the statement of a witness who corroborates your version… “although the latter is accepted by very few city councils,” says Grande.
2. You leave the car in a double row, in a ford…
In this case, it is only worth appealing for defects in form: error in the license plate, in the location of the sign -sometimes the name of the street is indicated incorrectly and one is cited where there is no prohibition sign-.
3. You get caught by a radar
You must request as evidence the photo of the radar that incriminates you and verify that the date, time and speed coincide with that of the sanction that comes to you -if not, you could request the annulment of the fine due to an error in the test -. If two cars appear in the photo, then it is not valid either. Of course it is advisable to request the radar verification certificate: each device has to be checked and calibrated every year and if you issue fines with the expired certificate, they will not be valid, as happened in 2007 with a malfunctioning radar in Reus -Tarragona- and of which up to 3,200 fines had to be annulled.
4. Your car is in poor condition or you are missing some paper
Not having the ITV sticker affixed to the windshield or having a wheel in poor condition is considered a light sanction, but “on many occasions, the agent himself ‘turns a blind eye’ after indicating it to the driver”, several have explained to us. cops. In the event of a sanction, little can be done, since the agent’s word prevails. The only thing? Appeal to exhaust the deadlines, indicate from the legal department of CEA.
5. You get fined for talking on your cell phone.
The best thing in these cases is to deny the facts and provide evidence: the invoice from the workshop where they installed a hands-free device -if you have it- or the mobile user manual if the device includes this function.
What if you drive drunk?
In the breathalyzer controls, the agents must make you two tests -if the first is positive- with an approved breathalyzer, and at an interval of at least 10 minutes and they must always offer you the possibility of carrying out a third blood alcohol test – if you test positive, you will pay the costs, but if you test negative, the administration will pay them. The individual must make sure that this possibility has been offered to him and that his response has been correctly recorded in the report that he must sign. Otherwise, he could appeal claiming that his rights were not respected.
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