I'm responsible for this parking ticket, right?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I had a car when I lived in the suburbs and you could park anywhere. I sold the car and moved to another city far away, and haven't owned a car in 20 years. This week I am house-sitting for people, and they told me that today I needed to move the car to the other side of the street until 2pm for street cleaning. I went to move the car this morning, but it was electric (first time driving one), it was rush hour, and the only spot was a tight parallel parking job. I couldn't do it, so I went around the corner and parked there.

I just went to get the car and got a ticket! Turns out that street has specific times you can't park on the side I parked. Ugh, it didn't occur to me to look for street-parking signs! I'm fully responsible for paying this, right? Not the owner of the car?

Well yeah. You moved it. Should have left it alone. No good deed goes unpunished right?

No, I shouldn’t have left it - they asked me to move it and I said yes. It’s just they asked me to move it to the other side of the street and I couldn’t parallel park where they said to, so I parked around the corner.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Tell then and offer to pay. They might offer to pay it for you. Or at least realize that they need to be clearer in the future.

But they don’t need to be more clear. They told OP EXACTLY where to park and OP chose to park somewhere else.

[Anonymous]

You can cons test the ticket and maybe get it reduced or waived. Plead your case.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Tell then and offer to pay. They might offer to pay it for you. Or at least realize that they need to be clearer in the future.

But they don’t need to be more clear. They told OP EXACTLY where to park and OP chose to park somewhere else.

+1
It’s not reasonable for them to have assumed that OP could not parallel park since that is a skill directly tested to get your liscence.

OP, yes you need to cover the cost of the ticket in full.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:No, legally it’s the car owner’s responsibility.
But ethically, yes, you made the mistake.
Talk to the owners. See if they’ll split with you. Next time do not agree to move a car.

No, do not ask them to split it with you. Your mistake. You pay.

NP. I disagree.

Did the house sitters disclose this ahead of time? That you'd be responsible for moving their car, and did they share with you how best to do for the neighborhood? If the OP knew all this and agreed in advance, then they should pay. But if the owners didn't share this info in advance, I think it's on them. I've had someone hosuesit for my home, and I left detailed neighborhood parking info.

OP here. They told me ahead of time and to park in front of a specific person's driveway, that they'd cleared it with him. I chose to go around the block to a quieter/less busy street.

Last question: I will pay this ticket. Do I have to tell them? I feel so stupid.

I would tell them because it's part of their record. I can enter my car in the local database and all my parking tickets come up.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:No, legally it’s the car owner’s responsibility.
But ethically, yes, you made the mistake.
Talk to the owners. See if they’ll split with you. Next time do not agree to move a car.

No, do not ask them to split it with you. Your mistake. You pay.

NP. I disagree.

Did the house sitters disclose this ahead of time? That you'd be responsible for moving their car, and did they share with you how best to do for the neighborhood? If the OP knew all this and agreed in advance, then they should pay. But if the owners didn't share this info in advance, I think it's on them. I've had someone hosuesit for my home, and I left detailed neighborhood parking info.

OP here. They told me ahead of time and to park in front of a specific person's driveway, that they'd cleared it with him. I chose to go around the block to a quieter/less busy street.

Last question: I will pay this ticket. Do I have to tell them? I feel so stupid.

I would tell them because it's part of their record. I can enter my car in the local database and all my parking tickets come up.

I was going to say this. You should also follow up to make sure the payment was recorded. But maybe by being honest and “hey I got this ticket because XYZ, I’m going to pay it now, just letting you know in case it doesn’t get marked as paid or something” they will offer to split it or pay it.

[Anonymous]

Unfortunately the right thing to do in this case is offer to pay the owner of the car.

While the ticket is in their name - it was you who parked the car in the wrong spot on the street. 😢

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I had a car when I lived in the suburbs and you could park anywhere. I sold the car and moved to another city far away, and haven't owned a car in 20 years. This week I am house-sitting for people, and they told me that today I needed to move the car to the other side of the street until 2pm for street cleaning. I went to move the car this morning, but it was electric (first time driving one), it was rush hour, and the only spot was a tight parallel parking job. I couldn't do it, so I went around the corner and parked there.

I just went to get the car and got a ticket! Turns out that street has specific times you can't park on the side I parked. Ugh, it didn't occur to me to look for street-parking signs! I'm fully responsible for paying this, right? Not the owner of the car?

Yes. However, it was a bit much to include moving their car twice a day.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I had a car when I lived in the suburbs and you could park anywhere. I sold the car and moved to another city far away, and haven't owned a car in 20 years. This week I am house-sitting for people, and they told me that today I needed to move the car to the other side of the street until 2pm for street cleaning. I went to move the car this morning, but it was electric (first time driving one), it was rush hour, and the only spot was a tight parallel parking job. I couldn't do it, so I went around the corner and parked there.

I just went to get the car and got a ticket! Turns out that street has specific times you can't park on the side I parked. Ugh, it didn't occur to me to look for street-parking signs! I'm fully responsible for paying this, right? Not the owner of the car?

Yes. However, it was a bit much to include moving their car twice a day.

Street cleaning isn't daily in the District.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I had a car when I lived in the suburbs and you could park anywhere. I sold the car and moved to another city far away, and haven't owned a car in 20 years. This week I am house-sitting for people, and they told me that today I needed to move the car to the other side of the street until 2pm for street cleaning. I went to move the car this morning, but it was electric (first time driving one), it was rush hour, and the only spot was a tight parallel parking job. I couldn't do it, so I went around the corner and parked there.

I just went to get the car and got a ticket! Turns out that street has specific times you can't park on the side I parked. Ugh, it didn't occur to me to look for street-parking signs! I'm fully responsible for paying this, right? Not the owner of the car?

Yes. However, it was a bit much to include moving their car twice a day.

Op here. It was only for one day. Move the car in the morning, and put it back after a certain time in the PM. I just screwed up by not looking for parking signs when I moved the car.

[Anonymous]

How much is the ticket?

If they’re rich and you’re fairly poor, tell them. I think you were justified in avoiding the tight parallel parking job. They certainly prefer a parking ticket to a dinged up car or curb rashed wheels. A $100 ticket to rich people is literally nothing. But a $100 to you could be a week’s worth of food.

[Anonymous]

Pay the ticket.

[Anonymous]

Sometimes in situations like this you can appeal the ticket directly to the dept that wrote it. If a street was closed for parking for one day they will relax the parking rules on surrounding streets during that time. This doesn’t apply to blocking a driveway, hydrant etc.
call, ask for a parking supervisor and explain.
I work for a police dept that handles parking enforcement as well.

[Anonymous]

I can't imagine you can appeal if there were signs.

But you should explain to the car owners that the spot was too tight for you to feel comfortable using and that you'll pay but wanted to let them know your mistake. Hopefully they'll offer to chip in.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I had a car when I lived in the suburbs and you could park anywhere. I sold the car and moved to another city far away, and haven't owned a car in 20 years. This week I am house-sitting for people, and they told me that today I needed to move the car to the other side of the street until 2pm for street cleaning. I went to move the car this morning, but it was electric (first time driving one), it was rush hour, and the only spot was a tight parallel parking job. I couldn't do it, so I went around the corner and parked there.

I just went to get the car and got a ticket! Turns out that street has specific times you can't park on the side I parked. Ugh, it didn't occur to me to look for street-parking signs! I'm fully responsible for paying this, right? Not the owner of the car?

Well yeah. You moved it. Should have left it alone. No good deed goes unpunished right?

No, I shouldn’t have left it - they asked me to move it and I said yes. It’s just they asked me to move it to the other side of the street and I couldn’t parallel park where they said to, so I parked around the corner.

Parallel parking is an important skill, especially in this area. You should really know how to do this.

Yes, pay the ticket and move on. You messed up.