NSW Parking fine in my own driveway.

[Happybutwantclarity]

I've received (not one but 3) parking fines for parking in my own driveway. All three within a short time of receiving passive aggressive notices from a neighbor with words like "endangering lives", and complaining of my parking on the footpath, which I am provably not.

I submitted these for review and got the same response for all 3.

I'm parking in front of my own garage door, on my own marked driveway. It's a rental and the landlord told me verbally that I could park in front of the garage.

There is a footpath, that veers diagonally through my driveway, which doesn't leave enough room to park between the footpath and the garage, but does allow room to park between the footpath and the road, on the drive way.

I've spoken to both my neighbors of the adjoining two driveways, who both DO park ACROSS the footpath, but neither have received a fine.


The fine I received was for "parking across footpath or otherwise blocking access"


And the response from service NSW was:


"We considered the circumstances you presented. We also consulted the Caution/Review
Guidelines, legislation and information provided by the issuing authority.
We have determined penalties #### and ##### still apply.
You cannot stop in or on a driveway unless the vehicle is wholly within the private property line.
There is no exemption for property owners to stop on their own driveway or give permission to
other drivers."

At this point i'm interested in what constitutes the "property line".. Since I'm not blocking the footpath, nor access to anything accept my own personal garage, am I truly in violation of "blocking access"

I'm curious as to how this would play out in court if I took it further. So far they've fined my 3 times in quick succession to a value of $804. Unfortunately I didn't see the response emails from service NSW and thought it was still under review when I received the third fine.

 

[Scruff]

Which car is yours?

The silver car is blocking half the footpath, but the black car isn't blocking it at all. Either way, you should speak to your landlord and find out exactly where the property line is, because looking at those pictures, it's possible that the footpath crosses onto the property.

It's easy to see why you were booked though - someone keeps complaining; the council or whoever got sick of them and to shut them up, they targeted you with three quick hits to get the message across. That's the only reason that anyone would take any notice at all of either of the cars pictured.

If they did that in the area where I live, half the population would be fined.

 

[Happybutwantclarity]

Thanks, yeah the black on is mine. I guess i'll talk to the realestate.

It's a doozy. I'm not sure it's worth the fight on court.

 

[Scruff]

I wouldn't bother fighting it.

The definition of "nature strip" is the area between the property line and the road, but excluding footpaths, bicycle paths and shared paths. The obvious problem is that it doesn't exclude driveways. So when you look at the cars in your photos, the silver car is at least partly on the nature strip and yours is wholly on it.

The applicable road rule is therefore 197(1), which reads as follows:

197 Stopping on a path, dividing strip, nature strip, painted island or traffic island

(1) A driver must not stop on a bicycle path, footpath, shared path or dividing strip, or a nature strip adjacent to a length of road in a built-up area, unless—

(a) the driver stops at a place on a length of road, or in an area, to which a parking control sign applies and the driver is permitted to stop at that place under these Rules, or

(b) the driver is permitted to stop under another law of this jurisdiction.

Maximum penalty—20 penalty units.​

Given that one penalty unit in NSW is $110, the maximum penalty is $2,200 - just for parking on a nature strip! Don't ask how the NSW Government justifies that one - it's just typical of the revenue raising that goes on in this state, like a couple of years ago when they raised the penalty for riding a pushbike without a helmet from $71 to $319, an increase of 349% overnight.

It's not just the property market and the cost of living that's forcing people out of NSW in droves - it's the State Government's greed as well.