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Fines Enforcement
Hello all, I am hoping someone can offer some advise on the following.
My son forgot to register his vehicle & received a fine for $1401. I too have a fine of my own for speeding & although my fine was dismissed in court I was unfortunately too ill at the time to attend so court costs were incurred.
I chose the simple way out & completed a payment arrangement form for myself & my son.
Each month I send a cheque for $5.00 of which $3.00 is toward my sons fine & the remaining $2.00 is toward my fine.
They are not happy with this & say the applications cannot be processed as the nominated payment instalment amount is too low.
I respond to each letter they send by post, do not answer their calls or emails. I have specifically asked them to contact me by post only.
My son has contacted them and authorised for his mother to handling his situation.
He recently received a txt message advising his license would be suspended in a few days if he does not pay $1,800. So they have added extra fees onto his fine although we have sent in 3 monthly payments.
The $5.00 monthly payments we are making have been presented & come out of my bank account, however they have not split the cheque $3.00 for my sons fine & $2.00 for mine, instead credited the entire $5.00 payment onto my fine & not credited my sons fine at all.They now say because the payments are too low they have not credited my sons fine at all which is why they have added extra fees.
I AM SO ANGRY….. NEITHER MY SON OR MYSELF GAVE ANY PERMISSION FOR THEM TO PAY MY SONS $3.00 TOWARD MY OWN FINE. If they chose not accept his payment it should have been returned.
I advised them in writing that because they had presented they cheque it is offer accepted, but each month they credit my fine with the total $5.00 & none toward my sons.
I have explained with each payment that we are both having financial difficulties but being honourable by making payments although only small.
They have asked us to increase the payments or do community services otherwise penalties will apply. They are prepared to withdraw the late fees on my sons fine if he agrees to pay $20 per month.
They say under the Debt Recovery Act 2017 sections 15 & 20 of the Act. , where a fine cannot be paid in full it may be placed into a payment arrangement to resolve the balance within 12months.They however choose to exercise discretion to extend legislated time frame but only if we both pay $20 per month each.
They say although we have both completed payment arrangement forms we are not under a payment arrangement because they have not been accepted.
Can anyone advise what I should express in my next letter Please…….
Thankyou… Love & Peace to all.. -
1 Reply
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(this is not legal advice I’m merely sharing with you what I have tried with some success in my life) You have agreed to pay the fine but the terms and conditions are negotiable. They are making you offers and you have the ability to decline these offers by sending them conditional acceptances. I always accompany conditional acceptances with an affidavit.
eg I don’t consent to your offer of $20 per month however I will pay the $20 per month if you can prove
1. it does not cause us financial hardship to do so
2. that you have not already accepted payment by cashing the cheque we sent
3. that the terms of you accepting this money was to pay $2 towards the blah blah fine and $3 towards the blah blah fine
etc
etc