Tallinn parking permit holders fined after gaps in notifications
This fall, Tallinn changed parking operators and some residents weren't notified that their annual permits had expired and were fined. The city blames the drivers.
AS Ühisteenused, which had managed parking in Tallinn for a quarter-century, handed over the job this September to OÜ Europark Estonia, the company that won the city's public procurement tender.
However, the transition to the new parking operator did not go entirely smoothly. For a certain period, residents with annual parking permits did not receive the usual automated reminder that their permit was due for renewal.
As a result, several people received parking fines outside their homes, unaware that their permits had expired. Attempts to contest the fines were unsuccessful.
Martin Nelis, head of parking and traffic development at the Tallinn Transport Department, confirmed to ERR that there were indeed disruptions in notifications during the switch in operators. However, he said the department does not consider the fines issued to be unjustified.
Nelis pointed out that the regulation governing residents' tax discounts only requires the Transport Department to notify applicants whether the discount has been granted. An additional notice is sent only if a person moves out of a paid parking zone.
"The regulation does not oblige the Tallinn Transport Department to inform a resident permit holder of the expiration of the one-year validity period," Nelis said.
He added that the residents' discount is granted for one year, so recipients should reasonably expect it to expire after that time.
"It is the permit holder's normal duty of care to monitor and comply with the permit's validity period and to apply for a new residents' discount on time," the Transport Department representative said.
Issues related to residents' permit notifications were not the only problems that emerged during the transition. At the end of September, ERR reported that due to software adjustments, no parking fines were issued in Tallinn for two weeks, causing the city to lose an estimated €40,000.
At the time, Nelis noted that while Ühisteenused had earned a 16 percent service fee from parking revenue, Europark is providing the service for slightly under 6 percent, allowing the city to save approximately half a million euros annually.
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Editor: Karin Koppel, Marcus Turovski
