Reasons to appeal a parking ticket

Drivers are responsible for any fines they incur, whether they are driving their own car or someone else’s. If you receive a parking ticket for an offence committed by someone else while using your car, the ticket can be redirected to them using the ticket payment and appeal portal or you can fill in a Driver Nomination Form at one of our Council service desks.

If you are receiving tickets for a vehicle you no longer own, you can redirect to them to the correct owner. You will need to provide the name, address and date of birth of the person, or details of the business you sold the vehicle to.

Make sure you update details about the vehicle with the NZ Transport Agency (NZTA) so the correct owner is listed as the registered owner and you no longer receive their infringements. 

Tell NZTA that you've sold or disposed of a vehicle

If you receive a parking ticket for an infringement that happened when your vehicle was reported stolen, you need to give us details of the theft in writing and attach a copy of the Police report of the incident.

You can appeal if you believe we have made a mistake when issuing a parking ticket. 

You can appeal if you were dealing with an emergency at the time you were issued a parking ticket. This could be a medical emergency or any emergency that meant the situation was out of your control. You will need to provide evidence of the emergency – for example, proof of a hospital visit or a mechanical report.

Our Parking Resolutions team makes a decision about appeals like this on a case-by-case basis. Their decision will depend on how serious the situation was and the evidence provided.

If you believe your parking ticket was issued in error and you had a valid trade, daily, or monthly parking coupon displayed on the day in question, please appeal the infringement. To support your appeal, you will need to provide evidence of the parking coupon that was used. This evidence must clearly show that the coupon was correctly scratched out for the relevant day, month, and year that your vehicle was parked.

Evidence can be provided in the form of a photo or a scanned copy of the parking coupon. Please ensure that the details on the coupon are legible in the image or scan you submit.

If you no longer have the parking coupon from the day the ticket was issued, please advise the Parking Resolutions team in your appeal so they can assess the situation further.

The maximum time you are allowed to park in most metered spaces is 2 hours (120 minutes), even if you have paid to be there longer. This includes returning to your vehicle and paying for another 2 hours. This time limit is displayed on road signs and/or parking machines (P120) and parking machines will not let you pay for more than 2 hours at a time. 

The time limit starts from when your vehicle enters the parking space, not from when you make payment. 

If you have received an infringement and you think your vehicle was not parked for more than 120 minutes, then you should appeal. However, if your vehicle was parked for longer than the 120 minute time restriction, then regardless of what you have paid, the infringement is valid.

In New Zealand, you are not allowed to drive or park a vehicle on a public road without a current licence (rego) or warrant of fitness (WoF). It is the responsibility of the owner or driver to be aware of the expiry date and to keep the vehicle up to WoF conditions and licensed at all times.

We allow a one calendar month grace period for drivers to renew their vehicle’s WoF/rego after the date of expiry. If you receive a parking ticket after this grace period, the ticket is unlikely to be waived, even if you have since renewed your WoF/rego.

If you receive a parking ticket less than one calendar month after your WoF or rego expired, you can appeal your parking ticket.

If the vehicle that was ticketed was being used on a public road due to an emergency, you can submit an appeal with details of what happened and evidence of the emergency.

Traffic always operates on the left side of roads in New Zealand, so with the exception of one-way streets, your vehicle should always have the left side against the kerb. If the right side is against the kerb, it means your vehicle is facing the wrong way. Parking the wrong way is a safety hazard, as you will drive into oncoming traffic when leaving the park.