What to do if a City of Toronto pay and display parking machine is broken?

You find a Toronto on-street parking spot after circling the block. It’s like winning a small lottery. You leave the car and approach the pay and display machine to buy a ticket. Triumph quickly turns to frustration: The machine is broken. Do you stay or do you go?

“I still feel strongly I did everything I should do,” said Ken Kakoullis, a Toronto real estate broker who ventured into Yorkville one evening last month for dinner at a Japanese restaurant.

“I parked there, it says, “Out of order,” so I try the other machine,” said Kakoullis, who decided to write a note explaining he was unable to buy a ticket.

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Others had written similar notes and left them on their dashboards.

But when he returned from dinner, Kakoullis said he and others had yellow parking tickets for $30 tucked under their windshield wipers. He doesn’t believe the ticketing is fair.

“My job is to buy a ticket … if (the machine) doesn’t work, it’s their problem – not mine,” he said.

Tweet This Click to share quote on Twitter: "My job is to buy a ticket … if (the machine) doesn't work, it's their problem - not mine," he said.

But the City of Toronto doesn’t see things quite that way.

David Armstrong with the Toronto Police Service’s parking enforcement unit said drivers are expected to look beyond a broken machine for one that works.

“If one machine isn’t operational, the expectation is that you use the machine nearby,” he said.

Tweet This Click to share quote on Twitter: "If one machine isn't operational, the expectation is that you use the machine nearby," he said.

That’s the operational policy of parking enforcement officers, according to Armstrong, who added that officers use their discretion when writing tickets.

If an officer makes a mistake, or doesn’t take into account broken machines, he said the ticket can be withdrawn.

“We will take a look at any situations based on the facts we find,” Armstrong said.

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Many drivers don’t necessarily need to go to court, or even show up at a parking operations office in order to dispute a ticket.

Under City of Toronto rules, a driver can send information by email or fax and explain what happened. The process is set out on the City’s website.

Beyond complaining to the city’s parking operations department, which collect ticket revenues, drivers can also contact the police parking enforcement unit and ask for a review. Armstrong said his staff will look at cases.

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Additionally, in the case of malfunctioning parking machines, drivers can call and complain to the Toronto Parking Authority which operates and maintains the machines. A spokesperson told Global News that even if a single machine nearest the ticketed driver wasn’t working, the ticket can be removed.

Kakoullis says he wants drivers to understand their rights, many of which aren’t well known. One such right is a 10-minute grace period for on-street parking if the driver has purchased a valid ticket.

“If we all talk about it, something gets done.”