Car owner maliciously complies with ticketing system and saves $500 in parking fees.

Owning a car can get expensive. The costs of repairs, gas, and parking can add up over time. That's why car owners do everything they can to save money on their vehicles.

On a popular Reddit thread in the Malicious Compliance Subreddit, one car owner finds a loophole to get free parking.

They write:

This happened the other year when the lockdown was severe. My mate tested positive for covid, so I did the proper thing of canceling my holiday and isolating myself for two weeks. This was right at the start before self-testing was available, so I just followed the guidelines.

It was a very cold fortnight. So cold that, at some point, the adhesive on my parking permit fell from the windscreen into the foot well. When I finally return to the world, I go to my van and see a parking ticket for the previous night. My van hadn't moved in two weeks, and the same parking attendant works every day, just following the rules, hit me with a £75 fine.

I called the company and got them to check their payment record, my £25/month permit was in date, and they have my vehicle details. They told me the rules on the signs were clear, and if you didn't display a permit, you would receive said fine. No ifs or buts.

I tried to fight it further and further, going nowhere. With my stubbornness, it ended up costing me nearly £200. Then it dawned on me. Why am I still paying for it if they're not checking a system and just looking for a permit?

I called up and canceled my monthly renewal and kept hold of the permit. That was about 21 months ago. It's so bleached from the sun you can hardly make it out. But it's valid in every way that matters to the parking attendant, and I keep saving an extra £25/month.

Owl_flight says:

A friend did something similar. They issued a new paper pass each month. Plain white paper, Black numbers, and the company logo in red. She would toss each one on the dashboard. After a while, she stopped paying and just told them good luck finding the stub for the month. The toll booth operator couldn't care less and just waived her through, so she didn't pay for parking for the next 7-8 years she worked there.

frisbyterian69 says:

While completing my Graduate Certificate, I traveled to Sydney for a week. I decided to ride my motorcycle down. Most of the week, I left the bike parked at my B&B as it was easier to walk to my course. However, on the last day, I rode my bike to the college as I had all my gear packed and ready to head home straight after the class. I parked it in a metered parking lot and went to get a ticket from the machine. A parking cop was sitting on the curb, having a smoke. When he saw me, he told me not to bother getting the ticket as there was no place to display it.

I walked behind a hedge that separated the parking lot to buy a ticket. He couldn’t see me, but I could see him through the hedge. As soon as I was out of sight, he walked up to my bike, got his ticket book out, and started writing a ticket. I quickly ran around the hedge and showed him the ticket I had just bought, which showed the time stamp before he had started writing the ticket. I informed him that I would keep the ticket with me and his name to fight a ticket If I got given one. He was not happy, but what could he do?

whomeverwiz says:

I left my car parked downtown after a night at the bars once. The street was 2-hour parking from 8 am - 5 pm. I showed up the next afternoon to find two tickets on my windscreen, issued about two hours apart. After closer inspection, I noticed that the locations listed on the two tickets differed (one said 300 block of 3rd St, the other said 400 block, or something like that). I wrote a letter to the cops, saying that since 'my car didn't move, one of the two tickets must be incorrect and dismissed. Please let me know which one is valid, and I'll happily pay for it.' Both tickets were dismissed.

In the immortal words of my very New York friend Tony, 'f*ck them before they f*ck you.'