Two years ago I was Driving south of Venice and we stopped in Chioggia (little Venice) for lunch.
I guess we were in a parking zone limited to a half hour and we were gone an hour.
Two years later I start getting notices from a collection agency here in the US.
Finally called them and it’s $251 or they report it to the credit beaureu.
I’m just venting, you would think I would have heard from Chioggia . Not a word.
I got a ticket in Naples and I paid the city on line.
But not even a peep from Chioggia.
They’ve seen the last of me , Be careful where you park.
Posted by
San Francisco Bay Area (USA)
17972 posts
Don't pay.
If you've never received the notice dispute it with the collection agency. Write a letter and request proof. Italian fines have to be delivered registered mail to the recipient to be valid. If they still report you to the Credit Bureaus, you can dispute it with the Credit Bureau so that they can remove it.
The Italian cities sell those debts in bulk to those collection sharks, for pennies for the dollar, they don't even bother to check if they were ever delivered to the recipient.
Under the FDCPA, your right to dispute the debt has three separate components:
Right to notice of the debt
Right to contest the debt
Right to verify the debt
RIGHT TO NOTICE OF DEBT: Within 5 DAYS of first contacting you, the debt collector must send you a letter telling you:
the amount of the debt
the name of the creditor
information about what you can do if you think there has been a mistake or you don’t actually owe the money
You have thirty days from receipt of this letter to dispute the debt.
Within 30 days of receiving the written notice of debt, send a written dispute to the debt collection agency. You can use this sample dispute letter (PDF) as a model. Once you dispute the debt, the debt collector must stop all debt collection activities until it sends you verification of the debt. You can also use the sample dispute letter to discover the name and address of the original creditor.
As with all dispute letters, you should keep a copy of the letter for your records. Also it is a good idea to send the letter certified mail, return receipt requested, so you have proof that the debt collector received it.
If you dispute the debt, the debt collector cannot report it to a credit reporting agency unless and until it verifies the debt. If the debt collector has already reported the debt (before it received your dispute letter), it must notify the credit reporting agencies that the debt is disputed. After verifying the debt, the debt collector can report it, but only as a disputed debt.
A debt collector violates the FDCPA and the Fair Credit Reporting Act if it reports a debt that it knows, or should know, to be false.
You can also stop the debt collector from contacting you by sending the debt collector a letter, called a “cease and desist" letter. You can find samples on line and I also provided examples in this site. You just have to search in the box above. I think it's on several posts about people receiving fines from Italian cities.