Cleveland Heights Overcharged On Parking Tickets, Refunds Coming

CLEVELAND HEIGHTS, OH — The city of Cleveland Heights has admitted it overcharged some parking violators between 2013 and today. The city is issuing $5 refunds for tickets issued for specific violations (not metered parking).

The refunds will be issued for the following violations: Prohibited Zone, No Permit, Overnight Parking, Fire Hydrant and Fire Lane Parking, Abandoned Vehicle, Traffic Hazard, Parking on Sidewalk, Curb or Streetlawn.

“All efforts will be made to refund the extra $5, with interest, charged for applicable parking violations,” said City Manager Tanisha Briley in a statement released by the city on Friday. The city said that the overcharging of violators was the result of a clerical error.

Near the end of 2012, the city increased its fines for parking violations. The increases took effect January 2013 and the city's police department ordered new tickets to reflect the increased fines. During the transition period, the city said, the clerical error happened, causing erroneous increases to be added to paper parking tickets for different infractions.

Essentially, two bundles of violations — with different associated fines — were grouped together, the city said. That led to some people being overcharged for their parking violation.

From January 2013 through 2018, anyone given a fine for a parking violation was told to pay a $20 fine. The actual fine was $15. The city said police officers writing the tickets were not aware of the discrepancy. The city recently learned of the error and moved to take action.

“We regret this error occurred and will make every effort to make it right for our residents and visitors,” said Briley. “We will act quickly to make restitution to individuals who may have been impacted by this clerical error.”

Anyone that received a parking ticket for one of the above violations, between January 2013 and today, is eligible for a $5 refund, plus interest, from the city. Postcard notifications will be sent to anyone affected, with instructions for reimbursement.

The city is going to post information on the reimbursement on their website. An email account (parkingticketrefund@clvhts.com) and voicemail system (216-291-3012) have been setup for anyone who thinks they may be eligible for the refund.

The city did not provide a timeline on when refunds would be issued, but they did say that they are gathering information and building a process to issue the money to affected persons.

The city did not say how the clerical error went undetected for so long, but did say that it came to their attention recently and the officials acted promptly to setup a refund system.

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