Can you get the same parking ticket twice?

If you haven’t done it, you’ve thought about it. The pain of receiving a parking ticket can prompt some to ask, ‘Why not get my money’s worth?’.

Thus, you leave the ticket on the windshield and keep your car in the same illegal parking spot because, well, you can’t get fined twice, right? 

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It might feel satisfying to do this after you cop a hefty fine, but it could push you deeper into hot water.

To find out whether you could score the same parking ticket twice, we contacted several councils across the country to get a picture of the varied circumstances that might apply. 

Whether or not you will be fined twice depends on where you live and where you’ve parked – but it’s entirely possible. 

“It depends on the restriction on the sign,” a spokesperson for Sydney’s Waverley Council explained to Drive.

“If a sign does not have a time-of-day component generally a vehicle can be fined only once, however other actions such as being towed can sometimes apply.”

The exception is when the sign where you’ve parked has a time frame on it.

“If a vehicle remains illegally parked it can be fined each time the time frame resets. 

“For example, a sign says ‘2P 8:00am to 10:00pm’, a vehicle that is fined at 11:00am today can be fined again tomorrow between 10:00am and 10:00pm if it has not moved and then each day thereafter until it moves.”

Meanwhile, in Queensland, a spokesperson for the City of Gold Coast council said whether or not you receive multiple infringement notices “depends on the type of offence and applicable parking regulations”.

“For example, in paid parking areas, the Transport Operations (Road Use Management) Act 1995 allows multiple infringements to be issued for the same offence,” the spokesperson said.

In the City of Boroondara in Melbourne, it’s also possible to receive another parking ticket in certain situations.

“At the discretion of the parking officer, a second infringement might be issued in split zones – where the time zone changes to a clearway or no stopping – or after continued complaints and known disregard of parking regulations,” a City of Boroondara spokesperson told Drive.

Additionally, drivers who receive a ticket and move their car, but return to the same spot, or move to a spot in the same zone area, could face subsequent fines.

“Where the above scenarios do not apply, it could be said that if a vehicle receives an infringement, it would not receive another one on that same day and the car could therefore be left in that same location.”

The City of Adelaide said vehicle owners parking in the council area “will not be issued the same expiation twice but it will be treated as a further offence”.

The areas most likely to attract further offence expiations include no stopping zones, bus zones, loading zones and permit zones. 

“Only one further offence expiation may be issued and only after one hour since the original expiation,” a City of Adelaide spokesperson told Drive.

“A further offence expiation fee is not the same amount as the original offence fee. It is a set fee regardless of what the original fine amount is.

“As of 1 July 2023, the further offences expiation is a set amount of $59.”

Similarly, in the City of Perth, parking inspectors are able to issue multiple tickets for a car that’s overstayed in one spot, with a maximum tally of $500 a day.