Jesse Scheckner
Private parking facilities throughout Florida will soon have to abide by several new consumer-protection rules due to legislation Gov. Ron DeSantis just signed.
The measure (HB 271), which state lawmakers uniformly approved, requires garage and lot owners to prominently display their rules and rates, sets standards for charging late fees and prohibits sharing customer information with outside parties.
It also establishes a 15-minute grace period in which motorists can enter and exit a parking facility without being charged.
Miami Republican Rep. Vicki Lopez, who sponsored the bill with Coral Gables Republican Rep. Demi Busatta Cabrera, said she’d heard “so much outcry” from residents throughout Miami-Dade County.
She and Busatta Cabrera nearly passed a similar bill last year with sponsorship support from Sarasota Republican Sen. Joe Gruters. Miami Republican Ileana Garcia carried companion legislation in the Senate this year.
“This issue is not new,” Lopez said. “We began to hear outcry from other parts of our state, where … private parking companies were somehow not providing proper signage to allow people to know when they drove into the parking lot that it was … not a public parking lot but rather a private one, and what the rates for parking were.
“So, we brought it back after working with many of the stakeholders to really make the bill a lot better this year.”
Effective July 1, HB 271 will:
— Require legible signage showing the rules and rates for parking facilities to be posted in a place where drivers entering a garage or lot can clearly see them. The county or municipality in which the property is located may regulate the signage, which among other things must display the parking rate, upcharge rates for rule violations, a working phone number and email to receive inquiries and complaints and that the property is privately, not publicly, owned and operated.
— Require any invoice for parking charges to either be placed on the vehicle in a prominent location or mailed within five business days of the violation.
— Require all invoices issued by the facility owner or operator to include an appeal process adjudicated by a third party available to anyone who believes they received an invoice in error.
— Prohibit the owner or operator of a private parking facility from assessing a late fee until either 15 days after the date an appeal is denied or 30 days after the invoice was postmarked or placed on the vehicle, whichever is the latter.
— Prohibit a private parking facility owner or operator from selling, offering to sell or transferring to another person for sale the personal information of a customer.
— Establish a 15-minute grace period in which the owner of a parking facility may not charge drivers who enter the facility, provided the vehicle does not park.
Theme parks or entertainment complexes of at least 25 contiguous acres are exempt from the above ticketing, late fee and appeal requirements.
The new rules also do not apply to lodging, mobile home or recreational vehicle parks. Their regulation is set under different Florida Statutes.
Florida law today allows private parking companies to hire collection agencies to recover fee debts. The agencies frequently tack on administrative fees in addition to the regular fees and any costs associated with towing or installing a boot on a vehicle.
Through legal action, companies can also seek asset seizures and garnished wages to collect the fees, which can negatively affect a customer’s credit score.
In May 2019, the Miami City Commission passed an emergency ordinance by Mayor Francis Suarez and Commissioner Joe Carollo banning operators of private parking facilities from issuing violation citations because some companies were handing out tickets that looked county-made.
“These fake parking tickets are designed to look like real Miami-Dade County parking tickets in form and appearance and even have the orange stripe that is identical to the official Miami-Dade County Uniform Parking Citation,” the ordinance said.
State lawmakers preempted that ordinance in 2022 through legislation (SB 1380) by Doral Republican Sen. Ana Maria Rodriguez and Lake Placid Republican Rep. Kaylee Tuck. The bill, which received unanimous, bipartisan support, authorized private parking facility owners to set rules, rates and charges for violations.
DeSantis signed HB 271 on Friday.
