Is there anyone out their who as experience of appealing against a parking fine?

My car was towed away (Gruas) the other evening while admittedly it was in a reserved bay.

I did not see the sign as there were a row of cars,nose to kerb at an angle,and I saw a space between two of these cars and used it.
It is a main street but there are trees obscuring the lighting so the building was in shadow.
It turned out it was a Town Council building with two spaces reserved for town hall officials."Concelejera Igualidad and Juventud".
As I say I did not notice the sign and at 9.15pm, half an hour after I parked my car was towed away.
While having to admit I parked in reserved spaces I am contemplating appealing on the grounds that the sign and the spaces are not adequately marked or luminated.And more significantly if they are in use to late hours (10pm apparently) the signpost should state the hours parking is prohibited.Similar to the loading/unloading signs.
I will pay the fine of 45 euros rather than wait for the result of an appeal, which will probably be negative anyway, and then have to pay 90 euros and will appeal in the hope it will be rescinded.Highly unlikely I know.
If nothing else possibly the council will amend the sign at my suggestion/complaint although maybe it is a lucrative money earner for the town council!!!!
Any help/advice on/how/where to complain/appeal will be greatly appreciated.

I have moved your thread over to the Spain forum...as I think you will get a better response to your questions in this forum.

My friend had a fine of €100 for leaving her car on the square overnight.

She appealed, on the basis that there was no indication she couldn't park there.

She lost, on the basis that because she lives locally, she should know you can't park there. (Yellow lines miraculously appeared a week later.)

The fine was doubled.

Don't waste more money and time on it. Its not worth the effort and you will almost certainly lose.

Now, Trafico fines are worth appealing (unless they have a photo of you in a radar trap) because it takes so long that they usually drop it. In fact most insurance companies will do it for you if you have signed up for "Gestion de Multas".

It's a good question though in terms of; are rules and laws like this a lot stricter in Spain than the UK. By that I mean that in the UK if you can prove some kind of technicality like the lines weren't painted correctly or the sign was facing the wrong way you'd get the appeal upheld, but elsewhere these technicalities might not exist.

I personally would NOT appeal - however, to answer your question, go to your local police station and explain you wish to appeal. They will give you the appropriate instancia which you fill in.

Unfortunately parking fines are controlled by the ayuntamientos, who employ the policia local, and they can make the rules up as they go along. Some places they are fine, in others they are real bastards!

And of course it is the Ayuntamientos that give out expensive building permits that the Junta then revoke and demolish your house.

And you think they will be sensible about a parking fine?

And what a stroke of genius to allow parking on one side of the street for specific periods, ie first 2 weeks of the month or 1 month, then allow parking on the other side for the remainder of the specified period.

It causes havoc if somebody leaves the car parked beyond the change over period, ie it they are away on holiday.

A nice little earner?

Well they should read the rules on the parking signs shouldn't they!

Thank You Jersey Girl for moving my Thread.I should have gone there first.
Many Thanks for all your replies and advice.
While accepting I have little chance of winning an appeal I don,t have anything to lose by appealing.
I am intrigued by Fred James comment re the Insurance Company appealing for you.I did,nt know about that although to be fair one of the Gruas drivers did suggest I do that.
If nothing else it will let the Ayuntamiento see that not everybody is just going to pay the fine and say nothing.

Apparently you do, the fine could end up being more than 90, or double that; as other people have stated by going toe-2-toe.

45euros, we learn something every day...
DSB.

we got fined in our local village. We never go in on a Friday when the market is on as I am always having my Spanish lesson at that time. When we did go in we went to park and noticed there was a strip of wood with nails all along it placed in the gutter and thought somebody wasn't happy about people parking outside their house. We moved to the opposite side of the road and returned 45 mins later to find our car had gone. It was panic stations for us as we had less than an hour to get home as we had organized a coach trip and we had all the tickets etc. so had to be there. It appears that for only 2 hours on a Friday there was no parking on that side of the street. Had we have entered in the opposite direction we would have seen a small sign but we had done a u-turn so not seen it. It cost us 90 euros, some for the fine and the rest to pay for the grua. There were 7 people in the police station who had all been caught the same, as you say a nice little earner.

You sound like a little "jobsworth" and it is not always so simple though is it? Quite often the signs are "not meant to be noticed", as you can see from the post below.

As bealerdsb says, they are quite likely to increase the fine if you appeal, so it certainly isn't worth it.