The City of Guelph is going to start using a collection agency to try and collect old unpaid fines.
Starting this week roughly 31,000 unpaid Provincial Offences fines totaling $14 million will be turned over to a collection agencies.
The oldest outstanding fine is 43 years old, said Brad Coutts, the city's General Manager of Court Services.
"However, there are very few fines of that age. The vast majority of the fines we are dealing with are ones that have gone unpaid within the last 10 to 15 years," said Coutts.
The city is not paying the collection agency for the service. The agencies make their money by adding a 12 to 15 per cent surcharge to the fine.
Coutts said two-thirds of fines in Guelph-Wellington are paid on time or go to trial. Others are paid late and only 15 per cent go to default, which means they have been ignored or forgotten
The city's court services is responsible for enforcing payment of all fines related to Provincial Offences charges issued in Guelph-Wellington. When an individual fails to respond to a ticket they receive or a fine ordered in a provincial offence trial, the fine goes into default.
Coutts said other cities use third parties to collect fines in default.
"The collection rate depends on the age of the fine, however, the percentage ranges from 20 to 40 per cent (recovery) for most cases and higher for some more recent fines," he said.
Fines will be turned over to collection agencies after a series of steps are taken by the city to try and collect, including a series of notices.
"There are several steps in the process to notify people of a fine when it goes into default," he said.
"Many of those cases are resolved before they reach the stage of being sent to a collection agency. Generally, fines that are not resolved after the several step process, will proceed to collection."
The city is apologizing in advance for situations that may arise where the person in default of the fine is deceased. That information often doesn't make it back to the city.
“It is not the city’s intention to upset or cause harm to family members through this process. We are contacting individuals based on the information on record with the court,” said Coutts.
If a collection notice arrives for a deceased person, Coutts said the family should contact the collection agency so the records can be updated.
