San Francisco Looks to Refund $6.1 Million in Overpaid Parking Tickets

If you think you might have overpaid a San Francisco parking ticket sometime between 1995 and 2012 -- if you can remember that far back -- you've got until next Thursday, March 3, to get a refund.

After reviewing data from that 17-year period, the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency says more than 200,000 overpaid citations have yet to be refunded. The overpaid amounts, which range from $15 to more than $1,000, total $6.1 million.

SFMTA automatically notifies ticket recipients if they’ve overpaid their citations, but this is the first time since 1994 that the agency has sent out additional notices and taken extra measures to distribute refunds to people who haven’t responded to notifications in over three years.

The agency has also posted a comprehensive list here, along with instructions on how to get a refund: Citation Overpayments.

“We want to make sure that, even though we haven’t heard back from them, that they hear from us,” said SFMTA spokesman Paul Rose. “We’re trying ... every means of communications that we can to ensure that people can get this information.”

Since the beginning of the year, when more active outreach began, about 500 people have filed for refunds.

“It is something that’s garnered a lot of interest over the last couple weeks, and we expect that to continue,” Rose said. “There’s been an overwhelming response of people signing up to get their refunds.”

If overpayers don’t file a claim by March 3, any leftover money will go into the agency’s operating budget.

People who do file for a refund can expect to have that money applied to any outstanding citations or receive a check within 30 days.

One of those due a very large refund was novelist and Stanford Continuing Studies writing instructor Valerie Ford Brelinski. Somehow, the city overcharged her $1,270 for parking citations issued more than a decade ago. She said she's glad to have gotten a check, but is less than impressed with the city's sense of punctuality and square-dealing.

"I'm certainly glad to have finally received the money owed me, but it would have been great if they had paid me this 10 years ago," Brelinski said in an email.

"I am also amazed by the fact that they did not pay me any interest on this debt, but sent me a message saying that if they refunded this to me in error, I would have to repay them the total amount, plus any interest that accrued," she added.

Lahue and Associates, a local company that makes and installs signs, received a refund for $121 in overpayments. It's taking the money in the form of a credit that it applied to new tickets.

“Tickets happen too often in a city,” said Nicole Nguyen, office manager for Lahue and Associates. “(The refund) is nice because it helps us with the unexpected bills that come with tickets.”

Here are the top 10 overpayments we find on the SFMTA list:

Patrick Quinn: $2,210
Paul Paradis: $1,937
On Lok Senior Health Services: $1,800
Pendazi Sampson: $1,587
Devcon Construction: $1,500
Fergus O'Sullivan: $1,489
Dante Carpinito: $1,450
Valerie Ford Brelinski: $1,270
Robert Q. Rheaume: $1,105
Catherine Terascavage: $1,017