200 thousand rubles for the lawn: Otis gets off cheap
A fine for parking in a greenfield area turned out to be minimal but there are doubts about its legitimacy
The social networks have been stirred up by the story about the fine at 200 thousand rubles issued to a company for parking on the lawn. Despite user concerns about the reliability of the information, the amount of the fine is not only possible but is minimal. Moreover, in Kazan such fines together with sanctions against defaulters for municipal parking make up 2/3 of all revenues of the administrative commissions of the city. However, social activists believe it contravenes the federal legislation.
Fake or real fine?
Recently Dmitry Penkin published a post about a 'cosmic' fine for parking on the lawn. The scan-copy of the ticket was attached to the post. On the ticket you can see a car parked in a residential yard under a tree. From the document we can understand that 'the fine in the area of municipal improvement' was issued to the Kazan representation of Otis Elevator LLC (apparently, the owner of the car) — the global manufacturer of elevators. The fine is 200 thousand rubles.
Other users in the comments doubted the plausability of the ticket, citing the fact that a fine for parking on the lawn is only 2,000 rubles. Other social media users have hypothesized that there was a typo or system error. What is more, people often encounter errors of the system of photofixation. The ticket was actually made through the system of photofixation, which is used in the traffic police and in the municipalities. However, according to Ramil Khairullin, the regional representative of the Federation of Automobile Owners of Russia, the violation is recorded not by using the Parkon but through the mobile applications of the administrative inspectors of the municipality or the applications for all citizens — National inspector.
In the traffic police they explained that such fines are issued by the municipal authorities. The Kazan Executive Committee did not answer Realnoe Vremya journalists' inquiries. In Otis Elevator LLC they did not want to comment on the situation. In the Kazan office, the correspondent was sent to the Moscow office. Elena Kudryavtseva, a communications manager in the Moscow office, declined to comment, saying that she knows nothing about the situation, and all comments to the media 'go through the world headquarters' (Otis Investments, LLC (the USA)), and she doesn't think the company will comment on such issues.
Get off cheap
Fake or not, but the fine amount is quite real.
The parking on the lawn is considered to be a violation of the 'Rules of improvement of the city of Kazan', the article No. 155.9, which states that it is prohibited 'to park and to store vehicles on playgrounds, lawns, greenfield areas, regardless the season of a year, including the dismantled (defective) ones'. According to the same rules, a lawn is considered to be 'a ground cover created by sowing of the seeds of the specially selected herbs, which are the backdrop for plantings, park buildings and an independent element of landscape composition and natural herbal vegetation.'
According to the documentation posted on the website of the Executive Committee, for 'violation of the municipal rules of improvement of territories of settlements and urban districts, municipal regulations of waste management' the individuals face a fine from 2 to 3,5 thousand rubles, the officials — from 15 to 300 thousand rubles, the legal entities — from 200 to 500 thousand rubles. For repeated violation within a year the amount of a fine grows up to 1 million rubles. The listed on the website of the Kazan Executive Committee figures are determined by the Kazan City Duma on the basis of the Code of the Republic of Tatarstan on administrative offences and are contained in the article No. 3.6.
So we can say that if the ticket is not a fake then the producers of elevators got off cheap.
Ramil Khairullin: 'The Administrative Code of RT in terms of traffic can not set the fines. On the website we even have the model statement with reference to the Supreme Court. We will insist to abolish these rules.' Photo: tavto.ru
The Supreme Court is against
How often the legal entities are fined by this law is unknown, but in general, the city budget receives a good revenue due to improper parking. According to the Executive Committee of the capital of Tatarstan, for 10 months of 2016 the administrative commissions of Kazan made 59 thousand protocols on administrative offenses. The violators were imposed fines at more than 207 million rubles. Most of the revenue were brought by 27 thousand protocols for non-payment of municipal parking fines at 67,5 million rubles. Protocols for parking of cars on greenfield areas are two times less — 14 thousand rubles. However, the total amount of fines on them due to the legal entities is almost the same — 64,5 million rubles. That is, almost 2/3 id from the parking fines. This 'cornucopia' appeared after the introduction of photofixation.
However, Ramil Khairullin, the regional representative of the Federation of Automobile Owners of Russia, believes that such fines contravene the federal law: 'There was the interpretation made by the Supreme Court that the motor vehicle drivers can be fined only by the federal law — the Traffic Rules and the Administrative Code. The Administrative Code of RT in terms of traffic, automobiles can not impose fines. On the website we even have a model statement with reference to the Supreme Court. We will insist to abolish these rules. Yet there's a catch: the federal law prohibits the parking, but there are no penalties for that. The sanctions are imposed at the local level, which contravenes the federal law.'