Street cleaning, and other common parking fines
This article explains how to deal with the most common traffic fines in Brno, should one come to your mailbox, for illegal parking in:
- Street cleaning
- Inner courtyards
- Historical city centre
- K+R parking areas
- Yellow stripes
+ How to solve a fine
For general information about parking in Brno, and the system of blue zone parking, you can read our previous article here.
1] Street Cleaning
Number one most common parking offence that our clients turn to us for. Just like in any other city, Brno streets get cleaned every now and then. (This applies to blue parking zones, too. Cars must not be parked there during the cleaning process even if you paid your yearly residential parking fee.)
How do I recognise that my street is about to be cleaned?
At least a week or two before the actual cleaning, a new temporary traffic sign forbidding parking will appear at the entrance to the street. Underneath it, a small white board would specify the date and time. During these hours of the given day, you must not park your car there.
Be vigilant about it. It also applies to people who only use their car occasionally and tend to park it in one spot for weeks. Every now and then check not only your car, but also the local area for these temporary road signs.
The street cleanings are scheduled well in advance: you can check their dates online, on cisteni.bkom.cz, or even download a mobile app (from the same website), to get notifications for your address.
If you leave your car in the zone during the cleaning, you will be fined and in worst cases, your car may even be towed away.
2] Inner courtyards
There are certain areas in the city, typically located in the inner courtyards in between buildings, which are exempt from the system of residential parking even though it is visibly possible to park cars there. They often do not even have blue stripes sprayed on them.
Be extremely careful about those. The absence of blue stripes does not mean that anyone can park there without paying. It is the exact opposite: only the inhabitants of the surrounding buildings are allowed to park in these areas, and anyone else is forbidden to leave their car there.
How do I recognise these areas?
There should be a stationary traffic sign informing you that you are about to enter an inner courtyard (vnitroblok) and that you cannot park there unless you live in the surrounding buildings. Sometimes, instead, there is a No Way traffic sign with supplementary traffic signs describing exceptions. However, at certain spots, these may be covered by growing vegetation or something else. To avoid any unnecessary fines, you can check their location online here (click on VRSTVY and scroll to Vnitrobloky).
What if I live in the surrounding buildings?
If you live in the building adjacent to these inner courtyards, you need to obtain a special parking permit to be allowed to park there. You do it via Brno ID, just like with a normal blue zone parking permit.
Beware – it is a separate permit (vnitroblok) from the blue-zone residential permit. You can only park in this courtyard with it, not elsewhere around your house if there are blue lines. (=You need two different permits for parking in the courtyard and for parking in the surrounding blue zone areas.)
3] Historic city centre
The historical city centre boarded by the city’s circular boulevard (Husova, Nádražní, Benešova, Rooseveltova and Joštova streets) has another completely different set of rules. To pak there, you need 1) a parking permit for the area, and also 2) a permit to enter this area with your car. Veselá and Dominikánská streets are exempt from this rule to assure easy access to Velký Špalíček shopping mall and their public garages.
This permit is typically given only to residents of the area or to people who have a place of business there. There is an automated system of cameras checking your number plate and if you enter the zone with an unregistered car, you will be fined.
How do I recognise these areas?
There is a stationary parking traffic sign and a supplementary white sign with a big red stripe saying ZÓNA A at the entrance to the street. Do not even enter this street with your car unless you have both a parking and entering permit.
What if I live or have business in the historic city centre?
You can get your parking permits to park and to enter the centre via Brno ID.
Be careful, the historical city centre is further divided into several subzones (a few streets usually form one subzone) and you can only enter and park in your own subzone. You cannot leave your car, or even go by car, to any other subzone. Their map is available here.
4] K+R parking areas
These are the parking spots with K+R sprayed on them. You find them around busy areas, schools and public transport terminals. K+R stands for Kiss and Ride and they are meant for only a short term parking, usually up to 15 minutes. If you park there for a longer period, you may be fined.
Sometimes though, they only function as a K+R for certain times. The rest of the time, they may be used by anyone and, typically, you do not need to pay for them during their time of inactivity. You will recognise that by a stationary parking traffic sign and a supplementary white sign with day and time specifications of their K+R validity.
5] Yellow stripes
Yellow stripes sprayed on the streets mean you cannot park (or even stop) your car there at any time. If you do that, you will surely be fined. This applies to yellow crosses on the roads as well. These are there for buses or merging traffic to avoid blockage. Even in a traffic jam, you cannot stand there waiting for the cars ahead of you to start moving. If you do that, you can, again, be fined.
Solving the Fine
In case of a parking offence, the operator of the car (usually but not necessarily the owner, it is the person who runs the car and is in the papers written as Provozovatel) will receive a letter from the municipality police informing them about the parking (or any other traffic) offence and demanding them to pay a fine.
In this letter, there is a certain amount of money wanted and information on how to pay it online. If you are aware of your wrongdoing and want to have this misfortune behind you as quickly as possible, pay it this way, it is the most convenient form of solving a fine. However, be careful, there is a specific deadline in the text up to which you can solve this issue quickly just by sending the correct amount of money to the municipality’s bank account.
What if I missed the deadline?
If you missed the deadline, do not send the money. Your fine has already been moved to the magistrate, more specifically to the department of traffic offences. You will have to contact them (the how is also specified in the letter too, it is this department) in Czech and ask for a solution. Use an online translator to translate your request.
They will, most likely, invite you to their office to provide them with an explanation of what happened and why you did not pay within the deadline. This meeting will be held in Czech and you will, most likely, have to pay more money for your wrongdoing.
What if I disagree?
Naturally, you have the right to disagree with any parking (or any road) offence. If you want to appeal the fine and you have time within the deadline suggested in the letter, you have to visit a municipality police and express and defend your disagreement. You cannot make an appointment there though, you must wait. If it is past the deadline, you can do the same at the magistrate, department of traffic offences. This time, it is by appointment.
On the other hand, as a rule, the police officers are correct in their decision that the car is parked badly and they do take pictures as evidence of such wrongdoing. Therefore, usually, they are easily able to prove that you have done something wrong. Mirroring this, you will have a hard time proving that you have done everything correctly. Plus, of course, this meeting will also be held in Czech.
What if someone else drove the car?
If your car was parked wrongfully by someone else, you can (but don’t have to) move the responsibility to this person. If that is your case, you must write an email to either the municipality police or to the magistrate, department of traffic offences, depending on whether you met or missed the deadline in the letter, and you have to let them know who was the driver of the car.
Write the email in Czech. You can use services of online translation machines, grammar is not a problem. The officers will then tell you how to proceed. The driver in question will have to agree with your claim, though.
Now you know about the most common parking offences in Brno and how to avoid them. Moreover, if you still receive a fine, you know what to do with it. Let’s hope that it will make your car life in the city easier. Have a safe journey!
Picture source: regionbrno.cz
