A parking enforcement company based in Greenwood Village deliberately uses a confusing payment process that deceives drivers and forces them to pay illegal fines, a new federal lawsuit alleges.
Mayenssi Montiel, a Little Rock, Arkansas, resident, filed the proposed action lawsuit against Parking Revenue Recovery Services in U.S. District Court for the District of Colorado, alleging she parked in a parking garage in Little Rock on April 27 and overstayed her payment by four minutes.
But rather than charging Montiel the additional $4 for the extra hour on site, Parking Revenue Recovery Services issued her a fine of $70 — a 1,750% price increase, the complaint states.
“The ‘notice fee’ collection scheme is unlawful because it allows PRRS to inflate any potential debt (unpaid parking) by orders of magnitude without any authority to do so, and tricks and intimidates individuals into paying the inflated ‘outstanding balance’ fine by threatening further fines or legal action, which PRRS has no authority to undertake,” Montiel’s lawsuit alleges.
Parking Revenue Recovery Services differs from traditional parking structures in significant ways. Rather than collecting a ticket when you drive in and paying for parking on your way out, PRRS lots don’t have any gates. Instead, cameras capture a driver’s license plate when they enter and exit the lot.
There are no parking rates posted in the lot, the lawsuit alleges. The driver must scan a QR code to enter payment.
The removal of gates, the use of inconspicuous signs requiring payment and the nondisclosure of the fines is an “intentional business strategy” used by the company to “manufacture and encourage an individual’s non-compliance” so the company can “coerce” fines from an individual and generate higher returns for itself, the complaint alleges.
When individuals fail to pay for parking, the company issues them a “notice of non-compliance” through the mail. The goal of the notice, the lawsuit alleges, is to inflate the amount owed and intimidate customers into paying these inflated fines.
The notices also include threats of towing, booting and further legal action if the fee is not promptly paid — actions that the company cannot legally take, the complaint states.
A PRRS representative declined to comment Friday, citing the ongoing litigation.
The lawsuit comes less than two years after the company reached a settlement with Colorado’s attorney general over the collection of illegal fines.
Parking Revenue Recovery Services “routinely tried to collect fines from consumers who entered the wrong license plate but paid for parking, paid for parking after the company’s 15-minute grace period or didn’t park in the company’s lots at all but received parking notices anyway,” Attorney General Phil Weiser’s office said in August 2023.
The company agreed to issue over $31,000 in refunds to the more than 400 consumers who paid inappropriately collected fines. Parking Revenue Recovery Services also dismissed any parking notices for individuals who entered the wrong license plate or were issued notices in error.
The company’s co-founder, John Conway, disputed the AG’s characterization that they engaged in illegal behavior, saying errors account for less than 1% of their notices issued.
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