Obviously, few foreign motorists pay the parking fines they would have received in Brussels. According to the figures, only less than 2% would honor these invoices, with the exception of the French and the Dutch for whom there is a transparency agreement.
Getting stuck in unpaid parking is always unpleasant, including when traveling abroad where it ruins vacations, business or personal travel. Yes, but now, if the Belgians are often asked to honor their debt, this seems to be less the case for foreign motorists caught on our territory and more particularly in Brussels where only less than 2% of the fines are paid.
The Minister for Mobility, Elke Van den Brandt (Groen), was recently challenged on the subject and she confirms that "the recovery rate of foreign plates is much lower than that of Belgian plates". At parking.brussels, it is indicated that the recovery rate does not exceed 2%, whereas in France and the Netherlands , this rate is 70% for Belgians taken for the same defect.
600,000 euros of loss of earnings:
One wonders what explains this low recovery rate , because it is not the means that are lacking? Apparently, the collection agency in charge of parking in Brussels would work with a bailiff's office , but the results are not up to par due, it is said, to the multiplicity of international systems whose sometimes very cumbersome procedures do not not allow to succeed. Or, one imagines, at (too) great expense.
In Saint-Josse , for example, the shortfall for the community is enormous: we are talking about more than 600,000 euros in unpaid parking lots by foreigners. It would only be with France and the Netherlands , countries for which agreements exist, that the fines would be properly collected. parking.brussels also indicates that the recovery rate from the French and the Dutch is equal to that of the Belgians .
The municipality of Saint Josse , which does not work with parking.brussels, decided itself to place clogs on the vehicles at fault. It will be operational from the start of the school year. It should be noted that, according to the municipal authorities, the cases of non-payment do not really concern tourists or visitors, but foreign motorists who reside in Belgium , but who still use a car registered abroad, which allows them to ' evade parking prices , possible automobile taxation when it is disadvantageous as well as low-emission zones.
According to the authorities, the phenomenon is on the increase… A shame, because any foreigner who lives in Belgium must re- register his vehicle on our territory precisely to avoid this situation. The law provides that a foreigner residing in Belgium can be lent a car registered abroad, but for a period limited to one month only.