Got a parking ticket in Toronto and want to fight it? A 2026 guide to the 15-day screening deadline, the fee ladder, and the hearing step — and why paying first kills your dispute.
Applies in: Ontario
A Toronto parking ticket is not a court matter, and the clock is 15 days. Toronto handles parking penalties through its Administrative Penalty System: you first ask a City screening officer to review the ticket, and only if you disagree with that decision do you go to a hearing before the Administrative Penalty Tribunal. There is no trial, no prosecutor, and no judge. The screening officer can cancel the penalty, reduce it, or affirm it — and the disputes that win are built on a fact: a sign that was missing or obscured, a payment receipt, a misread plate, or a permit that covered the spot. The two mistakes that kill most disputes are paying first — payment ends your right to dispute — and missing the 15-day window, after which fees start stacking.
The date on the Penalty Notice starts everything. Within 15 calendar days of that date, you must either pay or request a screening review. Do neither and the City adds a $15.39 vehicle owner/address search fee, per the City's published fee schedule. At 30 days without payment or a dispute, a $32.10 late payment fee is added. At 60 days, a further $32.10 plate denial enforcement fee is added, and your licence plate cannot be renewed until the whole balance is paid.
Requesting a screening review inside the window stops that ladder at the step you are on: the dispute, not the deadline, is what you are now waiting for. The penalty amount itself does not grow because you disputed it — the screening officer can affirm, reduce, or cancel it, but disputing does not add a surcharge of its own.
The screening review is the whole first stage, and for most tickets it is the only stage. You submit it in writing through the City's Parking Violation Notice Lookup, using your parking violation number and licence plate number. In-person screening is also available by appointment.
Your submission should do three things: say plainly why the penalty should not stand as written, point to the specific fact that supports that, and attach the evidence. The evidence that actually moves a screening decision is contemporaneous: a photo of the sign as it stood, a payment receipt with the time visible, a permit, or proof the vehicle was sold before the offence date. A screening officer decides on the balance of probabilities whether the violation was committed as set out in the notice, and can also vary a penalty or extend time to pay where undue hardship is shown. A vague complaint about parking in general is not a dispute; a dated photo of a missing sign is.
The officer also reviews the enforcement side of the file, not just your letter. You do not attend a hearing at this stage unless you booked an in-person screening, and the decision arrives by email or mail. If you booked an in-person screening and do not show up, a $64.18 non-appearance fee is added, so only book an appointment you will keep.
If the screening officer affirms the penalty and you still disagree, you can request a hearing before the Administrative Penalty Tribunal within 15 days of the screening decision. The Tribunal is independent of the screening office: a hearing officer reviews the screening decision and the evidence, and can confirm, modify, or cancel the penalty. That decision is final — there is no third stage.
Treat the hearing as a review of the screening record, not a fresh start. Your strongest material is the same evidence you filed at screening, plus anything that answers the screening officer's reasoning. If you schedule a hearing and fail to attend, a $96.28 non-appearance fee is added on top of everything else.
Between day 16 and day 60 from the notice date, you can ask for an extension of time to dispute. The extension is discretionary, so give a genuine reason for the delay, and note that requests made after day 30 must be made in person rather than online. Fees already added by the time you ask are not automatically removed. After day 60, the dispute route effectively closes: the file moves toward plate denial, and the only way to renew your plate is to pay the full balance.
Drivers mix these up, and the confusion costs money. An Ontario traffic ticket is a Highway Traffic Act charge: it goes to Provincial Offences court, a conviction adds demerit points, and the conviction sits on your driving record and affects your insurance. A Toronto parking ticket is an administrative penalty: no court, no points, no record, no insurance effect. What it can do is block your plate renewal and accumulate fees, which is a different kind of expensive. If your ticket names a driver and a Highway Traffic Act charge, it is a traffic ticket, and the traffic-ticket process applies instead.
Disputing is worth it when the facts are on your side: the sign was missing, obscured, or contradictory; you paid and can prove it; the plate was misread; the vehicle was not yours on that date; or a permit covered the spot. It is also worth it when the amount is large enough that the time to file a written submission is cheaper than the fine plus the fee ladder.
Paying is defensible when the violation is plainly correct, the amount is small, and your time is worth more than the fine. What is never defensible is ignoring the notice: the fees stack on a fixed schedule, the plate denial arrives at day 60, and by then the dispute window has closed with it.
Paying is straightforward, and the City lists three channels: online, by mail, or in person. Use the City's parking violation lookup with your parking violation number and licence plate to view and pay online; within 15 days of the notice date those two numbers are what you need, and from day 16 to day 30 you can also look a violation up with your driver's licence number or registrant identification number. Handwritten notices can take 5 to 10 days to appear in the lookup, so check back before the due date rather than assuming the ticket does not exist. Online payments take Visa or Mastercard, and industry processing fees apply.
Mailed payments must reach the City's office on or before the due date, so send several days early to allow for delivery. Make cheques or money orders payable to "Treasurer, City of Toronto", write the violation number on the front, do not send cash by mail, and mail to APS Operations, Box 4282, Postal Station "A", Toronto, ON M5W 5W5. To pay in person, go to an inquiry and payment counter at a Civic Centre or City Hall, Monday to Friday, 8:30 a.m. to 4 p.m., and bring your parking violation; cash, cheque, money order, Visa, MasterCard, American Express, and debit are accepted. Parking violations cannot be disputed at those counters.
Paying ends the dispute, even a partial payment, and a dispute already filed is cancelled once a payment is made — the warning in the short answer stands, and it is the City's own rule. One more guard: the City of Toronto never sends text messages or email reminders about parking violations, and parking violation notices are never issued by text, email, social media, or fax. A text demanding payment with a link is a scam: delete it without clicking, and check the violation only on toronto.ca. Dispute emails from the City come only from @toronto.ca or @citycloudservices.com addresses.
| No payment or screening request within 15 days | $15.39 vehicle owner/address search fee added |
|---|---|
| No payment or dispute started within 30 days | $32.10 late payment fee added |
| Still unpaid within 60 days | $32.10 plate denial enforcement fee added; plate renewal blocked |
| Miss a scheduled screening appointment | $64.18 screening non-appearance fee |
| Miss a scheduled hearing appointment | $96.28 hearing non-appearance fee |
Fees are from the City of Toronto's published parking violation fee schedule. The penalty itself is separate from these fees, and the fees stack if deadlines keep passing.
15 calendar days from the date of issuance on the notice. Miss that and a $15.39 owner/address search fee lands, then a $32.10 late payment fee at 30 days, then a $32.10 plate denial fee at 60 days — and at that point your plate cannot be renewed until the whole balance is paid.
Through the City of Toronto's Parking Violation Notice Lookup. Enter your violation number and plate, write out why the penalty should be cancelled or cut, and upload whatever backs it up: a photo of the sign, a payment receipt, a permit. In-person screening by appointment is the other route. Either way a screening officer reads your submission against the enforcement evidence and decides whether the penalty stands, drops, or gets reduced.
You lose the dispute. Any payment, partial or full, takes the matter out of the Administrative Penalty System appeal process — no screening, no hearing. So if you plan to fight any part of it, pay nothing until the process is done.
Ask for an extension of time between day 16 and day 60 from the notice date. It is discretionary, so you need a real reason for being late, and after day 30 the request has to be made in person. Fees already added stay added. Past day 60 there is no dispute route left: the file heads to plate denial, and paying the full balance is the only way to renew your plate.
No. It is an administrative penalty against the vehicle owner, not a Highway Traffic Act conviction against a driver. No demerit points, no driving-record entry, no insurance effect — the opposite of an Ontario traffic ticket, where a conviction does all three. But an unpaid parking penalty still blocks plate renewal, so ignoring it is not free either.
You get it only after screening: if the screening officer upheld the penalty, you have 15 days from that decision to ask the Administrative Penalty Tribunal for a hearing. A hearing officer independent of the screening office reviews the record and can leave the penalty alone, change it, or wipe it. Whatever they decide is final. Book a hearing and skip it, and a $96.28 non-appearance fee gets added.
Same route, one different deadline. Camera-issued penalties in Toronto go through screening and then the Tribunal, not traffic court. The twist is the hearing window: for a camera offence penalty order you have 30 days after the screening decision to request a hearing, not 15. Screening uses the same lookup tool and the same steps — but a camera penalty order gets 30 days to request screening, not 15.
Related guides: how to fight a traffic ticket in Ontario.