Thousands of motorists will eligible for parking fine refunds after a council overcharged millions of dollars in penalties for more than a decade.
Merri-Bek Council, covering Melbourne's inner-northern suburbs, said it had overcharged motorists between $43 to $59 for 11 types of infringements between July 1, 2013 and June 11, 2025.
About 250,000 fines were charged incorrectly, with the council reaping in $12 million over 12 years, the council confirmed.
The default penalty that councils charge for the 11 parking infringements is 0.2 penalty points, and they can only charge 0.5 penalty points provided they pass a resolution during a council meeting to increase that figure.
The council had been charging 0.5 penalty points despite it not passing a resolution.
It maintains these parking infringements issued to motorists since July 2013 are valid.
The refund scheme will go live in early July and will be available for 12 months, with eligible motorists able to opt in to recoup the overcharged portion of their fine.
Parking was a limited resource and all revenue raised from parking fines went towards providing services and facilities, council chief executive Cathy Henderson said.
"This is a regrettable historical administrative error, and we apologise for the impact of the overcharge," she said.
Victorian Ratepayers and Residents Association secretary Tanya Tescher said it was not the first time a council had made a mistake, but it was not a good look to have not known about the mistake for 12 years.
She said it was likely the council would not need to pay the entire $12 million owed since it depended on how widely the opt-in refund scheme was publicised.
If the council does not know exactly how much there were going to have to refund, they would have to adjust their spending, and ratepayers were going to to end up paying in the long run, Ms Tescher said.
"One way or another, the shortfall is going to have to be made up, either there are going to be fewer services offered or the rates have got to be increased," she told AAP.
MINOR INFRINGEMENT TYPES AFFECTED:
* Parked for period longer than indicated
* Parked fail to pay and obey instructions on sign
* Stopped contrary to a no-parking sign
* Stopped on a bicycle parking area
* Stopped on a motor bike parking area
* Parked contrary to requirement of parking area
* Parked not at an angle of 45 degrees
* Parked not at an angle of 90 degrees
* Parked not completely within a parking bay
* Parked long vehicle exceed minimum number of bays
* Parked wide vehicle exceed minimum number of bays
