Yii speaks to reporters after the full council meeting.

MIRI (Jan 25): The legal costs associated with the issuance of Letters of Demand to parking defaulters is only applicable if the compounds remain unpaid, said Miri City Council’s (MCC) chairman Mayor Adam Yii.

Yii, who was met after chairing the council’s full meeting yesterday, said the council hoped to provide the public a clear and firm clarification regarding this issue.

“What the council is doing now is, it will notify the person who has any outstanding parking compounds first.

“If they don’t pay, then we will pass the case to our legal panel to pursue the process on a legal basis.

Once the case is passed on to our panel lawyer, the panel lawyer will issue a letter of demand to the person, he explained.

“This will incur a legal charge of RM400. A lot of people say that they are willing to pay the outstanding, but not the legal charge.

“But then again, they should have done that before the council initiated the legal process. If the case has been passed to the panel lawyer, the RM400 legal charge will be payable,” he said.

Yii pointed out that the charge covers the legal services provided by the appointed panel lawyer, as well as the administrative efforts necessary to facilitate the recovery of the outstanding amount.

“It is essential to stress that this legal cost is incurred solely when a parking defaulter has failed to comply with prior notices or reminders from the Council to settle the outstanding compound.

“The fee is not applied automatically but arises due to the defaulter’s non-payment,” he said, adding that the RM400 is a fixed legal fee charged by the council’s panel lawyer, regardless of the outstanding amount.

“So maybe your outstanding is only RM15. Now you have to pay the RM15 plus the RM400 legal fee.

“To avoid the legal charge, they must pay the outstanding before the council passes the case to the panel lawyer for legal action. So, it’s quite straightforward,” he said.

Yii stressed that the council is committed to ensuring that the legal process is transparent, efficient, and in full alignment with legal procedure.

Thus, he advised the public to regularly check their outstanding parking fines either through the parking app or by directly contacting the council’s Parking Unit.

“This approach aims to recover overdue compounds without imposing unnecessary financial burdens on the public, unless the matter has escalated due to non-payment.”