If you believe you have been unfairly issued with a fine or that there is a valid reason why your fine should be withdrawn, you may be able to request a review.
Internal review process
If you have been issued with an infringement by the City and believe you have a valid reason for it to be withdrawn, you have the right to appeal the fine once. This is known as applying for an internal review.
All internal review applications and correspondence must be in writing, you cannot request an internal review over the phone or in person. Infringements can't be cancelled unless you apply for an internal review.
The Mayor and Councillors can't be involved in the internal review process. They are unable to respond to letters/enquiries regarding fines. All correspondence regarding internal reviews must be directed to the Review Officer.
You are only entitled to one internal review for each infringement in Victoria. In order to help the City carefully review your application, please make sure you give all the important information and evidence right from the start. Applications for additional reviews may not be accepted.
Applying for an internal review for someone else. We can't accept applications for an internal review from someone other than who the fine was issued to. If you are applying for someone else please complete the Third Party Consent Form and provide a copy with your internal review.
You will be notified in writing of the outcome of the internal review. If you have not received a written response and would like to check that your application for internal review has been received, please contact us.
Infringements referred to Fines Victoria or the Magistrates' Court. More information regarding infringements, the fine's lifecycle, who is involved and your rights and responsibilities is available from Fines Victoria.
Apply for an internal review
You are required to supply specific information before the City can conduct an internal review. To ensure you provide all the information required, please fill in the Application for Internal Review form. Applications which don't provide all of the information required in this form may not be accepted.
What grounds can I apply for internal review under
You can apply on the ground of person unaware if you didn’t know about your fine.
To apply for internal review on the ground of person unaware you must submit your application within 14 days of the date that you become aware of the fine. You can make a statutory declaration as evidence of the date that you became aware of your fine.
If you apply for internal review on the grounds of person unaware, your application should include evidence showing why you were unaware of your fine. This might include, for example, a copy of your passport or a boarding pass showing that you were overseas, removalist invoices if you moved house or mail theft reports if your mail was stolen.
You can apply on the ground of contrary to law if you believe that the enforcement agency’s decision to serve and enforce your fine was inconsistent with the law. For example, you might believe that the fine is invalid for some reason, or that the officer who issued the fine acted unlawfully, unfairly, improperly or outside of their authority. If you apply on this ground, the Agency may consider:
- Whether the officer who issued your fine was authorised to do so, made a mistake or acted improperly or unfairly.
- Whether the enforcement agency has complied with its legal requirements.
- Whether any signs (such as traffic signs) were clear and visible, if this is relevant to your fine.
You can apply on the ground of mistake of identity if you think that the fine was issued to you in error. For example, you might apply on this ground if you are not the person named in the fine.
If you apply for a review on the ground of mistake of identity, your application should include evidence such as your birth certificate, passport or driver licence showing that you are not the person named in the fine.
You cannot apply on this ground if someone else was driving your vehicle at the time of the offence. If that has happened, you should nominate the responsible driver.
You can use an Operator Owner Onus Form
You can apply on the ground of exceptional circumstances if you had awareness and control of your conduct that resulted in your fine but the circumstances leading to the offence were out of the ordinary, unavoidable or unexpected.
Examples of exceptional circumstances include if you committed the offence because of circumstances that you couldn’t foresee or prevent, such as a medical emergency or if your car broke down.
You can provide a letter from your doctor, invoices or receipts, a statutory declaration, a witness statement, photographs, travel documentation, etc to support your application.
Being unaware of the law is not an exceptional circumstance.
If you have any of the circumstances outlined below, you may be eligible to apply for a review of your fines under Special Circumstances.
These circumstances are very specific. You can only apply if you can show that:
- you committed the offence in part because you:
- had a mental or intellectual disability, disorder, disease or illness
- had a serious addiction to drugs, alcohol or a volatile substance
- were homeless
- were affected by family violence, OR - you cannot deal with your fines because of severe disabling long-term circumstances, even if those circumstances did not exist at the time of the offence.
Special circumstances linked to your offending behaviour
You must show a link between your special circumstances and your offending behaviour.
If you have a mental illness, intellectual disability, or a serious substance addiction, you need to provide evidence of how this reduced your capacity to:
- understand your behaviour was against the law, or
- control your behaviour (even if you knew it was against the law).
If you are homeless or a victim of family violence, you need to provide evidence of how this reduced your capacity to control your behaviour (even if you knew it was against the law).
Long-term circumstances linked to your ability to deal with your fine
If you are not able to deal with your fine due to severe disabling long-term circumstances, you need to provide evidence that your circumstances:
- are long term and severe, disabling or incapacitating, and
- relate mostly to issues other than financial hardship, and
- make it impracticable or unfeasible for you to deal with your fine by:
- paying in full
- paying in instalments
- completing activities or treatment under a Work and Development Permit
- applying for the Family Violence Scheme.
Examples include:
- long-term involuntary mental health care
- severe physical or intellectual disability.
Who can prepare your supporting evidence?
You must provide evidence from a practitioner or agency who is familiar with your circumstances. Depending on your circumstances, this may be your:
- doctor or medical specialist
- psychiatrist or psychologist
- social worker or case worker
- accredited drug treatment agency or drug counsellor
- financial counsellor
- recognised health, support or welfare agency (for example, the Salvation Army).
Evidence may include, reports, letters, statements, submissions, statutory declarations, police reports and family violence safety notices.
What is required in your report?
Your practitioner or agency report should include:
- your practitioner's qualifications
- your practitioner's relationship with you and how long they have known you
- an explanation of your circumstances, including its nature, severity, duration, and impact on your life
- the link between your circumstances and your offending behaviour.
In the case of severe, disabling long-term circumstances, the report should also include information on the link between your circumstances and your inability to deal with the fine.
We may ask you for more information to help determine your application.
Your evidence should be signed and dated within 12 months of the date of your application. You can provide evidence that is older than 12 months if it relates to a permanent condition, such as an intellectual disability.
After an internal review is submitted
When we receive an application for internal review, the infringement is put on hold and no further fees will be added while the infringement is being reviewed. If an appeal is submitted after the late fees are applied to the infringement, the extra fee will be added to the infringement's total cost.
If you submit your application online you will see a message after you submit advising that the application has been successfully submitted. You won't receive any further notification that the appeal has been submitted. If you submit a hard copy you won't receive any notification that your application has been received.
If you are unsure if the appeal has been submitted correctly, you can contact the City on 1300 002 642 to confirm before submitting another appeal.
It can take up to 90 days for an internal review to be completed and the outcome of the appeal determined. Please do not make any payments on the infringement until you have been notified of the outcome.
Frequently asked questions
If you don't act on your infringement before the due date, your infringement will continue through the fines lifecycle with more costs added at each step. Failing to deal with your fine before each step can also reduce the options available to you.
If you leave your infringement for too long it may result in an enforcement warrant being issued against you. This could lead to the following action by a Sheriff's Officer who may:
- Wheel clamp your vehicle
- Come to your home and demand payment
- Stop you at a police road block
- Take your personal property and sell it at a public auction
- Remove the number plates from your vehicle
- Arrest you
You can no longer apply for an internal review with the City. The due date on the infringement notice and reminder notice have both expired, the fine now sits with Fines Victoria, and you should contact them regarding your options.
As you are only entitled to one internal review per infringement, you can't apply for more reviews after it has been completed and you have received your response.
However if you have information which you have not previously provided, or a situation you have not advised us of, the City may give further consideration based on these circumstances. Please be aware, writing to tell us the same information again will not result in a different outcome.
If you are not satisfied with the outcome of your internal review and would like to take the matter further, you may choose to have the matter heard and determined in court by a Magistrate. If you would like to have the matter heard in court we only require advice of this in writing, we will then contact you to confirm your intention and have the matter listed for hearing.
You can apply for a payment plan or an extension of time by calling the City on 1300 002 642.
If you are experiencing acute financial hardship, such as being homeless or at risk of homelessness, you may wish to apply for internal review based on your current circumstances. To provide consideration based on your financial situation we require confirmation of your acute financial hardship from an agency providing you with financial counselling, support or homelessness services. This confirmation must be in the form of a letter on agency letterhead from:
- Welfare agency
- Financial counsellor
- Case worker
- Case manager
- Centrelink
If you require additional time to obtain information to support your application, or would like to discuss your options, please call the City on 1300 002 642.
More information regarding your options is available from Fines Victoria.
If you would like to discuss your options or the details of your fine you can call the City on 1300 002 642. However, as all internal review correspondence must be in writing, information discussed in person or over the phone cannot be taken into consideration in an internal review.
Your phone conversation will not result in the infringement being withdrawn.
The review team aim to complete internal reviews and send correspondence informing applicants of the outcome within two weeks (14 days).
However, reviews can take longer depending on the need for more detailed investigation and the availability of evidence. The length of time an internal review takes can also depend on the number of applications being processed at the time. All applications and applicants are given the same level of consideration. Internal reviews can take up to 90 days to complete.
To ensure the review team can complete your internal review in the shortest time possible, please make sure you:
- Provide all relevant evidence to support your application
- Include your correct name, complete address and contact details
- Fill out the review form correctly
If you apply for an internal review, have not heard back and are worried your application may not have been received, or you may not have received the City's reply, please contact the City's Customer Service Centre on 1300 002 642.