The problem with parking can even be applied to neighborhoods since garage spaces are more and more scarce in big cities. Besides street parking spaces, both free and fee-based or private garages, drivers can use public parking. Here there is a series of obligations and rights that most people are not aware of.  

The biggest source of friction between parking lot users and their managers stems from payment by hours or fractions thereof. Consumers are demanding more precision in these rates. In fact many consumer associations have said they are totally against rounding the time up to the next full hour and demand measures to end this practice. They say it causes an imbalance that hurts consumers.

The controversial practice of rounding up 
If a car has been parked at the lot for an hour and five minutes, the owner pays for an hour and a half. And if another driver parks their car in that same space for the remaining 25 minutes, they have to pay, too. This rounding up occurs because the minimum fraction paid for is 30 minutes, so motorists often pay for more time than they really use.

The National Consumer Institute and the Health Ministry filed a complaint last autumn against public parking lots that observe this practice. Initially they went to a court in Madrid with the idea that a sentence in their favor could serve as the basis for the rest of the sector.  

A ruling is pending but it seems the government is likely to win. The town halls of M�laga, Madrid and Barcelona have said they plan to implement the change some time in 2004 so that the price of parking will depend on the minutes spent there, or groups of five minutes.

At city parking lots there are brochures with rules for using them and the rates. And while parking lot managers pledge to watch over the cars and the accessories attached to it - the wheels, for instance - this is not the case with portable things inside the car, such as cell phones or stereo equipment.

Also, whatever damage a driver causes to their car inside the parking lot, such as scraping against a wall, is his own responsibility or that of the insurance company (Autoclub).