Calling any librarians- query on library fines.

[Deathraystare]

My friend and I are in the same predicament. I know this is really bad but we still have library books from way back. Too scared to give them back yet as not sure how much the fines would be.

They don't seem to do 'amnesties' any more. Another friend said they only now charge you the price of the book.

I know it is bad and I do want to give them back but I don't want to go in and be told "That's £500 pounds please".

Anyone have any latest info. Not sure if it is the same all over uk . I am in West London.

I had one that was about 3 years overdue I think it cost me about a fiver in fines when I returned it.
So glad I did though - I love the library and use it often

@Deathraystare Ealing has a maximum charge of £10 per book. However they do state that if you don't pay up the debt will be passed to debt recovery, so worth at least speaking to them if you're struggling to pay.

My local authority has a maximum fine per item.
Drop it back in and see. If it's loads they can't make you pay it.

I owe over £100

I once had a library fine of £36 - it was a couple of years. It was more the shame than the money.

Take them back, it's stealing to keep them really.

And librarians are mostly nice, and these days very understanding of and used to working with really skint people. You can probably offer instalments.

My local council caps the fines for overdue library books, I think it was something like £6 - £7 the last time I looked.

I’d call them and ask if there’s a maximum fine at your library.

If there’s no maximum fine might it be cheaper to say they’re lost?
My library charges the full replacement cost at current prices for lost or damaged books, which will almost always be more than their maximum fine for late books, but clearly if there was no maximum late fine, there’d be a point where it’d be cheaper to just tell the library that the book was lost...

Librarian here.

I’m sure there will be a cap on the fine. They may be happy for you to pay a token amount and then waive the rest of the fine.

They won’t charge you the cost of a replacement book if you return it!

You never know, you may have had it so long the book is now worthless anyway

If it was my library (I do work in one so not my fantasy library) I’d say just say you lost them and pay to replace ( ours do it at the cost now rather than new) and ask nicely if they’ll wipe the overdue charges.

In the past I got around this by getting married and therefore having a getting a new account (way before I worked there) but not sure that’ll work for everyone!

I did this too 🙈 in the end I just put the books into a carrier bag, dropped them in the library & left 😀 I've never been back to discuss a fine.

I work in a community library and it would depend which librarian was on at the time - some would waive it, but my ex army manager wouldn't.
Even if you didn't go in again the fine would still be there, and our county council like a pps would start debt recovery.
Two ways round it - if you're cheeky say that you called to renew it and it hasn't been done, we would waive it as possible staff error, or maybe pay in installments.
But I don't judge people for overdue or lost books - we're all human.

Did you take them back?

Like pp said, may well be that they'd have withdrawn them by now - libraries often renew stock and discard old titles.

My library charged per book, they wiped the late fee kindly! It’s on my account but I don’t have to pay it in one go and can use my card again. I pay a £1 off every time I go.

Should add the book was lost!