So what I'm gonna do is piss and moan like an impotent jerk and then bend over and take it up the tailpipe.

May 15, 2009 11:39 AM

My car was towed last night from my apartment's parking lot, and I believe it was done so wrongfully. Is there anything I can do about it?

I live in a small apartment building. There is a parking lot out back that is shared with the building next door. A permit is required to park there and it is issued by my landlord company.

I've lived in this building for two years and have always had my permit displayed. Last night I parked in the same place I always parked. This morning my car was gone.

When I went to the tow company, I looked at the car and saw this and this. (Apologies for the poor iphone pictures.) As you may be able to see, the permit is there, on the rear view mirror. I have two problems: 1) the permit is on the rear view mirror. I concede it's not the most visible thing in the world, but it's clearly there. If you peek through the side window you could have seen it. But, 2) the permit was turned a full 180 degrees--in fact, it covered part of the rear view mirror, as you can see here and here.

Nothing ever touches the permit. And even if the permit was touched, there's no way that it's going to flip all the way around to where it was. And even if it did flip all the way around, there's no way that I wouldn't have noticed it when I last drove the car, because the permit is covering up the rear view mirror!

I called them this morning before I went over to complain that my car was towed, because I knew the permit was inside. I think that after that phone call, they saw that I was correct, managed to jimmy the lock, and flipped the permit. Total cost to me: $252.00

Is there anything I can do?

posted by soonertbone to law & government (32 comments total)

Call the police? Make close records of the time everything happened and what exactly happened. Don't mess with the car until the police look at it.
posted by emilyd22222 at 11:56 AM on May 15

I don't think it's very likely that they towed your car with the permit normally visible - why would they do that? I think it's more likely that when getting out of your car last night you somehow managed to bump the permit (were you carrying anything?) and it improbably managed to flip around.

Nonetheless, your permit is there, and you did pay to park there (whether it's separate or built in to your rent).

You should talk to the landlord or apartment manager. You don't have any business relationship with the towing company, and you don't have any leverage. The apartment manager is the one who they will listen to.
posted by aubilenon at 11:57 AM on May 15

Have you already paid them the money?
posted by halogen at 11:59 AM on May 15

Small claims. Name the towing company and the complex as Defendants.
posted by letahl at 12:03 PM on May 15

Oh, I should add that the tow company told me to talk to the landlord. They said they're just authorized to do sweeps of all the company's properties and mine got caught up in the sweep.

The landlord company said to talk to the tow company, and that there's nothing they can do about it either.

I called the police, and they said it was a civil matter and that they can't do anything about it either.

So since I can't very well go along without my car, I paid them and took the car. The question, then, is whether I can do anything after the fact.
posted by soonertbone at 12:07 PM on May 15

You might consider the possibility that your car was jimmied by someone other than the tow company--this has happened to me several times, even in an ostensibly secure garage. Someone rummaging around in your glove compartment could have disarranged the permit, causing an unobservant tow truck driver to tow your car.

This wouldn't help you get your money back, of course--for that I can only suggest that you talk to the managers of the tow company and your landlord, or get your landlord to talk to the managers of the tow company as aubilenon suggests. It seems like you should not have to pay for the tow given that you *did* have your permit in the car.
posted by fermion at 12:07 PM on May 15

I would bet that no one is ever going step forward to reimburse your towing/impound fees.

Why was the towing company called in the first place? They don't cruise private lots looking for interlopers. Usually the building super is the one to call them. I'd scream at him and make sure he recognizes your vehicle in future.
posted by bonobothegreat at 12:12 PM on May 15

Oh, guess I should've previewed.
posted by bonobothegreat at 12:13 PM on May 15

To comment on the permit-was-flipped-after-the-fact theory, if they were going to tamper with the permit, wouldn't it have made much more sense for them to knock the permit onto the floor of the car rather than to leave it on the mirror? They'd be in a much better position to deny that they saw the permit if it was on the floor (or seat) of the car than if it was still on the mirror, but flipped over. Because of this, I think it's much more likely that you knocked the permit without realizing it or a third party broke into your car and knocked it.
posted by kitty teeth at 12:15 PM on May 15

Doesn't really matter if the permit was backwards, forwards, upside down -- you had the permit and the right to park there.

Small claims court would be the only way to get your money back. I wouldn't even bring up your conspiracy theory about them moving the permit, etc. You had the right to park there and they towed you in error.
posted by hamsterdam at 12:24 PM on May 15 [2 favorites]

And guys, it's a towing company. I wouldn't be the least bit surprised if they manipulated your permit after the fact.
posted by hamsterdam at 12:28 PM on May 15

Normally you would take someone, I'd say the towing company, to small claims court. But it doesn't look like you have much of a case here. If you find some proof of them entering your car that might be something. Of course if you take them to small claims court and they don't bother to show up you'd win by default.

I agree with kitty teeth that if they were going to tamper with the permit after the fact, they would have pulled it down or tossed it entirely.

You can try arguing with the tow company some more - they should have seen the permit even if it was turned, etc. Perhaps mention small claims court. Maybe they'll pay you some portion back just to get rid of you.

Maybe they do this thing all the time - check for complaints with the BBB. If you find a pattern of complaints there, maybe a local news station would be interested in doing a story, etc.
posted by mikepop at 12:29 PM on May 15 [1 favorite]

Around here the towing companies stake out the lots where they have contracts. If you stop to avoid running over a dog they'll hook and tow you before you can get moving again. There was a case a few months ago of a woman leaving an infant in a running car for a coupe of minutes to drop somebody off and they towed the car with the baby in it. (Ignore the stupidity of leaving a baby in a running car for any length of time.) The point is some towing companies are hyper aggressive as a part of their business plan, so it is entirely possible the towing company was cruising the lot proactively looking for opportunities to tow.
posted by COD at 12:38 PM on May 15 [2 favorites]

A.) The landlord issued the permit, no? They must have a record of this.

B.) You have have pictures of your permit, in your car, in the tow lot.

C.) Is there a stipulation in your lease or contract that says the permit must be displayed a certain way, the right way out, etc? (There usually is, and getting ticketed or towed for incorrectly displaying your permit is common...)

D.) Obviously the tow company was acting hyper-aggressive and towing cars which are obviously permitted, but perhaps technically not displaying the permit correctly.

In other words, it's a question of service quality between the two company and the landlord. The landlord has contracted with the two company to provide a needed service, and the two company has gone batshitinsane trying to git dat money.

Tell your landlord that this is bullshit and that you want to be reimbursed. Print up your photos, document everything, but it all down in writing and either hand deliver it (get a receipt) or send it all certified mail.

Tell your landlord that you're putting your monthly rent in an escrow account until they resolve this issue.
posted by wfrgms at 1:02 PM on May 15 [2 favorites]

So since I can't very well go along without my car, I paid them and took the car.

Exactly. It *could* be a scam, and that'd be the genius of it.

(Although, frankly, you should have pointed to the permit and refused to pay, then called the cops to the impound lot if the towers wouldn't budge. They stole your car. That's not a civil matter. Paying them, though, could be construed as an admission that they were right.)

Call the Better Business Bureau.
posted by Sys Rq at 1:06 PM on May 15

The fee you paid the towing company isn't penalty for parking there -- it's reimbursement for their services of towing your car. They'll never refund your money, because they did their job and you paid them for it (and also, you paid to get your car back).

You have two options here. Either you can ream your apartment owners and go after the money from them, or you can forget about the whole thing. If you forget about it, then the terrorists have won, but often fighting these things is far more a pain than it's worth. Life, sadly, is unfair. That being said, I'd really take the building owners to task and do everything I could to get the money from them (short of deducting it from my rent, because your lease probably won't let you pull that one off). The quickest route to a heart attack is continuing down the road of trying to prove that your permit was correctly placed and it wasn't flipped over and someone broke into your car to switch it around. That's a nonstarter of an argument that's going to get you branded as a nut job. Best to stick with the "my permit was displayed" and leave it at that. Never mention the stuff about it being flipped around and such.
posted by incessant at 1:07 PM on May 15

Small claims court is also an option, I believe.
posted by disillusioned at 1:18 PM on May 15

Could the permit have been moved around while the car was towed at an angle behind a fast-moving tow-truck that hit all the potholes it could? Don't with-hold the money from your rent until you have clarified your legal position. You don't want to end up living in your car.
posted by saucysault at 1:26 PM on May 15

I'd say small claims court is an option. You have photos demonstrating your permit was in your car, you have the paperwork that your car was towed, you have the receipt proving that you had to pay $252 to get your property, which had been legally parked, bailed out from having been improperly towed.

This kind of dispute is exactly what small claims is for. Not worth troubling a lawyer over, and I'm guessing that towing companies get taken to small claims court regularly, especially if they are aggressive about sweeping lots.

Also, you don't say where you live, but in many states towing companies are licensed, and complaints to the state licensing board about aggressive towing practices might encourage them to be more accommodating. Or try your city councilperson.
posted by ambrosia at 1:53 PM on May 15

Brief aside:

Why was the towing company called in the first place? They don't cruise private lots looking for interlopers.

This is 100% wrong. Not only do they do so, but it's very common. It works out to the advantage of everyone except the person who is towed, who may or may not be towed rightly. The tow company has a profit motive to tow cars parked in violation, which means that management gets vigilant policing. It's not unusual for tow companies to pay 'spotters' to tip them off.

Actual point:

The landlord company said to talk to the tow company, and that there's nothing they can do about it either.

You expected them to say sorry and here's $200?

Don't accept "there's nothing I can do" as fact when you're told it. Building management doesn't want to be bothered and it's probable that someone who bitches to them about being towed was in the wrong, so they're predisposed to want you to buzz off. Of COURSE they have some culpability in the actions of the people they contract to do work there.

Personally I think there's 0 chance you'll get all your money back but perhaps you can get some. Send your management company a registered letter detailing the facts ( not your supposition - "the permit was in the car and visible" not "the permit was perfectly visible till someone tampered with it even though I can't prove that") and stating that you expect reimbursal for the cost of towing.

Send a similar letter to the tow company.

Did you pay via credit card? Call the credit card company and initiate a chargeback. They might make you wait till you have heard back from the tow company, they might not. Dig up your documentation that spells out under what circumstances they can tow and what your responsibility is.

The tow company may play the same line with you that incessant mentioned - that the charge is for the tow and they did it. Irrelevant, they had no right to do it. (Maybe they did if you have a responsibility to display the permit in a certain way but why volunteer? And it may well have been turned in movement.)

If you're lucky you can get them to agree to a partial credit. If tenants are in demand perhaps you can get them to agree to a rent credit rather than potentially lose you. But you'll have a way better chance of success if you document, document, document. If nothing else it sends the message that you're not an idle complainer.
posted by phearlez at 2:01 PM on May 15

hamsterdam: "And guys, it's a towing company. I wouldn't be the least bit surprised if they manipulated your permit after the fact."

Quoted for truth.
I had my car towed from down the street last summer because it smelled like gasoline and I didn't find out until a week later when I went to go for a drive. I asked the police and the towing company why they didn't give me a call and they said "it's not our job to let you know". Towing companies know they've got you and they'll squeeze you for what you've got, and if you can't pay they can just take your car and auction it and you can't do a thing.

It's ridiculously easy to jimmy a car door, and if anyone's going to have a jimmy it's a towing company. Thing is, you're going to have a real hard time proving they did it.
What the real issue here is is that you were allowed to park there, you had a permit, and you were towed anyway. Do you think you can really pressure your landlord company to pay up for what the subcontracting company charged you for? I doubt that too, but it's still worth the try just so you can stick up for what's right- $250 for towing "services" (+'storage'?) is enough to make you start thinking what could happen to that nice shiny tow truck.
posted by dunkadunc at 2:06 PM on May 15

There's a term for this very common scam: bandit towing. There are basically two ways to fight it:

a) small claims court -- no monetary cost to you but moderate chance of moral victory
b) civil suit -- you'll likely lose more money in the end but very high chance of moral victory. best if you employ the sleazy, ambulance-chaser type of lawyer.

Either way, it's probably money down the drain, but at the end of the day the things that upset me most are moral rather than financial injustices. I would fight it.
posted by randomstriker at 2:30 PM on May 15

Can someone tell me what is keeping a person from going onto a tow lot and taking their car?

The tow yard is allowed to put a mechanics lien on the car, I know that, but can they stop you from retrieving your property?
posted by bensherman at 3:01 PM on May 15 [1 favorite]

Withhold the amount you paid for the tow from rent and put it in writing. Let your landlord know this is what your are going to do. Don't deal with the tow company.

Aside: this is why tow companies don't accept credit cards; so you can't dispute it.
posted by zenon at 3:01 PM on May 15

Withhold the amount you paid for the tow from rent and put it in writing.

Please don't. Depending on your jurisdiction, withholding rent can put you in the express line to eviction.

A question for the poster: Did you, or do you, pay anything extra for the parking permit, or is it included in your rent? If you are paying extra for parking, I think you have a stronger leg to stand on with your management company- you are paying for a parking privilege that is not being honored. If parking privileges are included in your rent, that may be a tougher argument to make.
posted by ambrosia at 3:40 PM on May 15

bensherman writes "Can someone tell me what is keeping a person from going onto a tow lot and taking their car? The tow yard is allowed to put a mechanics lien on the car, I know that, but can they stop you from retrieving your property?"

Any yard I've been in is not accessible to the public and is posted no trespassing. If you scale the 6' foot fence into the yard the towing dispatcher calls the police. And you've still got a locked gate to contend with.
posted by Mitheral at 3:53 PM on May 15

And many tow yards have those tire puncturing things that retract into the ground only if a button in the operator booth is pressed.
posted by randomstriker at 4:19 PM on May 15

You're going to have to pitch a fit with the management company - and you still won't get your money back this time. You have to do it anyway, though. Consider it an investment of time for later. The management company will never tell the towing company to back off a bit if nobody complains.

As sorry for you as the management company might feel, they are NOT going to hand you two hundred bucks unless they want residents in there demanding money every time a car gets towed for any reason.

Similarly, you can make complaints against the towing company with the BBB. That may make them back off if that was the unofficial shop practice. It may get a driver fired if it is not policy, or if this particular driver gets a lot of complaints. You never know. In any case, it's not going to get your money back without a court order.
posted by ctmf at 6:12 PM on May 15

Every state and city I've lived in regulates towing companies. It's possible that the company is required to get authorization from the property owner or his designee to tow from private property. That puts the landlord on the hook.

A location may help for those of us inclined to skim through ordinances and statutes.
posted by rigby51 at 6:25 PM on May 15

Money talks and will certainly get your landlords attention. In my experience, most professional landlords are in no rush to evict their tenants, especially ones into their second year, over such amounts. If you live in an urban center (and 250$ for towing sounds like it) they will be certainly mindful of the costs associated with turnover. Negotiate with the landlord- sell your case, don't be a jerk, just firm. Make certain that you document everything you do in writing - and ensure that you keep a copy, and let them know what you are doing. I've had a landlord who didn't see it my way, but most of them, when appropriate have been amenable and reasonable to negotiation. Demonstrate that you mean business, its still your money and you are still their customer. Amateur landlords can be a total crapshoot.

I wouldn't threaten small claims court unless you are really cheesed off. Even if you win it will be a big time sink, although even if you lose it is an even bigger time sink for the landlord (almost win win in that way). And you can be certain their time is expensive. Small claims is surprisingly inexpensive to start, and you can totally represent yourself. It can take a bunch of time, around these parts it's upwards of six or eight months.

And I don't see how paying for parking separately or together with rent would really matter- the permit system shows it to be a service regardless of how its paid.
posted by zenon at 7:15 PM on May 15

I would look up some traffic laws or something for you (that's what I usually do in this kind of situation) but I have no idea where in the world you are, and that's an essential bit of information for a question like this. Where are you?
posted by koeselitz at 12:11 AM on May 16

Withhold the amount you paid for the tow from rent and put it in writing.

Please don't. Depending on your jurisdiction, withholding rent can put you in the express line to eviction.

Just in case anyone is reading this and pondering the matter: the causes for which it is acceptable to withhold rent are usually spelled out explicitly in state law. Some, like West Virginia, not only don't allow withholding but even exempt the landlord from having to make repairs if the tenant is behind. [West Virginia Code §37-6-30]

Regardless, I don't think anyone anywhere is going to have luck withholding in order to force action on anything other than keeping the domicile livable.

By the way, if you have a situation where you DO have some right to withhold, in some places you are obligated to save the money in an interest-bearing escrow account. The courts - reasonably, IMHO - often think that this is necessary to prove that this is a good-faith effort and the tenant really does intend to make good once their complaint is resolved.
posted by phearlez at 1:29 PM on May 18