Illegally Towed from Visitor Lot - I Have a Permit

[rlara1092]

My question involves a traffic citation from the state of: California, specifically Orange County

I was recently towed from a visitor parking lot in an apartment complex even though I have a permit to park there. I have a visitor permit displayed on my rear view mirror (as is required) and was towed from a parking spot that has no signs posted forbidding parking.

The manager argues that I was not "supposed" to park there even though there is no sign restricting it. She had my car towed and I had to pay $270 to get it back. My question is, Is this considered an illegal tow? If so, how do I go about demanding that she reimburse me for the $270 I paid?

Also, she was not present when the tow occurred, she authorized it over the phone after the maintenance guy called her about it. I have read that this makes it an illegal tow as well. Is this true? I took pictures of the parking spot and the surrounding areas to show that there are no "tow away" signs posted.

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[cdwjava]

You might want to go to the management and print out the portion of the law covered under VC 22658.

http://leginfo.ca.gov/cgi-bin/displa...le=22650-22711

You might want to point out to them that if the area was not properly posted, and the procedures were not properly followed, the property manager could be charged with an infraction and a thousand dollar fine, and the tow company could be held liable for four times the amount of the impound. Perhaps if you tell them to simply make you whole you will forget the whole thing?

[That Guy]

Keep in mind though the posting a sign at each parking space is not likely to be a requirement.
Additionally, not every space that is or might become available is available for visitors. Visitor parking is often limited to a few spaces on the entire property and only in certain locations. The fact that none of your photos indicated "visitor parking" and do not seem to be marked differently than a normal space, might suggest that visitor parking is not allowed, or quite possibly that this particular space is assigned to a tenant.

So in reading your post and looking at your pictures, I think you might have it backwards... Here is what I mean:

It is obvious that there will have more tenant parking spaces than visitor spaces... Correct?

Probably 1 in 20... So for every 20 tenant parking spaces, they have 1 visitor parking space. And assuming they have 100 tenant parking spaces 5 of which are assigned to visitors. So to assume that they would mark every tenant space (that is 95 signs as per my hypothetical) with a "No Visitors Parking Allowed" sign is probably a bit too much to expect. It would be much more reasonable to expect that they mark the visitor parking spaces with "Visitor Parking" signs...

I can only assume that this information would be provided at the time you obtain the visitor permit, then again, who knows!