Police Towed Truck from Motel Parking for Expired Registration

[pipewelder]

I am posting this thread for a friend of mine. He is 81 yr old. His truck was towed from the parking lot of an Extended Stay America Hotel in Brea, CA, for expired registration. He has been a resident here for 6 yrs. His truck has had expired tags the whole time. Does he have any legal recourse? Did the Brea police have the authority to impound?

[PTPD22]

He has been a resident here for 6 yrs. His truck has had expired tags the whole time.

He has been driving around California with expired vehicle registration for SIX YEARS?! Did he move from out-of-state and NEVER registered in CA? If so, he may well be looking at some additional charges when he tries to take care of this.

Does he have any legal recourse?

Sure. He has the recourse of paying six years of back registration, fines (I'm presuming he was also cited for expired reggies), towing and storage charges, and getting his truck back. He also has the recourse of going to court and fighting the charge and impound...but, I see absolutely no grounds upon which that might be successful.

Did the Brea police have the authority to impound?

Absolutely.

[cdwjava]

I am posting this thread for a friend of mine. He is 81 yr old. His truck was towed from the parking lot of an Extended Stay America Hotel in Brea, CA, for expired registration. He has been a resident here for 6 yrs. His truck has had expired tags the whole time. Does he have any legal recourse? Did the Brea police have the authority to impound?

That depends ... WHY was it impounded?

If it was parked on the private property of the hotel, they generally could not have towed it for having registration expired for more than 6 months as VC 22651(o) requires it be on a public street or an offstreet parking facility which generally does NOT include hotel lots.

Your friend first needs to get his car out of impound (as it racks up additional charges each day). Then, he needs to find out the code section on the impound form (also called a CHP 180) that is listed as the "authority" for the tow. When he has that code section, come back here and provide it.

If they towed for expired registration (over 6 months expired), and the vehicle was truly towed from the hotel's parking lot per VC 22651(o) then he may have grounds to appeal the tow. But, he has to act fast in order to obtain a post-storage hearing.