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Apartment Lot Tow in Tennessee

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  • 06-30-2007, 04:28 AM
    Another Demise
    Apartment Lot Tow in Tennessee
    Ok I live in an apartment complex in Tennessee. Its owned by a housing authority. There are about 4 main apartment complexes that are all apart of each other. the complex on the hill has more lot room and is barely feeled. Mine is at times feeled up. We still have the right to go around and park in either of the half dozen complexes. My car was having alternater problems but I was able to start it after a jump. It also overheats. Maybe some of the ppl in that complex saw me working on it and assumed it was a junk car. Needing a new alternater does not make a car inoperable. Now I don't see any stickers on any cars out here. The housing authority put two pieces of paper on my car about 2 weeks apart. There are four offenses on it, I assume this paper lists the complete provisions of parking here.

    I believe it was
    Unauthorized park
    No uptodate registration
    Car appears inoperable
    and a fourth, I'll have the tickets later.

    On the 1st paper/ticket they put the 1 and 4 offenses. n the second they put the 2 and 3 offenses. Yet I had not changed my car one bit, no stickers, no repaired windshield, but it had moved proving it was operable and had been moved closer to my complex and not in the visitor space but a space reserved for residents, we have no numbered spots. Residents do take up the visitor spots though.

    I cAMe to look at the van, saw it was gone, called the police, they said the property owner had it towed. This was not legal and his tickets are contradicting each other. The tower should had charged me 125 but knocked off 25 since I gotit before 11. I had to get my friends dad who I had never met before to get my mom's car while I got myown. It was near E and I had to drive far. Do I have recourse against the owner?
  • 06-30-2007, 09:39 AM
    Mr. Knowitall
    Re: Apartment Lot Tow in Tennessee
    I doubt that you have any recourse. You should have addressed the tickets with your landlord rather than ignoring them, and should have stopped parking in violation of apartment complex rules.
  • 06-30-2007, 10:39 AM
    Another Demise
    Re: Apartment Lot Tow in Tennessee
    Mr. Know it all I'm honoured to meet brains of the operation around here. :D

    now my friend's dad is a maintence man and he called his supervisor and he said my charges were not offenses.

    it goes like this:
    ___Car is parked in an unauthorized area.
    ___Car does not have a parking sticker and is parked in resident parking.
    ___Car appears to be inoperable or deserted.
    ___Car does not have current license plate


    this problem must be corrected immedietlely or this car will be removed from this site no later than 06-11-07.
    on this ticket 2 and 3 where checked. I was parked in residental area but I DO live there. Furthermore the office does not give out parking stickers and they said I did not need them. Only if I was in a handicap spot without a handicap sticker was I to be worried. No one else has their apartment sticker on their car either.

    Car appears to be inoperable. The second time I had this note on my car my car had been moved and so the note had 1 and 4 checked. It was parked at the complex above mine but they are still all the same apartment. When it was towed it was at a unit closest to my unit as you can get.

    on the second ticket it was 1 and 4. I'm not sure what "unauthorized" meant but people who live in the units up there had parked in the visitors spaces before and currently do. I parked there once or twice and moved to one with no mark on it. We can parkin visitor spaces, visitors can't park in our spaces. When it was towed from the closest from my unit it was not in visitors.

    Now it also said that my tags were no good. They were Jun 07 and this next paper was around 06-20-07. It was my understanding that JUN 07 meant not 'til June but through June. This violation was not even in June.

    With that in mind what do you think? Youmight say I diddn't clear it up but truth be told I made no changes to the car. Tags weren't change between warnings, car wasn't part in a bad zone, I am a resident and stickers are not used here, the car did and would operate obviously.

    Just to clarify...
  • 06-30-2007, 11:51 PM
    Another Demise
    Re: Apartment Lot Tow in Tennessee
    I'm very eager to hear everyone's opinion on this and I'm even more eager to get my 100 dollars back..
  • 07-01-2007, 10:12 AM
    jk
    Re: Apartment Lot Tow in Tennessee
    Now I may have missed something but this is from the Tennessee statutes:

    Quote:

    55-4-104. Expiration of certificates and plates — Renewal — Decals — Fees — Renewal of special plates. —

    (a) All certificates of registration and registration plates issued under chapters 1-6 of this title shall expire at twelve o'clock midnight (12:00) on March 31 of each year. These certificates of registration and registration plates shall be available for renewal and purchase commencing on March 1 of each year.

    Those sections included, from anything I saw, motor vehicles in general yet you claim to have a June expiration sticker. Can you link up something that gives something other than the statute to support a June expiration?

    As far as parking in an unautorized area; you will need to consult your lease as to the parking restrictions/requirements. Let us know what it directs.

    You really should have spoken to the management regarding the first notice. Apparently they saw a problem you did not and it was in your best interest to let them know it was a mistake. The lack of your interest may have caused them to believe the vehicle was actually in violation as noted.

    Since both times the comlplaint involved unauthorized parking in some manner, I would suspect they do have some sort of sticker available. If it were my car and I recieved the first notice, I would have been heading to the office and getting a sticker, even if it was only the managers note on a piece of paper I could stick on my window. They were citing you for something that you claim was not a requirement yet they cited you twice for it. Something does not add up here.

    I suspect you have little recourse but let us know what the lease and/or apartment rule book states regarding parking.
  • 07-01-2007, 11:54 AM
    Another Demise
    Re: Apartment Lot Tow in Tennessee
    ok I don't exactly understand what your saying with the tags here. It sounds like your saying they should expire on March 31? I think you CAN by stickers from the County Clerk to make that month another month for a fee. I'm not sure if thats the case, All I know is that it says clearly "Jun" and "07" in their respective locations.

    Now as I said, I wasn't sure if the paper was on my car. I was putting someting under the hood and got tired. I sat down, got bored, saw that paper.

    The first violation it said the car was inoperable or appeared to be. Now my car is nothing to slobber over, and the windshield is cracked bad, but it runs. When they saw it the second time and third times it was in completely different locations. Now we live on a hill and this thing I drive could not be pushed to save your life, you can ask my pancake, uh I mean foot. So it HAD TO HAD BEEN OPERABLE to move the amount it did to get to the other parking spot of the second location and undisputably to the towing location. The property owner had to have been there viewing it a time before he called the wrecker/police.


    Also on the first offense you pointed to the sticker violation. As I said before NO ONE in the parking lot has a sticker. I have viewed them, friends don't, family don't, long time residents don't. The majority if I gotothe parking lot right now, do not have stickers of any kind.

    On the second paper I recieved the "sticker offense" was not listed. How could it not be listed if I diddn't add any sticker after the first paper?


    It was the second paper also saying my license plate was not current yet said June 2007.

    Now how could the first paper not say I was unauthorized if the second one did yet I was parked in the same area?

    I want know until later this week when they open and I need mymoney back.
    This same housing authorityhad already taken ages to fix my bath tub when it was stressed to them the reason the water bill had went over limit was because the leak was gaining strength by the day. I'm angered by that fee and plus the heat bill due to the leaking water being burning hot, and the electric for having the van on 24/7 because water vapors were leaking fromits vent and rusting it...
  • 07-02-2007, 03:33 PM
    Another Demise
    Re: Apartment Lot Tow in Tennessee
    i cant get it they are closed now today. I'd still like anyone to commengt on this.
  • 07-03-2007, 05:44 AM
    deadlock
    Re: Apartment Lot Tow in Tennessee
    Just a suggestion-

    And I don't have any idea the circumstances of how and why you got the tickets or the tow,

    don't attempt to use "stacking the deck" when you are defending yourself. If you do, you are allowing each statement to be attacked which may discount what your true defense might be.

    You are having problems with the van. It sounds like a clunker, trouble with the alternator, a badly cracked window, no apt complex ID- which made it difficult to figure out if it was a resident's or a visitor's auto.

    Things you add to this that make no difference to YOUR consequences are:
    1. plumbing, etc problems with your apartment
    2. your ability to start the car and move it short distances
    3. the interpretation of the tags
    4. who called the police to report your car which appeared to be abandoned.
    5. how inconvenient it was for you to go get the towed van.

    You want your $100.00 back for the tow. I doubt your apartment owner is going to refund the money. You did not pay him/her. You paid for the tow.
    If you speak to them about the situation, ask for a sticker to ID your van. Make sure you have a booklet or whatever to know what rules CAN be enforced. And tell them you have been saving to get a new alternator and you wonder if there is anyway you could do something around the apartment complex to earn $100.

    I hope they give you a chance to get your money back and you take the opportunity to show them you made a mistake by not communicating with them.
  • 07-06-2007, 02:14 AM
    Another Demise
    Re: Apartment Lot Tow in Tennessee
    ok the plumbing situation was the tipping point. That was what motivated me to go head to head with them now that I know how they run the show.

    My car is not a clunker, its 24 years old and still a force to be reckoned with. My alternater is dying, I admitthat. That not an issue though. I was looking under the hood alot to rn tests to see its functions. The alt put aside I still have a battery charged to compasity and 2 more to back her up.

    The car doesnt move just a few feet. It can go for miles and miles. I can start it, I can force start it, either way anyone wanting to go can go.

    I know the windshield is not good or legal either. limit is 8 inch. I've been beside three different departments, 15 cop cars, bad area, good area, gas station, no one has commented at all. inoperable is in reguard to the mechanical aspect of it all.

    Now as for the tag it not an interperttation. If youknow your months, your numbers, the English language and Gregorian calandar can read my tag. It said June 07. I had til June, 30, 2007 to update them. Their paper was for the dayof the seventh for the month before..

    Also when I signed the lease papers I was not given any sticker, just my mother. and onlyone. one of the papers claimed i am withot a sticker and the next one does not claim that isnt an offense. it claims im in the wrong area. that is by default a concession that clearly I live there yet am not in a better designated area.

    The tower was given 100 dollars to release my car. he was helpful, cut me a deal, and informed me of some other things i did not know butneeded to know. the man says it wasn't his call, cops said they just needed to be informed, thats it. It comes back to the owner breaking his aggreement. I'm going to ask for a refund obviously but I want to know if a trial isviable and if my defense is of substance. You all are the legal beagels, I just wanted to be sure my bark had bite, you let me handle the rest. ;)
  • 07-11-2007, 03:38 AM
    Another Demise
    A Follow Up...
    Uh Operation Un-Tow was a no go. Eventhough i was not given the parking policy to sign when I came upon review it wasvery very strict and pretty much sealed any tenant's faith. Ultimantly we decided we could not fight this even if we wanted to. If you want the details of the whole thing you can ask me at some point, I'd like to thank EVERYONE who posted in the thread for their input but its clear now that this would be a fruitless effort. I hate to sound like Al Gore here but again thank you everyone.
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