Car Towed at My Apartment
My question involves a consumer law issue in the State of: Ohio
I live in an apartment complex that charges $15 per month to park a resident vehicle at the apartment complex. I pay the $15 per month and have been issued a decal to place on the lower left-hand corner of my rear window. My apartment complex has hired a third party towing company to tow vehicles parked at the complex that do not have a displayed decal. However, the leasing office of my apartment complex has all of the residents' cars information on record: license plate number, make, model, year, and color of the cars, including my own. This information has been furnished to the towing company. I park my car at the complex legally, as I pay the $15 per month, and both the towing company and leasing office have my car information on record as a car allowed to park at the complex.
My car was towed around 9:00 pm on 9/9/09 by the towing company. I went to the towing company and had to pay $120 to retrieve my car. My car was towed, according to the company, because my decal was not visible on the car. I checked my car and found the decal was lying on the car floor.
My apartment complex leasing office says that they simply hire the towing company to tow cars and have no responsibilities regarding car towing, and the car towing company says to take up my problems with the leasing office.
Is the towing company within it's rights to tow my car, even though I am a resident at the complex, I pay the monthly parking fees, I have been issued a decal, I put the decal in the location they required on my car, and they have my car information on record?
And is my apartment complex allowed to have such a policy of towing residents' cars if they pay the monthly parking fees and have supplied the leasing office with their car information?
Re: Car Towed at My Apartment
How is the tow company supposed to know you are parked legally and within the rules of the apartment complex, after hours if your decal is on the floor of your car? Do you expect them to jimmy open the door, search all the areas of the car, and then if they still can't find it, tow the car? Maybe they shouldn't tow ANY car after office hours because there is no one to secondarily verify if a car is suppose to be there. Wait, that would negate the reason for them being there and the need for parking permits.
Re: Car Towed at My Apartment
Exactly. Knowing or not knowing isn't the tow company's problem. They tow cars whose stickers aren't properly displayed. It's highly unfortunate that yours appears to have fallen off onto the floor, but and error or mistake of that nature on your part (even though not intentional) doesn't create a legal problem for either the tow company OR the complex.
Re: Car Towed at My Apartment
so i have the same kind of issue. but i was hoping i could get some expert advise.
I live in apartments that have general parking. And they put a sticker on my car window stating that my car is subject to towing due to my convertable not having a back window (it fell out due to glue being old :P) My car runs. i drive it to work every day. I dont have to pay for parking. In the lease for parking i dont show that there is anything about towing cars with missing windows. Is this legal for them? im not too keen on these types of things. and would love some advise/ help. thanks
Re: Car Towed at My Apartment
Not having a back window could easily give the appearance that the car is junked/abandoned - EVEN IF you are still driving it. Every city/county has their own wording in their ordinances about what does or doesn't constitute "junked or abandoned" - you'll want to find out for sure what the ordinance that applies to your particular jurisdiction says; as it's likely a prime target for tow. (The reason being that lots of cars with missing windows tend to be vehicles that have been stolen; many of which end up dumped in apartment complexes. Allowing vehicles without windows to remain, even if driveable, serves as a red flag that "hey, this is a good place to dump such vehicles because they just let them sit - no one bothers to check on them or do anything about them" - which is exactly what complexes who tow such vechicles are trying to avoid. Not coincidently, it falls under a theory of crime prevention actually CALLED "Broken Windows Theory".)
Re: Car Towed at My Apartment
nice. thanks for the heads up