QuestionMy little truck was towed some months ago while I was out of town. (towed in San Francisco CA) There was not a no parking sign, no permit parking, and no street cleaning on the street that I parked on. So I am guessing it was towed by one of the residents near by who thought it was abandoned or something.
When I got back into town a couple months later, I noticed the truck was gone and figured it had been stolen or towed. I checked the towing database online for the truck but it was not in the sf towing database.
I didn't get any mail concerning the truck at the address that it is registered under. Since the thing was only worth a few hundred bucks and I had no idea where it was I left the whole matter alone. Then I get a letter forwarded to me from my old address from a collections agency. Saying I owe almost 2000 bucks in lot fees + tow fees etc, and that's AFTER they auctioned off my truck for 500 bucks.
I'm not sure what to do. It's hard for me to see how a 500 hundred dollar truck ends up COSTING me a couple thousand.
Is there any way I can dispute the validity of this debt? I have very little time to act.
AnswerSo if I understand this question you basically had the "out of sight out of mind" attitude..
Now as to the vehicle being parked on the street and all that. GENERALLY a city or even state law is that vehicles parked on the street for over 72 hours is considered abandoned and subject to towing.
That being said, either an neighbor, a police officer, street maintenance person or who ever might of complained about the vehicle being there and not moving. During that time, your vehicle might of developed a flat tire, or someone might of vandalized it. That would tend to make it look more like an abandoned vehicle to some people.
Now if they towed it say 2 weeks after you left on the trip and they followed the state laws regarding disposal of the vehicle, it could of been auctioned off (this depends on the appraised value of the vehicle) anywhere from 15 to 40 days after it was towed.
The towing database most likely did not show the vehicle as towed as it was already sold and removed from the system
And as to notices and such, generally the notices of towing are sent "certified, return receipt requested" though the post office. And those mailings do not sit in the mailbox or anything like that for any period of time. They do not get forwarded either.
So after about 10 days the letter is returned to the sender as unclaimed.
That tends to prove that there is no interest in the vehicle in basic terms.
Now the vehicle will be sold and any money owned verses money recovered from the sale is adjusted and the tow company usually goes the collection agency route. Reason being is that it works in most cases to get the money owed.
REMEMBER that there are state laws regarding this practice.
Below will be a link below to the state DMV web site where you can search around since there are several questions and issues where you will have more answers than I do about the issue.
Pay close attention to the sections on Abandoned vehicles, and any on lien procedures - disposal of vehicles.
Good luck and I wish I could of provided more help, but it looks like you might be on the hook unless you can find a nice collection agency who will work with you on this. (doubt that kind of agency exists though)
http://www.allexperts.com/expertx.cgi
