Towing Issues: Towing Charges, storage yard, storage fee

Question
A florida towing company involuntarily towed my car out of my apartment complex. For a 5 mile tow, they charged me $180.00.
Hook-up  100.00
Gate charge 25.00
Storage for 30 minutes 25.00
Gas 10.00
Milage 4.00 a mile=20.00

The company had my car for about 30 minutes and this is what they charged. Is there any state agency that regulates how much a tow company can charge a person? Can a tow company charge any price they want?

Answer
Well from what I see the charges are inline with what is average pricing for impound towing fees...

As to a few charges there, I will try to help understand them for you...


The "hookup" is the actual hook up of the vehicle to the tow truck and it getting to the storage yard.

Yes the "mileage" is exactly what it is, that is the fee for traveling the distance from the location it was towed from to the storage yard.

Now the Gate fee, that is generally applied when the vehicle is "released - picked up" after normal business hours which tend to be 8AM to 5 or 6 PM Monday to Friday...
Even thought the tow company is a "24 hour service" they have normal office hours and the gate fee covers the person coming back down and releasing the vehicle "afterhours"


Storage fee, well that begins the moment the vehicle enters the storage yard, as the tow company is responsible for the vehicle and has expenses of lot payments (rent or purchased the land) and insurance which covers the vehicle while it is in there custody...
Storage fees are generally on a "calendar day basis" so you get the idea of charges there.

Gas, well most tow companies handled the high fuel prices by adding in a "fuel surcharge" to offset the wild pricing of gasoline.


Now as to charging "any price they want" in most cases yes, they have the price controls when doing tows from Private Property. BUT in some Cities there are local regulations which set the rates to be charged... I can not help there as I do not know where this happened but a quick search online for your cities laws might show this information...

I hope that this helped but its the best answer that I can provide you with the information I have.