Towing Issues: vehicle towed from private property, vehicle license plates, storage expenses

Question
we received permission from the owner of an office complex on private property in Las Vegas NV to park our vehicle due to a dead battery. however, a secretary had our car towed (the tow occurred after business hours at 8:51pm) because we were stuck in her space. we do not believe she had permission from the owner of the property to tow our car. We then received a bill from the towing co for $546.32 for towing, storage, yard mnt and lien fees. (car was towed 7/24 - notice was postmarked on 8/1 we received it on 8/4) We called to explain our situation and to negotiate release of our car but to no avail. now our vehicle has been sold at auction and a collection agency in California is asking we pay another Towing company $2,240 due to the sale of the vehicle not covering all towing and storage expenses. What is the best way to fight this judgment?

Answer
Well, as the laws read the vehicle owner is responsible for any and all towing and storage fees due above and beyond the price of the vehicle at auction.   So if your vehicle got 100.00 at auction and the towing and storage bill was 2000.00 you would be liable for 1900.00


Now since you say you were towed in Las Vegas and now a tow company collection agency in California is attempting to collect I would wonder what they are trying to do...

I do know that California has laws where the owner of the vehicle can have their drivers license or vehicle license plates suspended for unpaid towing fees.

Nevada I am not sure of, but they do tend to mirror a lot of California laws.
I did a quick search and did not find any lien information for Nevada but I know there is stuff and its just most likely hard to find online.

As to fighting the issue, I assume that you are the owner of the vehicle since you said you got a tow notice. It did give you a time frame to redeem the vehicle or make arrangements of which you tried to do but could not do it.

Now the sale of the vehicle is regulated and all the laws have to be followed to be legal and it does sound like it was, but I can not see the papers or was not there to be sure.  

The tow company by using a collection agency is trying to do what they can legally do to collect a debt and since we all know how they work, its hard to battle them after the fact.

But proof of paperwork for doing the lien correctly would be about the only thing you can try to fight it with. And I am not sure if you can win on that one.

Good luck on this, but I really do not see much that can help unless they are trying to use California laws in Nevada without them being legal.