Towing Issues: Legalities of towing and selling vehicles, rental lease agreements, condo complexes

Question
Chesterfield, Va.  Car was towed from apartment complex where owner lives, with no prior notice from management. Owner didn't have the money to register and licence vehicle in Va. - the towing company held the car, for 30 days and sold it. Owner is new resident to VA. and is working hard but also paying rent, and additional expenses etc. so had little left for the car.  It was a nice Mustang and he still has to make payments???
How can this happen without a signed title, does he have any recourse?  Any help welcome.

Answer
Well hopefully the vehicle was registered to the person where they used to live. Now as a general rule, vehicles which are towed are sold after certified letters are sent to the last registered owner and any Lien holders address, even if it is out of state. Now sometimes the letter is not forwarded or such and that can be a problem.

Since you say they were and still are making payments, it sounds a bit strange here if the finance company or who ever receives the payments did not do something.

Now as to the "prior notice" it all depends on why it was towed. Generally apartments and condo complexes have provisions in the rental - lease agreements which prohibit "unlicensed vehicles" being kept on the property.  And notice can be a letter on the car, a sticker, or even a sticky note.

The lien process does generate a "clear title" in 99% of the cases, (depends on state law and the value of the vehicle in places) and as such the title is not really much of a problem as the tow company would receive papers saying they own it.

As to recourse, its hard to say if the whole process was done legally or not as I am not there and do not see or know the whole story. It might be worth the vehicle owner talking to a lawyer and see if it was legal ...

DMV might be able to help also in determining if it was legal.