Towing Issues: Stolen Car Towed, paycheck stubs, apartment manager

Question
In February 2007 my boyfriend's car was (what we assume) stolen from his apartment complex parking area in the middle of the night in Sacramento, California. His apartment manager called the police to let them know it had been stolen. We did not contact DMV because we did not know we had to.

Then three weeks ago he gets a call at work from a collection agency telling him he needs to pay $1800 for the towing and storage fees. Apparently they found one of his paycheck stubs in the car and contacted him that way. The car was not registered in his name nor was the title in his name, it was in his counsin's name who he is no longer in contact with. (He and his cousin shared the car).

My question is: if the car is not in his name, is he legally required to pay the $1800?

Answer
well this is a bit complicated as I see it.. First of all the vehicle was not in his name as you say but he shared the vehicle with his cousin...  

Was the vehicle "EVER REPORTED STOLEN" to any police agency by the vehicle owner...  

That is not a big key here, but it does help in providing a path to take.. Yes he would not of been notified if he was not the vehicle owner at all. All the notification letters would go to the registered owner of the vehicle as per state DMV records.  Now the lien process works that way. But of course many people do tend to either "share" or not register the vehicle in their names after buying a vehicle. And of course that is what the "collection agency" seems to be doing as they got in contact with your boyfriend about the tow bill...

Tow companies do follow a legal process set up as a result of State laws and as part of the process is notifying the vehicle owner they often encounter people who say they sold it to such an such... Then the state has a form called "release of liability" which is filed by the owner after a sale - transfer of ownership which is supposed to release them from responsibility...

Follow this so far ?

Now the tow company did all the paperwork and such, followed the law and still did not get paid for the services rendered... Enter in the "vehicle search" for any kind of papers with names and addresses.  Letters, bills, pay check stubs, employee or school id, they all work to provide a lead on who might own the vehicle now...  Remember they followed the laws and now they are stuck with an "abandoned vehicle" which is not worth picking up in the eyes of the vehicle owner.   So they can file papers with the state which basically put a suspension on either your drivers license or any other vehicle license plates till the fees get paid, or in some cases they do contract out to collection agencies to get any money they can...

Now a collection agency will take all the information and try to get the money as they get a share of what is owed if they collect on it... And we all know how collection agencies work.


As to the "legally required" part of having to pay, it would kind of depend on the actual paperwork with the state as to the vehicle ownership and of course who reported the vehicle stolen and who was listed as the owner at that point...  

But as I am not a lawyer I can not really tell you what a "legal outcome" would be if it went to court over the collection of the outstanding bill...  

I hope this helps a bit with the problem, it is kind of a complicated problem to begin with.