Towing Issues: Towing from a building parking lot, living in brooklyn, tow company

Question
Hi Richard,
The state and city for this issue is Brooklyn, NY.
I live in a building with a parking lot. However, I did not purchase a parking spot there. The building is still more than half empty and there are only 2 cars (for 9 parking spots) that currently park in the lot.
I decided to park my car in the lot leaving a note with my phone number. A couple of days ago someone put a note (a piece of scrap paper) saying that if I continue parking there I will be towed.
So my question is: how easy is it for "them" (the property management, I would guess) to tow away my car?
A friend of mine (also living in Brooklyn) was in a similar situation, but from the other side - someone was parked in his parking spot and when he turned to a towing company, they said that they can do it only with a police officer present. When he went to a police precinct, he was told that they can't do anything with the car since it is parked on private property (my friend's private property) and the owner is not present.

P.S.
In both cases there were no signs saying "Parking for residents only. Car will be towed. etc..."

Answer
Well since the property owner is the one who decided that you would have to pay for a space to park then they would be the ones who would be calling for a tow truck to remove vehicles which are not authorized..

As to legality of this, yes it is legal but they would have to have some kind of signs up before it happens usually. There are some loopholes in this in some areas...

Now normally John Q BUILDING OWNER would contact a tow company tell them they have a parking problem and the tow company would come post some signs and in a day or two (usually) the vehicle would be towed.. But what if the parking lot had signs up before and they were torn down or removed by mad people who had been towed before... If there is a contract to tow from that lot and it had been legal before (sign wise) then the tow company can come in, post replacement signs and tow vehicles from there.

The police are right that it is private property and also a civil issue so they will not get involved unless it becomes physical or such.

Best advise is to either park on the street and take the chances there, or pay to park in the lot.
What is that cost, is it more than a few hundred dollars as that most likely will be the fee if they vehicle is towed away.  


Hope this helps you a bit with the issue at hand.