QuestionQUESTION: Can a tow company keep your personnal items that are in your car at the time of an accident if you can not pay the tow bill?
ANSWER: depending on the state law where you are located at, some of the leins on vehicles allow for personal property to be withheld until bills are paid for towing and storage...
However most also allow for personal items, like keys, medicines, financial papers and other important papers to be released...
However your collection of CD's, any and all electronics which are bolted into the vehicle or in the vehicle loose, fancy tires and wheels, and clothes are not covered in the release requirements...
Think of it this way, if you have a 1980 Ford Granada which has been in a roll over accident and you have a tow bill of 400.00 including storage on it right now... You have a 3,000 dollar stereo system and 5,000 dollars worth of tires and wheels on it... BUT the scrap price it will get at the scrap yard is only 30.00... Do you think the towing company wants to loose money by giving any and everything back to you that is worth you coming in and getting so that they can not even cover the costs of doing the call, the paperwork needed to dispose of the vehicle and all other related fees (in some areas that includes paying the local law enforcement agency for the right to receive the call for the tow)
Talk to the towing company and see what you can work out with them regarding the towing and storage fees and what it would take to get your property back ...
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QUESTION: I am not talking about tires stereos etc. I am talking about my clothes, tools that I need to use for my work and that my deceased father left me things like that not vehicle stuff just personnal items. I live in California. Thank You
AnswerI am letting you know that I am working on researching the California laws regarding this issue on personal property..
But I also have to ask a few questions, first of all your vehicle is not covered by insurance which covers collision and towing fees.. So what I am figuring out here, is that your vehicle is not worth redeeming to you and you want all your property.. Then you are going to leave it for the towing service to have... Towing fees have to be paid for in all cases, and as such you need to work out something with them. Be it pay part of the fees and surrender the title to then or what ever you can work out...
All the towing company really wants to do is get paid for services rendered..
The clothes and tools, have a value (or you would not be trying to get then back) and as such the towing company will hold what they can legally hold...
As a note California laws regarding towing rules and regulations are about 400 pages or so long so it might take a while for me to check though them and find out what laws are in effect...
If you want to check with the local DMV and see what they say about this issue, you might find an answer faster than I can by the Internet since you are in California and I am in Alabama..
I will let you know what I find out as fast as I can.
