Towing Issues: Vehicle damage due to towing, polk county florida, towing companies

Question
First, I want to thank you for your time. It is very kind of you to to answer all these questions.

On to the problem. I live in Polk county Florida and today a tow truck came to tow my car away. I had the car parked illegally next to the side walk of the apartment complex where I am staying so they had the right to do so I guess. Anyway, I had my wheels locked to the side and as he pulled my car up onto his truck bed it scraped and dented up my passenger side door really bad. I convinced him to drop my car back down and he called his boss and I had to pay $50. The question is who is liable for the damages? I was parked illegally but do I have any rights in the matter?

Answer
Well first of all, I am sorry that you had a bad experience with the towing service.  Its also nice that you realize you were parked illegaly.

Yes the complex has the rights to have illegally parked vehicles removed. Sounds like they did what was legal.

Now as to the damages to the vehicle.  If the towing service did damage the vehicle during the job, then they are liable for the damages and costs to repair it. However sometimes you will face a big uphill battle about damages. You know the arguement it was there before , you say it was not.  Due to this problem, lots of towing companies (not always though) take pictures of the vehicle on all 4 sides before they touch it. This establishs damages or not, and of course it also does prove that the vehicle was illegally parked..

I hope that this helps you ..