Towing Issues: Towing & Storage Fees, storage fees, police request

Question
Hello!  I live in Sacramento CA and have a question regarding towing fees and consumer rights.  We just found out our third vehicle (which we never use) was towed due to lack of registration.  We where never notified and only found out when we noticed the vehicle was gone and reported it stollen.  We contacted the company who the CHP used to have the vehicle towed and they are telling us that currently we owe them $461 for towing fees and storage (the car was towed on the 27th and its now the 2nd) and that we will incrue $43 a day until the car is paid for in full and picked up.  Unfortunately we dont have $500 dollars laying around and told them that we would be unable to pay the total cost up front and if they accepted payments and they told us no.  We asked about signing over the car (since we never use it anyway) and they told us that we cannot sign over the car until it is paid in full (well then why sign over the car!)

So my question is this.....can they legally withold our property until payment is made in full and continue to charge us for it?  If this is the case we will never be able to pay for it and the car isnt worth that much.  How can they refuse to give us our vehicle back then charge us for each day it is there?

Answer
Well as much as I hate to say it, in California they have lots of laws regarding towing and storage fees. Also about the payment of such fees and procedures and policies to follow about collection of such fees including if the vehicle is never picked up

What it boils down to, is that lots of vehicles towed by police request and even from private property end up never being claimed by the owners..
Now under the law there are costs incurred by the towing company to notify the owner (s) of the vehicle and to obtain the paperwork (lein titles ) to dispose of said vehicle.  Plus there are out the normal expenses for providing the service in the first place (fuel, insurance, wages, truck payments )

Now as much as I hate to sound PRO TOWER, no one likes to work for fee, but that is kind of normal when in the towing business..

The request for payment in full before the vehicle is released is normal. The option of payments, well that is up to the towing company.  
Can they legally charge you for storage daily when you have no money to pay all the fees ?  YES

Now signing over the title to the vehicle is great, but as you said the car is hardly worth the current fees. Well unfortanatly its hardly worth the same ammount to the towing company..

It sounds like the towing compay is following the laws properly. You might try the title offer again with like a hundred dollars or so.. See if you can work with them if you really do not want the vehicle or what ever.

I also hate to say this part also but if you leave the vehicle there and they go though all the paperwork and legal processes to obtain the lein paperwork to sell or dispose of the vehicle, in many areas including California the towing company has the legal rights to send to collections any and all fees owed for the towing and storage fees minus the ammount they got for selling or disposing of the vehicle. And in some areas your drivers license or vehicle registrations can be suspended till all towing fees outstanding are paid up ...

Hope this long answer is of use to you.