Bill 15, Fighting Fraud and Reducing Automobile Insurance Rates Act

Bill 15, entitled An Act to amend various statutes in the interest of reducing insurance fraud, enhancing tow and storage service and providing for other matters regarding vehicles and highways, S.O. 2014 C.9, (short title: Fighting Fraud and Reducing Automobile Insurance Rates Act, 2014), has recently received Royal Assent and will be coming into force in the Province of Ontario. This Act is divided into 5 schedules, each addressing a particular issue and amending related legislation.
Schedule 1 relates to and amends the Consumer Protection Act, 2002, and is more specifically concerned with the provision of tow and storage services.

This Schedule will have a direct impact on owners and operators of motor vehicles as it completely overhauls the regulation of the towing and vehicle storage industries in order to offer better consumer protection for drivers involved in motor vehicle accidents or who otherwise require roadside assistance. Not only does this new Act regulate the tow and storage industries for public protection, it also provides for the creation of a Tow and Storage Consumer Bill of Rights, which must be provided to consumers by service providers.

This Schedule introduces several new and important rules regulating consumer transactions involving towing and storage services. Firstly, there is a new rule which prevents providers of tow and storage services from charging consumers for their services unless they have disclosed certain required information to consumers. For example, the Act now stipulates that the towing provider must provide the consumer with an itemized invoice detailing the services provided and the cost of each service.

Another rule requires that tow and storage services provided to consumers be authorized, which means that and tow and storage service providers will not be able to charge a consumer for their services unless the consumer has given their permission for those services. Additionally, when such an authorization is given pursuant to an estimate of the cost for the services to be provided (or if the estimate is based on a method of calculating the amount to be paid), the Act now forbids the service provider from charging an amount that exceeds the estimate by more than 10%. Another requirement is that that tow and storage providers must maintain a current statement of rates charged, and post their prices or otherwise make this statement of rates charged publicly available. The Act also brings the towing industry into the 21st century by making it mandatory for tow and storage service providers to accept payment by credit card, cash, or any other payment method of the customer’s choice.

Another important introduction is of a rule which requires that consumers be allowed to remove their personal property from towed or stored vehicles. Unless specifically indicated otherwise by the police, upon request from the consumer, tow and storage providers must allow the consumer to access the vehicle in order to remove their property, including money, valuables, documents, and records in the vehicle belonging to or in care of the consumer. The service provider may not charge a fee for permitting access to the vehicle, and the provider is not allowed to retain any property that the consumer is entitled to remove as a means of pressuring the consumer to pay them.