QuestionRecently my wife had a towing incident at our condo in Rancho Cucamonga, CA. We have lived there for 3 years and never had a problem. The condos are laid out that outside the garages there is a red fire curb but everyone in the complex parks parallel against the garage door, so as to not be on the red curb and still allow the flow of traffic. This may or may not be legal but not really the issue.
The tow truck driver claimed that a parking decal was need (completely false, nobody in the complex has one). After my wife asked him to release the car, he said he had already called it in so it was too late. He then proceeded to call in to his company to report the tow, so he was clearly lying. He then charged a $220 drop fee, which seems a bit excessive of "half of the full tow service fee" but I haven't confirmed that yet.
I just want to see if I even have a case before I call the tow service and ask for a refund. He also had the car improperly mounted so when he tried to drive off it fell off of the hitch and the car, in neutral, went rolling down the street.
AnswerWell the issues I see here are a few and the red curb is one. The fire lane is not just the width of the red curb. It tends to the the whole roadway in the area of the garages. I believe the size is like 15 feet or so of a fire lane in California and you can check out the state laws as the web site listed at the end of the answer. It is the California DMV web site regulating towing and parking issues. Just search fire lanes and it will pop up. Now your City might have a different rule there, but the state site is a good start.
Now as to calling in the tow, yes that has to be done and again California law specifies that, and even thought you might of heard about the 1 hour parking rule, it does not cover fire lanes. So that shoots that defense down.
Hard to say if he was calling it in the first time, or you interrupted him or he forgot that it was called in, that would be hard to prove what was going on there.
Now as to the price, the $220.00 sounds a bit steep to me, as the fees are regulated (or supposed to be) off the area CHP tow rates. If that was half then they get 440 for tows and I do not get that much for towing tractor trailers here in Alabama. (maybe I need to move)
Now as to the "falling off the truck" that raises a flag with me also, as if it really fell off the truck and rolled down the street they your parked it in neutral and with the brakes off so what is to say that the vehicle did not roll into the position it was in when you caught the tow truck trying to tow the vehicle away.
I am not sure what kind of tow truck was used to do this tow, but most tow companies use trucks which grab the tires and lift after squeezing them so you can move quite a distance before you have to stop and strap it into place and or attach chains to secure it.
And if it fell off then it was not "road ready for tow" and that would mean it was not a proper legal tow.
To many issues here and since I was not there I can not see then all.
Hope this helps
http://www.dmv.ca.gov/pubs/vctop/vc/vc.htm
