QuestionI live in a Riverside,CA condominium where I rent from the owner. Our first week here after we moved in (back in March 2008) we had a friend over to visit. An hour after he was at our place, the neighbor downstairs knocked on our door and told us that a tow truck just took away the car that was being driven by the guy he saw us walking in with. This was the FIRST experience.
Since we live in plain view of the front gate, we watched this tow company at work for the next 2 following months. They would wait until midnight then park their tow truck on the side of the building where the light did not hit. Two guys would get out holding clipboards and flashlights. They literally ran as they worked, shining every vehicle for parking permits and occasionally flashing the license plates and their clipboards. After they scoped out all the vehicles INSIDE the gate, they parked and WAITED. If any vehicle came in after that, a tow-guy would run around to look for this car to find out if it had a permit or if it was a visitor car. If the car was visiting, it was DOOMED. They towed in less than an hour.
Of course, because we KNEW what they were doing, we were careful. We made sure we abided by the rules. Both our cars were registered with the Homeowners Association. Our garage only fit 1 car and they only gave us 1 permit so we had to park 1 car outside and 1 car in the garage.
SECOND incident...
Three months ago, we woke up to have our outside-parked car missing. We called the towing company from the number they posted on the sign by the entrance and sure enough, they had towed us. Turns out, our permit hanging on the rear view mirror didn't mw anything and the HOA called it in as an abandoned vehicle with the justification that our registration was 2 months expired and we did not place up our temporary tag we had been given by the DMV. We argued with both sides. They just pointed fingers. The tow company said our HOA called them to tow as an abandoned vehicle and our HOA said the tow company gave us a 96 hour warning sticker to warn us. Which, of course, they never did. Strangely, this sticker was there when we picked up our car from the tow yard.
We started parking this car at our mom's house and stopped using it completely. So we were down to 1 car, 1 permit, 1 garage... We stopped seeing the tow trucks around as much after that, because people got hip to what they were doing and there were a less visitors and traffic coming in and out. We started parking our other car outside instead of in the garage. We figured it felt safe to come out again. The tags were up to date and the permit was okay. We gave them a piece of our mind from the previous tow and thought they would leave us alone... boy, were we wrong!
THIRD Incident...
This past Friday, our other car was just towed. We woke up at 2:30am, recognizing the sound of the alarm to our car. I grabbed the keys and we tried to snap out of our groggy state. By the time we reached downstairs, the tow truck was pulling out the driveway to the street- with our car on it.
We called the tow company, who said we just have to call back in the morning, we called the HOA emergency line who referred us to the Police Dept, we called Police Dept where the dispatch contacted the tow company and advised us that our permit wasn't hanging there and the tow company have pics to prove it.
Turns out, our permit had fallen down to the floor of the car. The Police Department gave the name of the women (who, by the way, lives somewhere next door to us) from the HOA who authorized this tow.
Same thing again, who cares that we park there every night and that we are registered to park there? Who cares that we pay $50 a month to the HOA to administer and maintain for our benefit? Who cares about giving residents a sense of security in their own home?
They stalk our parking lots, waiting for one of us to slip to make a buck and as long as they have an explanation of why they are allowed to tow, it is okay and we pay the price. We are thinking about taking them to small claims court. Do you think we have a chance? I have read so many stories about how the HOA usually wins because each situation differs and how the law favors them. Please help with any advice.
Yours Truly,
Minda
AnswerWell Minda, I am sorry for the delay in answering... This issue does sound a bit on the shady side here but I have to defend a few practices...
First of all if the complex is "Permit Parking" then the permits are the biggest issue here. I know that I have towed vehicles before that I knew "had permits" but were not displayed at times due to the person forgetting them or them falling down... Now "personally" I have spent the time to look around the vehicle to see if the permit fell down and was visible on the floor... I would leave a "courtesy note" telling them of the issue. But again that was just how I did it.
We did have some drivers who were more aggressive in towing.
How I have to say, that as a general rule, a lot of tow companies pay their drivers on commission and as such if you do not tow cars you do not make money... So you can see the reason that it seems aggressive at times.
Yes tow companies do tend to "work a parking lot hard" for a while and then cool off... People will forget, or new "targets" will appear. Then its back to being aggressive.
Now the HOA, does make rules on what is allowed or legal and at times some of the people on the board do tend to get a bit "powerful" and as such problems tend to happen. But one thing that most HOA's do include in the rules are "unlicensed" vehicles. That one issue is the biggest reason for towing of vehicles from any apartment or condo complex.
You are right in that the "tenant" generally has no rights in regards to the parking issues and I am not sure how to really deal with it. But since you live in California you do have some great laws which protect you the car owner at times...
While I would love to point you to specific laws, I would suggest that you check out a few of the California DMV website sections on towing...
Sections 22658 is one and 22953 is another one
check out the links from the site below, just look up the section in search.
http://www.dmv.ca.gov/pubs/vctop/vc/vc.htm
