Towing Issues: Towing, Public Street, No Sign, nut shell, tow companies

Question
Hi Richard.
Trying to google about my towing situation.  Found that you'd given a lot of great advice to a lot of different people.
So, here's the deal (which is in California btw).  My fiance and I had a piece of junk car (it barely ran), then we went out and bought a new one.  We were planning on donating the car, but then one day it wasn't there.
So, that was approximately a week before we got married and had other things on our minds (my fault).  So anyway, we forget about it.
A recent check of my wife's credit report revealed a humongous towing bill long past due.  To my knowledge, the public street on which we had parked the car had no signs or notification about towing (street sweeping etc).  I was just curious as to what the laws were concerning such a tow, what the responsibilities of the towing company for notification ect, and what my wife's rights - assuming that I have my facts straight.
Thanks for your time!

Answer
Ah, again with California and towing laws....


California has a bunch of laws regulating towing of vehicle and how to properly dispose of them...

So many that I could spend hours here and about 50 pages explaining the rules for this kind of tow...

But in a nut shell, it sounds as if it was towed as an "abandoned vehicle parked over 72 or 96 hours" on the street...

Then add in the value (appraised) of the vehicle and in some cases the owner is not notified before towing...

Then since you say you got married, well was the vehicle in your wife's name, did you move, did you give DMV a forwarding address..

Tow companies notify vehicle owners by "certified letters" based on DMV records, and the Post Office does not forward them so there is a chance you would not of received the letter...

All of these are factors here, and there are a bunch more which have to be considered...

California DMV has a great web site with lots of information (which I am sure you found) and you have to just plug though the whole issue and work from one section to another to another to get answers...

http://www.dmv.ca.gov/pubs/vctop/vc/vc.htm



But I am thinking that it is a valid tow, and the fees listed in the credit report shows correctly...


I hope this helps a bit.