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| quote: | Originally posted by rabbitjoker
This has been posted before. |
indeed...old news...but many people may not know their rights and be intimidated by the tow driver and/or impound lot employees.
the tickets are not "illegal", they just are not enforceable.
it's akin to parking your car on someone else's driveway. They have the legal right to remove it. In the case of private parking lots, they also have the right to remove your car (contrary to what that cop told you, Jay, AFAIK, unless the law has changed on removing cars from private property). They generally sign a contract with a tow company who removes cars that don't have paid parking tickets displayed. What IS shady is trying to charge you $100+ to recover your car.
BY LAW, the tow company/impound lot MUST release the car to you AT NO CHARGE, providing you produce ownership + ID (driver's lic). They will then send the ticket/tow charge to a collection agency if you don't pay it. This is apparently legal. You can pay it or have a collection agency contact you and eventually post it to Equifax and it will show on your credit bureau for 6 years, which fucks your credit score HARD.
You can dispute it, take it up with Equifax, etc...but good luck with that.
Essentially, it's a civil matter and the company would have to sue you in small claims court, which they rarely (if ever) will do...probably due to costs and because they know that no judge will side with them for the exorbitant amount they charge for the tow and storage (i.e. it's unjustifiable to charge well over $100 for what amounts to under 30 min. unskilled labour to tow and for a loss of $5-$15 in parking revenue).
it happened to me ~7-8 years ago and continues to go on to this day, it seems! at the time, the storage facility refused to release the car until I called the cops who had to show up. The impound employees are complete assholes.
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