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You should talk with the car's insurance agent. The will have experience with accidents, towing, storage fees and such. (Also, how to get your personal property out of the car).
Some will think the high towing fees and storage fees are scams, but look at it from the authority's point of view. The road must be cleared ASAP or more accidents are likely to happen. More wrecks, injuries, deaths, and yet more wrecks. The real question is: is that fee justified because of the expedited service, or is it excessive.
The police department called for the tow from an approved lists. The tow company had to have their rates approved for not being excessive to get on that list. There is no basis to sue the tow company, as they were doing what was requested by the police department, which was to get the car out of the way to get traffic flowing smoothly.
As to why rates are so high. Tow company has very expensive truck/equipment they have to pay for. They have considerable expenses/overhead to keep the business operating. They have 1 or 2 men drawing salaries even if there are no calls all day. Add a reasonable profit to the owners. They add together how much all of those expenses are going to be. Compute actual anticipated tows per year, divide total revenue number of tows anticipated. Divide operating costs, by the number of tows. Then and only then will they know, how much they have to charge for a tow, and keep it reasonable enough to get on the approved tow lists.
If you really look at it, tow costs are not going to be cheap as so many of you think they should be.
It is the car owners fault. He had towing insurance, and did not call them for a tow.
I had a flat tire on my F-150 pickup, last week which proved to be a roofing nail. I have towing/roadside service insurance, so I called my insurance company, There closest service firm was 50 miles away, with 100 mile travel charges, and 2 hours of there service man's time. That tire change cost over $250 paid by insurance company.
Go to the town hall and find out what the approved rates are from the Borough clerk.
If the rate the Tow company is charging is higher than this inform the town the rate you are being charged and inform the tow company.
If they are charging more than allowed....
Tell the tow company you will work to get the removed from the list of Tow companies the town uses.
My own experience..
I had a car towed after an accident and called the Tow company to find out the charges.
The Tow company said there would be a charge for 1 day of storage if I came today and the Tow charge.
I called the town and found out they are only permitted to charge storage after 24 hours.
I went to the Tow yard and told him this and then he backed off on the storage.
Can say in my situation Tow company was a dirtbag,just trying to squeeze any penny legal or not.
Just get the car back. Period. It was an expensive life lesson. He must have looked like a deer stuck in the headlines and the tow operator took advantage.
In my area, only approved tow companies are allowed on highways - usually not affiliated with AAA. Take the tow company to small claims court and/or complain to the police later.
Just get the car back. Period. It was an expensive life lesson. He must have looked like a deer stuck in the headlines and the tow operator took advantage.
In my area, only approved tow companies are allowed on highways - usually not affiliated with AAA. Take the tow company to small claims court and/or complain to the police later.
Florida statutes on impounding vehicles can be found here. and seem to indicate that it takes at least 35 days to sell a vehicle.
Call the police, and tell them that the tow operator wants $400 for the tow, and ask if that's legal. If it isn't ask the police to accompany the vehicle owner to the tow lot for assistance in recovering the vehicle at the statutory rates.
The daily charges are surely in line. The tow for $400 might sound high but did the driver have to clean up fluids? Sweep broken glass off the roadway? Was the car AWD so it needed a flatbed to get it off the road?
OP stated this was a $3000 car, it is clearly not operable. If the car is $600 or 800 to get it back, then the cost to repair it......is it worth fixing or simply leave it with the tow guy?
So my brother in law is a freshman in college down in Naples, FL. He's kind of a lovable idiot, but he's in a bit of a pickle. He rear ended another driver last week, and as expected it was written up as his fault. (No alcohol involved, but definitely his fault). The fire department got there, and called a tow truck for him. The towing company got there and towed it away without telling him where they were taking it or how much it would cost. (He should have asked these questions at the time, but he didn't). He didn't sign anything, and the tow driver drove off with the car.
He did some research and finally found the tow yard that had the car. He called, and the guy demanded $600 to give him his car back. ($400 for the two, and a $40 per day storage fee). He had towed the car 1.8 miles. The tow guy told him if he didn't come up with the money in a few days, he was keeping/selling the car.
To make matters trickier, the car is probably worth $3K so, and the front end needs its bumper replaced. And he has liability only insurance coverage.
Not really sure what he should do next. To make matters worse, his parents bought him a AAA membership, so he would have gotten free towing had he thought of it. They said there is an online form for reimbursement, but there is no guarantees on an amount, and he doesn't have $600 to pony up. (And his parents won't give it to him, which is a different story all together)
FL has a consumer protection agency, so I told him to start there on Monday. Any other advice? Any case to call the local police and file a police report? He's obviously getting taken advantage of because he's a young kid that didn't think to ask the right questions when he was frazzled from the accident. Any feedback is appreciated!
Is that legal? Wouldn't he have to acknowledge/approve that the car was being taken and then given direction as to how to get it back from the company that took it?
Wouldn't he have to acknowledge/approve that the car was being taken and then given direction as to how to get it back from the company that took it?
No.
At the scene of an accident on a public roadway, the 1st responders (police, fire departments) are authorized to have the vehicles removed/towed away and the site cleaned up for public safety. They work from an "approved" list of tow service providers who are contacted to respond to the scene of the accident by a PD/Sheriff/Patrol dispatcher who makes the calls in a rotation of the tow companies on the list. The officers at the scene of the accident don't make the call for the tow service, their central dispatcher at HQ makes the call.
It wouldn't be unusual for an injured driver at the scene to be incapacitated, perhaps taken away from the site by an ambulance. So they're not going to always be present to authorize a tow.
What if he reports it was stolen?
If the tow company was called into service by the proper authorities, which would easily be documented by the logs of the dispatcher and the tow company logs …
he'd be in a heap 'o trouble filing a false "stolen vehicle report".
It appears that many folk responding on this thread have no actual experience with how accidents are handled, how the 1st responders are authorized to restore safe travel conditions, or how tow truck companies are regulated and their fees schedules for services have to be approved to be a public service provider. What you folk "think" is "fair and reasonable" charges for services and an abuse of the public has, in fact, been approved by the authorities long in advance.
There's simply no basis for any lawsuit or claim against the tow truck company here unless the car owner can show that the fees being charged are in excess of the approved rate schedule. Save your indignation and outrage for the next hearings when the tow truck companies seek to get their fee schedule approved to be on the provider list. Do understand that the tow truck companies don't go into those hearings with a bunch of numbers pulled out of thin air, they readily document their overhead and expenses for a baseline upon which they are entitled to make a reasonable profit. What figures and experience have you got to contest those numbers?
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