My wife's car was towed today by our new towing vendor, Tow Zone Inc., she left our car in front of our garage for less than 5 minutes to carry our groceries up to the house, she even left her hazard lights on.
A neighbor saw a tow truck sitting in the carport area by the backside garages before this happened, so the guy basically waited for someone to park in the alley and swooped in and towed the car in less than 5 minutes. This does not seem like a legal practice to me, although I realize that we're not supposed to park in front of our garages, if it is for unloading/loading of a vehicle, and it is only 5 minutes, how can a tow truck company do this??? Is this authorized activity by our board or the mgmt. company??? Has anyone else had this happen to them?
My car was towed about 5 miles, and was picked up from the tow company in less than 3 hours, and it cost me $175. I find it hard to believe that this is what our board or mgmt. company had in mind when they hired this company.
-Greg, #86
6 comments:
I haven't had THAT happen to me. I have seen the towing company show up in less than 10 minutes before. I came home at night, NO PARKING SPACES open; I left my car in front of my garage, came inside to get my Association key (so I could park on the street and still get in the gate), I went to the bathroom, came out and moved my car. As I was walking through the parking area, the tow truck came cruising by. I thought THAT was pretty quick but I appear to be wrong after seeing your post.
The question I would ask is....how was the tow truck hanging out in the carport area? If they were parked in a carport, THEY are parking in someone elses rented space and can be towed. If they are are parked in the "carport area" then THEY are illegally parked and can be towed. Either way, the Association should get this sorted out with the towing company.
My understanding is that the company will drive through periodically checking for illegally parked cars, NOT waiting in a parking space to tow any car left unattended. Doesn't seem right to me.
Just my take on the situation.
Tim #40
What I know is that if an alley way is less than 21 feet across (and this includes ours-I think) that it is considered a red zone and you can be towed if you park in it.
It's understood that you CAN be towed. The question was....how is it okay for the towing company to park illegally while they wait for someone else to park illegally and tow them? If the towing company is just passing through and find someone parked illegally then I am fine with that. If they are going to park illegally themselves and "stake out" our complex, I think there is a problem.
Also, I believe there are ALWAYS exceptions to rules. If you have an emergency (i.e.- accident, blowout, or some extenuating circumstance) and you stop in a red zone on any road, I'm pretty sure the police won't come by and have your car towed (unless you leave it parked there for an unreasonable amount of time). Bringing in groceries might not fall into that category, but pulling the car around so an elderly or injured person doesn't have to walk across the complex....should be acceptable.
Reasons aside, the towing company should NOT be parking in our complex waiting for violators to tow.....especially if THEY are going to park ILLEGALLY while waiting.
Tim #40
sounds like you left your car out there for too long. I bring groceries in all the time and have never had a problem. Sounds to like this is one of those people who leave their car out there for a long time.
Not sure if this was you or not but it was a black car that I saw towed in less than 5 min. Also, it wasn't in the carport itself it was parked on the side waiting. It was waiting for a car. It waited for about a min. then just towed the car. The tow trucked just drove off so fast we didn't have a chance to even ask anything. They were going way over the speed limit too. I haven't seen that happen again, so I am assuming the association took care of it. The association doesn't make money off of it. I tried to get a car towed out of my car port someone left in their. He doesn't live here anymore. He left a VW car with no engine in my carport. They wouldn't take it. They wanted me to pay for it to get towed.
I'm glad to see they are towing. Sorry for the inconvenience. I'm one of the people who have waited over 20 minutes on at least 6 occasions for people who were just going to leave their cars for 5 minutes.
Now I just park in the open spaces and put someone else out of a space to park.
That's a horrible thing to do, but I'm not going to waste all of that time waiting for people who are rude. If it was a disabled person, that would be another thing. The people I've waited for seem able-bodied and fully capable.
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