my car was towed from my appartment while in visitors parking

[hereisusername]

Hi Everyone,
My car (Honda Accord) was towed yesterday (1/17/10, sunday)around 7-8:00pm, Houston, Texas, Harris County. I am sure it was parked less than an hour. I called them and they said they haven't received the car yet and asked me to call after few minutes. Afterwards, I went to pick my car and they have charged me $187.89 with storage fee of $15 included. Are they supposed to charge storage fee if it has been in their storage for less than six hour. They also did not give me one hour grace period before towing (does this apply to harris county,huston as in california?). The cashier also refused to accept my valid credit card(Mastercard), but afterwards agreed to take my debit card, aren't they supposed to accept both methods of payments? Also they did not sote it for more than 20 minutes i guess.
I also talked to my appartment manager, he said he had agreement with them so they could pick whenever they see ilegally parked vehicle. But the driver did not leave the notice in the manager's mail box (which the manager says he receives for every towed vehicle on the very day it is towed). MY receipt from them says i am entitled for hearing only 14 days from the toe. Can you please help me if i could go to small claim court or sue either the towing company for not giving me grace period and the storage company for overcharging, charging for the starage and not accepting credit cards?
Any response is really appreciated and sorry for this very long post.

 

[Gail_in_Georgia]

Texas is not like California (which has an incredible number of laws that tend to side with the tenant). Texas typically is quite the opposite.

You can certainly attend the hearing or file a lawsuit in Small Claims. However, how would prove that $187.89 is "over charging" for towing?

You have no claim to sue for not accepting credit cards. That's up to the discretion of the business.

Gail

 

[mightymoose]

The storage fee is legitimate. Any fraction of an hour will get you a partial storage fee.
Unless there is some local law requiring it, there is no grace period. Perhaps the property management allows for a grace period, but there is no law requiring it. If your car did not belong there and have proper permits, it could have been towed at any time.
They are obligated to take payment by cash or check- credit card is not required.
The notice in the manager's mailbox is just to help keep tracks of where the vehicles went and for what reason. You found your car easily, so the lack of the notice in the manager's box is irrelevant. It wouldn't have amounted to anything anyway since the tow was still legal.
You really don't have anything to sue the tow company for. It sounds like you were illegally parked, or parked without a permit, and the tow was legitimate. Going to court will cost you more and just make things more difficult.
You will probably be best off to just pay this one off and be more careful about where you park.