Stolen vehicle or not?

[squeekywheel]

I awoke 12-15-02 and planned on getting our Christmas tree to find out that my vehicle was not in parking lot where i reside. I first thought that the car was stolen and made a phone call to the local police in my area. Come to find out that it had been towed by a "dive" towing company. The reason for the tow was that my parking sticker was on passenger side of windshield instead of drivers side. But all in all the sticker was on windshield and very clear and pictures have been taken. No where in our lease does it say that the sticker must be on drivers side of windshield and this area of the windshield has been used for these parking stickers for three years. What do i do at this point? I had to pay 180 dollars to get my vehicle back in order to get my family a Christmas tree. The whole bad part is that 180 dollars was for no more than 6 hours and 4 hours was spent at police stationg trying to process a stolen vehicle report which i still cant file acording to local police.

 

[Michael Wechsler]

Good question -- you may want to discuss this with your landlord. Someone should be out the money and it shouldn't be you. Who called the towing company to tow the car? Are they contracted by the landlord? If so, then you may want to settle with the landlord or, in the alternative, send a certified return receipt letter that you plan to withhold a certain amount from the rent as a result of your landlord's breach of the lease. Another safer route is to go to small claim's court, although chances of recovery are uncertain and it does take time. Just my thoughts.

 

[squeekywheel]

Just to let you know the start of the high road.

Thank you for your thoughts and time i really do appreciate it. I had a meeting with Manager of management company and they took a copy of the towing bill. They also said that the would make a phone call to the tow company and talk with them about a reimbursement she stated that it should take around ten days. You did ask about if someone called the tow company, nobody called them the tow driver found a technicality and acted on it with no authorization. I spoke with him personaly face to face as he let my vehicle down I kept it short and polite. Should i wait ten days for there response on a check? I asked for it to be credited back to credit card that it was charged on and property manager said they wont credit it back but maybe the tow company will reimburse payment. Why would it not be considered stolen if lease did not ommit exact location on windshield that parking sticker should be placed. Lease states parking sticker on windshield does not say anything to do with tow or specific location of. Local police say that its a contract with management company and tow company on when to tow. Personally at this point wish i could tie them both up to a chair with hands behind there back and feed them mashed potatoes with a sling shot ha ha.

 

[Michael Wechsler]

Actually, the management company is liable for damages as well since this is their error. Since you will need to have a relationship with them, it may be best (as well as saving time and throwing money after reimbursement) to allow them to handle it over a reasonable time. 10 days is very reasonable.

What happened is a breach of contract, IMHO and in the opinion of the police. I'll explain. The towing company acted propery (even though if I were the landlord I'd not renew the contract) since that is what was in the contract between the landlord and towing company. However, the landlord need to cite the same, consistent terms to you and this was never conveyed. Your property was taken from the property of the landlord by breach of contract -- you had a right to park there but the car was towed accidentally due to an error by the landlord (and breach.) I'm not sure if this could be interpreted as a crime since there was no intent to commit a crime, only a mistake in interpreting a contract. In order to commit a crime you need a "guilty act" (which there is one) and also a guilty mind to commit the act. Here, there was no intent to unlawfully seize your property. But that doesn't mean you wouldn't be entitled to damages as a result of their mistake...