QUESTION
What are my rights if my car got towed in a residential area with the parking permit?
Asked on Sep 30th, 2016 on Landlord and Tenant Law - California
More details to this question:
I live in a townhouse where there are plenty of visitor parking spaces. I do have my guest parking permit which allows me to park on the visitor parking lots. One day, I figured that my car has been towed from the visitor parking space even with the appropriate parking permit. I called the property management and they said the reason they have towed my car was that I parked my car more than 10 times a month. I walked all around my complex to see if there is any instruction or policy that states a certain rules for parking and towing and I could not find even a single instruction anywhere around the parking space. I do not believe their math of me parking more than 10 times a month in the guest parking lot because I usually park outside on the street and be out of town during weekend to visit home in another area. They must notice me in advance to tow my car since I am not an unauthorized vehicle in this complex but a resident who has the appropriate parking permit. I asked why the notice was not given to me at all, and if I was aware of the situation, I would never let my car to be towed and move the car right away. They gave me an answer that they had a record of giving a first notice to a vehicle which had the same parking ticket number as mine. Of course, I have no idea and no connection at all to that vehicle. They specified the vehicle and how it look like but then it is definitely not my car and it was not given to my actual not even once. They kept asking me about the unknown car, and I did not know anything about the car. The redundancy for having the two identical parking permit number does sound right at all which means it will happen again in the future as somehow the other car is sharing the same number as mine which I do not believe it can happen. Basically, they did give the notice to the unknown car but not on my car for once. I could not trust their information at all.
1 ANSWER
They had to inform you what the restrictions were on parking. Even had they given you notice of the 10 time limit before towing the car, they would have to enter into a new contract with you for this new restrictions to apply. They might say that your duty to try to reduce any damages [mitigation] would mean you have to move the car once you got notice of the new rule, but they were negligent in not telling you or issuing the same parking permit for two different cars, as you could not know the permit had been used 10 times that month as you were unaware, and there was no reason you should have known, that you shared the number with another car owner. They are liable for the cost of the towing of your vehicle and getting it back, plus a reasonable value for the time you spent getting the car and perhaps even finding out the needed information. You might also be able to charge them for the time involved in preparing and reading this response and the 10-15 minutes I took in typing it up as you had to seek the advice of an attorney to resolve the matter and it does not matter if you actually have to pay the attorney or not. This is an unusual and somewhat weak argument so I would use it only as a element of negotiating with them as to the total compensation. They must also issue you a new car permit number so it does not happen in the future and you should request, although you can require it, that they notify in writing all other tenants of the 10 times parking rule and check their records to see if the same permit number has been recorded for multiple owners. Since their was both a breach of contract and negligence, you could also collect pain and suffering damages for the latter, even though it would not be much.
Answered on Oct 21st, 2016 at 6:52 PM