Another Unlicensed Tow Business in Austin Exposed!

All tow trucks and rollbacks must display a "Tow Truck" license plate

not licensed by TDLR, think twice before calling them!

fails to display "Tow Truck" license plate

These photos were taken January 12, 2014 at 5:09pm, I spotted this rollback loading a vehicle on Montopolis near Oltorf.  There were no TDLR numbers on either side of the truck and lacked the required "tow truck" license plates.

Illegally Marked Designated Parking Spaces Will Pay You $1000 if towed from one

 

If your vehicle is towed and the reason given is you were in a designated, reserved or restricted parking space without a permit, there is an excellent chance your vehicle was illegally towed. The only way possible per state law, for a parking space to be reserved or designated for someone, is that the space identifier must be marked in the front and rear of each parking space, as shown in the above photograph.

The photograph directly above is what you will most likely find when your vehicle is towed from an improperly marked reserved or designated space.  This type of parking space is used mostly at pay parking lots, such as Laz Parking, Central Parking, Standard Parking and Republic Parking.  If you have been towed from a pay parking lot anytime within the last four years and you have the receipts still, whatever you paid, your entitled to $1000 plus triple damages.

Another widely used scam by predatory towing companies is to place all the visitor parking in the very back of the apartment complex, as an example, San Antonio based Bexar Towing has placed a sign on a fence pointing to visitor parking spaces but nothing is painted on the ground, front and rear of the space.  Notice what the towing sign says about visitor parking.

Three vehicle owners have contacted Texas Towing Compliance about their rights and all were directed to call or email the San Antonio Police Vehicle Crimes Unit at 210-207-2348 to file criminal charges against the tow truck operator and our attorneys to recover the civil penalty for improperly marked parking spaces.

In order to recover the civil penalty against the parking facility to collect the $1000 plus triple what you paid to retrieve your vehicle, in addition to the cost of repairs for the damage done to your vehicle during the towing and storage process, you may need an attorney to file the Statutory Violation Hearing in County Court.

We now have 9 attorneys who are representing tow victims and winning their cases when a statutory violation lawsuit has been filed against the parking facility owner or management company.

Statutory Violation Hearing outcomes:  Houston, paid $217.38 average penalty $1735, San Antonio, DFW area, paid $293.30 average penalty $1800, Austin paid $193.30 average penalty $1730

2014 will be the year tow victims strike back with vengeance

I have recieved emails from 28 tow victims from across the state since January 3rd, all grateful of the resources Texas Towing Compliance, as they won either the tow hearing or statutory violation lawsuit.  Over half used the expert legal services of dedicated attorneys specially trained on the Texas Towing Law.

In Bexar County, 9 tow victims left court with judgments against the parking facility in amounts fives times greater than what they paid to retrieve their vehicles.  In the North Texas area, towing companies in the DFW region are discovering their accounts are dropping them due to $2000+ judgments because their towing company outright lied to them about the legality of towing vehicles.  In Travis County, Reliant Towing, A&A Wrecker and J&J Towing are losing cases like never before, as Austin based tow victim attorneys have yet to lose an illegal towing case.

Statutory Violation Lawsuits will gain steam, as three have already been won against LAZ Parking, while several more have been filed against large property management companies who thought they were above the law, after taking the advice of their tow company.

Tow victims are encouraged to file the statutory violation lawsuit, as these types of cases are easier to win and the reward for doing so pays substantially better than a tow hearing, plus you can be awarded attorney fees as well, so you could end up leaving Court with a judgment for well over $10K.

Gold Mine in Austin for Illegal Tow Victims payable by the Parking Facility if Towed in last 4 years

If you are towed in Austin from a private parking lot by: A&A Wrecker, Reliant Wrecker Service, J&J Wrecker Service, Albert's Wrecker Service, Pronto Wrecker Service, Park Right Solutions, Austin Express, Tow Times, Central Towing, or Pinkies Wrecker Service, there is an excellent opportunity you can recover $1000 plus three times what you paid.  This also goes for drop fees.

Many of the Austin area towing company's private property accounts have been losing in Court when the Statutory Violation Civil Suit is filed, because 90% of them accepted something of value from the towing company in connection with the removal of vehicles.

Tow companies believe they can provide additional services other than providing the towing sign and doing the towing.  This includes installing the towing signs, providing guest parking permits, parking permits, striping parking lots, stickering vehicles with orange warning stickers, mailing the Certified Letter for expired inspection or registration stickers in apartment complexes and providing "spotters" to sit in parking lots identifying which vehicle is to be towed.  Unfortunately, all of these "service agreement" perks are violations of the Texas Towing Law, Occupations Code 2308.251.

With this in mind, if you are towed, you should contact our tow victims attorneys in Austin by calling 512-236-1114, as this group of attorneys will take your statutory or tow hearing case on contingency with a valid case.

So, if you pay $193.30 to get your vehicle back, your looking at $1600 in damages that the parking facility will be paying, since they authorized the tow.

If you pay a $50 drop fee within the parking facility, your looking at $1150 in damages the parking facility will be paying, instead of the towing company.

A&A Wrecker, J&J Towing and Reliant have both been losing towing related cases because of these kickbacks they are providing for the right to enforce their parking regulations within parking facilities in the City Limits of Austin.

Keep checking Texas Towing Compliance to understand your rights after being towed and by all means keep filing complaints against the towing company and vehicle storage facility with the Texas Department of Licensing & Regulations so they can be fined or see their license suspended.