Would you want to live in an apartment complex if you knew the property manager was getting a kickback in the form of cash, gift cards, gambling trips to Las Vegas or parking lot striping, from the towing company, that towed your or your visitor's vehicle during the middle of the night and forced to pay $200+ to get it released from the storage lot?
Property Management Companies, who are members of the Austin and Texas Apartment Associations expect residents in their complexes to obey their rules, but, they turn around and accept bribes from towing companies daily which is a criminal offense.
Property managers can't say they don't know they couldn't accept kickbacks, because every office at an apartment complex keeps an updated version of the TAA Redbook, that explains the State Law regulations regarding the towing of vehicles.
One of the problems with property managers, are they are weak when it comes to turning away a towing company salesman offering their services, signs, including striping, parking permits and letters to be given to their residents, all at a price they could not get from anyone else, or just free.
It never passes through a property manager or supervisor's mind that they chance going to jail if they sign a contract with a towing company, that includes all the above mentioned perks.
Towing company salesmen or account managers are taught to make the property manager feel they will not be responsible for any vehicle that gets towed and they will be held harmless, another bald face lie. But, we see many property managers belly up and accept bribes daily from towing companies.
Poor residents that are struggling financially to make ends meet, while their property manager is collected not only a paycheck, but kickbacks from the towing company for each vehicle towed.
Me, personally, I think any property manager, who authorize a towing company to patrol their parking lot and allow the drivers to use their discretion om which vehicle to impound. Some instances, a vehicle will be impounded for barely touching the white/yellow parking stripe. On another instance, a wrecker driver will find a vehicle with the windows rolled down and remove the parking permit, them impound the vehicle. Still shocking illegal activity, is the wrecker driver taking a vehicle that perfecting park and park the vehicle in the fire lane, over the parking stripe, photograph it, them impound the vehicle, all because the property manager gave authorization.
This type of criminal conduct must be reported, investigated and prosecuted by law enforcement.
We can't the Texas Department of Licensing and Regulations to do thing that need to be, since they are issuing Wrecker Occupation Employee Licenses to Registered Sex Offenders, Murderers, Serial Rapists, Auto Thieves, Burglars and Drug Dealers. The very state agency that was supposed to keep Texas safe is sending wrong message to the public regarding their safety should they have to call a wrecker service to come pick them up on a dark highway.
