Parking facility operators, rather they be an apartment manager, parking lot manager or a paid parking facilitator, all are visited daily by sales staff of a local towing company, seeking their business.
It's not uncommon for a towing company owner to make the decision he/she is going to give a property manager something in return to use their services, even knowing it's illegal.
I have seen several towing companies offer to re-stripe an entire parking lot, paint all the fire red curbs with stenciling for pennies on the dollar, or a greatly reduced cost, that nobody else could receive for the same size parking facility of 500 parking spaces.
Some property manager take into consideration their property owners won't provide the funding for parking lot maintenance when making that decision to sign a contract with a towing company that will re-stripe my entire parking facility, provide all the parking permits for free, even provide towing for residents at a reduced fee.
Of course, all of these freebies are against the law.
In the last session of the Texas Legislature, the law was changed to reflect that a towing company may provide the red and white towing sign to the parking facility at no charge. But, this is just the sign that is posted when entering the parking facility, not the post or labor to install the sign. With so few law enforcement agencies totally unaware that a towing company and parking facility owner can be charged with a criminal offense, should the towing company install the sign with a post and doesn't charge the parking facility.
