I can remember seeing a sign that said “If you park here, write down the number of XYZ Towing: 555-xxx-xxxxx. Your car WILL be towed by them. Don’t waste time trying to find it here.”
In my one experience with apartment living, I once came home to a car in my spot. I called the number to have the car towed.
When the truck was leaving, the owner came running out of the building, furious. I ignored him and pulled into my spot. Turns out he had just moved in and was assigned my spot in error.
The manager made some quick calls and had the car returned.
It wasn’t exactly assigned. If you want a covered spot, you get your pick of the open ones. Otherwise, every renter gets as many stickers as there are per bedrooms in the apartment (or two for the one-bedroom, non-studio apartments). You put the sticker on you car, and can freely park in the generous, but uncovered, lots. There is also a lot of guest space.
About the only time the property manager gets serious about towing is Indy 500 week, because we are in walking distance of the Brickyard. But anyone who pays is free to have people towed from their spots.
There are only three maids for the building interiors of the whole compex (15 large buildings), and they work their butts off. I told the one who does my building to use my space if she has to haul equipment, and I won’t have her towed, and I don’t. There have only been a few times I’ve come home to find her car there, and they’ve been odd days when I’ve been home because my son was sick, or at synagogue for a Jewish holiday. I park in a regular space, and move before dark.
I also tip her at New Year’s.
And that is reasonable IMHO. It is your space so it is yours to “give” to someone else. Back when we lived by the school, some of our neighbors rented out their driveways on game days. That was also perfectly reasonable IMHO.
The people who just parked in OUR driveway and didn’t bother to knock on our door and ask permission or offer to pay were not being reasonable, so we had them towed. The ones who waved their hands at us while leaving their cars in our driveway despite our complaints might have had the air let out of all of their tires by the tow guys but I don’t know if they actually did that or just took my money and said they would do it for me.
Yeah-- I have a coworker who owns a house even closer to the Brickyard. She can get about 20 cars on her yard, and charges them about $20 apiece for the priviledge-- she might have gone upto $25. It’s pretty prime real estate, due to it’s proximity to the track, and since she can garage her and her husband’s cars, and she sticks around to monitor, she can guarantee anyone can get out. She can’t guarantee the street will be clear-- but if someone who parked first wants to get out 20 minutes early, they can.
Not a race person myself-- usually hole up on the 500 weekend, or else stay with a friend in Carmel-- but if you are, paying $25 to park on her lawn, and be the first out is a steal.
We were in New Orleans for JazzFest one year. Parking is at a premium around the fairgrounds. There was a home with a huge “FREE PARKING” sign. In smaller letters it continued, “with purchase of home”.
If they;re lazy. There are wheel dollies just for the purpose of moving a car around without the wheels turning.
The towing is non consensual though. The tow guy is trying to get in and get out without interacting with the owner of the car. When the owner comes running from their apartment brandishing a handgun, things can get bad.
Yes, in addition to paying a towing charge a person risks a criminal record for brandishing a weapon. But that isn’t relevant to what I said. It’s easy to tow a car without damaging it. Otherwise a towing company is liable for damage.
I doubt it’s quite that black and white. A towing company probably has a duty of “reasonable care”. By the standards of the towing industry, not the kid-glove people who move Rolls Royces from the owner’s garage in the Hamptons to their other garage in Beverly Hills.
Hook it up, drag it out of the space with non-rotating tires squealing, & drag it onto the flatbed still with driving wheels locked are bog-standard tow techniques. Bouncing the car off the posts holding up the garage roof would be bad form. As would be banging the towed car into another car alongside. That would be bad, and at least arguably actionable.
Putting some wear on the tires and running some risk of overstressing the transmission’s parking pawl or the emergency brakes is simply par for the course.
Don’t want your car exposed to those risks? Don’t park it in ways that will give others reason to tow it.
This is turning into a sidetrack but reasonable care isn’t much of a gray area in this case. If you drag a wheel that’s locked by a transmission and you damage the transmission then you will be held liable for the repair. I linked to a common tool used to move a car without dragging a wheel. If a towing company doesn’t make use of it they assume the risk.
Yup. Twice in my life, I’ve had to bail a car out of a tow yard. Once, I was not the one who parked it (and wasn’t present when it was parked), and the second time, it shouldn’t have been towed. The people who had it towed reimbursed us for the fee, and if the car had been damaged in any way, you can bet we would have gone after them for that too.
[story]If anyone wants to know, we dutifully presented ourselves at the leasing office for a new parking decal after receiving a note on the windshield that new ones were being issued. They told us they’d run out of them, and as long as we had the old one, we wouldn’t be towed. We left the make, model & color of our car as well as the plate number. Two hours later, it got towed.
Their story was that the tow yard towed the wrong car, and there was another black Subaru with no decal at all. We didn’t care. We said we’d file in small claims court, even if it cost more, just to make a point, and they asked if we’d be satisfied with having the fee written off of the next month’s rent, and we were.[/story]