The head of the Connecticut Department of Transportation said Tuesday that despite many reforms enacted last year to regulate the practices of towing companies, more steps need to be taken to protect consumers who own vehicles that may be removed or sold.
DMV Commissioner Tony Guerrera announced five recommendations that the Legislature will consider starting in February. The recommendations follow an investigation by the Connecticut Mirror and ProPublica that revealed how state law has favored towing companies at the expense of low-income consumers for decades. They are also following up on several months of meetings with groups of industry and consumer representatives.
The recommendations would require towing companies to do more to notify owners that their vehicles have been towed and to streamline the process of selling unclaimed vehicles.
He announced his proposal at a previously scheduled meeting of a working group of tow truck and consumer representatives. The group was created as part of the Towing Reform Act passed last year after news outlets reported how towing companies were seeking permission from the DMV to sell some vehicles in as little as 15 days, one of the shortest time periods in the country. Many low-income residents have had their cars towed for minor violations, sometimes from their own apartment complexes, but lost their cars because they couldn’t afford to get them back before selling.
If Congress adopts this recommendation, towing companies would no longer place a value on the vehicles they tow, which would determine whether Tower could begin the sales process within 15 or 45 days. Instead, all cars will be sold at public auction after 30 days, Guerrera said.
Other recommendations include requiring towing companies to send two letters to the vehicle’s registered owner after towing a vehicle, one certified and one not certified. If the car is not picked up, Towers must send a third letter to the owner after 30 days informing them when and where the auction will be held. Towing companies must advertise the auction on their website or place a legal advertisement in a local newspaper.
The DMV would also be required to set up a portal on its website listing all towed vehicles so people can see which tower their vehicle is in, when it was towed, and when it will be put up for auction.
If there are no bids on the car and the car’s owner shows up, the towing company will be required to return the car, regardless of cost, before selling it for scrap.
There was little pushback Tuesday from industry leaders and consumer advocacy groups, even though tow truck representatives had previously complained that the changes would increase costs and consumer lawyers objected that the recommendations did not do enough to protect drivers.
The proposal also did not address the first task Congress assigned the group: how to handle profits from tow truck sales. Currently, towing companies are required to retain profits for one year for claims by owners and lenders. Unclaimed funds, minus towing costs, must then be turned over to the state. But CT Mirror and ProPublica revealed that that never happened because the DMV had never set up a system to recover the funds.
Guerrera said after the meeting that the DMV has set up a process to monitor whether towing companies are turning over funds to the state. He said he won’t know whether the system will work until October because funds from tow truck sales must be held for a year.
After Guerrera finished outlining his proposal, Eileen Colonese, secretary of the industry group Towing and Recovery Professionals of Connecticut, said Guerrera’s plan doesn’t address important issues. This means that the last registered owner of the vehicle is not necessarily the owner at the time of towing.
“I still believe that until the state of Connecticut develops a process to identify the true owners of the vehicles, all of this that we are doing is pretty much pointless because we have not yet notified the current owners of the vehicles,” Colonese said.
Consumer advocate and lawyer Rafael Podolsky said Guerrera’s recommendations are “a step in the right direction, but there are still many issues that need to be addressed before the system is fixed.”
Guerrera said his plan was “inspired” by discussions at the past four committee meetings. He said he hopes the portal on the state’s website will help DMV officials better track how towing companies are handling vehicles.
The revised law, which took effect Oct. 1, requires towing companies to warn people before removing vehicles from apartment parking lots unless there is a safety issue. You also need to accept credit cards, allow people to retrieve their belongings, and allow people to pick up their cars on the weekends. Additionally, the sales process for vehicles valued at less than $1,500 can begin after 15 days, but towers must wait 30 days before selling.
Guerrera said he expects the working group to continue meeting.
“We want to have ongoing meetings, whether it’s quarterly or bi-quarterly, to narrow down any issues that come up or that need fixing and build a system that works for everyone,” Guerrera said.
