This article was created for Propublica’s local reporting network in collaboration with Connecticut Mirror. Sign up for Dispatch to get stories in your inbox every week.
The Connecticut Senate on Friday overwhelmingly passed the most important reforms to the state’s towing policy in decades, lawmakers said it would help protect drivers from predatory towing.
House Bill 7,162 overhauls the state’s old-fashioned towing laws, and in response to investigations by Connecticut Miller and PropoPublica, it showed that the state’s towing laws have come to support towing companies at the expense of drivers. Several measures are required to make it difficult to tow a vehicle from private property, making it easier for the driver to retrieve the vehicle after towing.
The bill, which passed the House last week with broad, bipartisan support and small debate, sailed the Senate with 33-3 votes.
“It is reform that ensures transparency, and ensures fairness and accountability, but it says it keeps our roads safe and accessible to our property without the essential work that ethical and professional towing operators do for us every day. “We have learned over the years, particularly over the last year about the terrible situation, especially for some research reports.”
A spokesman for Gov. Ned Lamont said the governor is planning to sign the bill into law.
Republican Sen. Tony Huang, a ranking member of the Transportation Committee, also spoke in support of the bill. The bill was debated for about 30 minutes before it was passed and there was no opposition to it.
Fans representing Fairfield said the bill is a good balance between the Tower’s profits and consumers.
“I would like to acknowledge that our media has important parts that bring out some of the transparency and bad behavior. I think this bill addresses some of these issues,” fans said. “We have taken steps to ensure that there is a legitimate procedure and ensure that it has been discovered that it happened in criminal action. I don’t think it should ever happen again to undermine the trust we have in this process.”
Connecticut law allows towing companies to begin the process of selling their vehicles in just 15 days. CT Mirror and Propublica have found that it is one of the shortest windows in the country, and that the law has particularly affected low-income people. Reporters spoke to people who said they would not allow the towing company to pay in cash or to remove personal belongings from the vehicle. Many people have reclaimed their tow vehicles, which has resulted in losing transportation and jobs.
After weeks of negotiations, lawmakers said they compromised with the towing industry. The two bills were combined to include massive reforms to towing procedures from private property and rising highway towing rates, usually following car accidents.
The bill, passed and effective on October 1, requires towing companies to accept credit cards and will not allow vehicles to tow immediately for expired parking or registration. Vehicles may not be towed from private property without notice unless they block traffic, fire hydrants or park in accessible locations.
Under the bill, towing companies can begin selling vehicles under $1,500 in 15 days, but more steps need to be taken to give owners the opportunity to charge their vehicles. The Automobile Division must check whether the driver filed a towing complaint before approving the sale, and the Tower must send a notice prior to the sale with registered owner and lien by certified mail along with the receipt of delivery.
Actual sales were not able to pass until 30 days after towing.
The bill requires the tower to take at least two photos before towing the vehicle. This was one violation, causing a towing, and the other causing damage to the vehicle. Cohen said this will help the vehicle determine if there are missing parts before towing. This seems to be the story of a news organization about DMV employees who discovered that agency investigators were planning to sch with towing companies to sell for the profits of thousands of people. (The employee denied that he did something wrong, and in that case the agency ultimately took no action.)
The bill also establishes a working group to study how to handle revenue from towing vehicles sales. State law requires towing companies to retain escrow profits for a year and transfer the money to the state in case the vehicle owner claims them. However, CT Mirror and Propublica have discovered that DMV never set up the system on which the process occurs.
Additionally, it calls for the DMV to work with the state attorney general to develop a Consumer Bill of Rights on Towing.
Sales and sales companies should be available outside of business hours and on weekends so that people can get their cars and personal property. In a story released this month, CT Mirror and Propublica reported that towing truck companies may pressure people to hold their belongings and pay towing fees.
Under the new law, drivers will be allowed to collect their belongings from the vehicle even if they have not paid the towing fee. Currently, state regulations allow vehicle owners to acquire only “personal property essential to the health and welfare of everyone.”
Cohen cites many of the issues outlined in news outlet reports as “some of the worst abuses of predatory towing practices.”
Timothy Vibert, president of Connecticut’s towing and recovery experts, said the industry initially opposed the bill because he believed Towers would hamper their ability to tow cars and clear traffic. He also said the Towers were not fully involved in the original draft. However, they worked with lawmakers on the bill for weeks, and he issued a statement of support this week.
“People in Connecticut deserve safety, accountability and transparency when cars are towed, as are the people who work for towing companies in Connecticut, and so are businesses that risk our lives every day to make our roads safe,” Vibert said. “We all need clear and clear rules.”
DMV Commissioner Tony Guerrera praised the House and Senate.
“DMV fully supports this initiative, which not only strengthens the fair and impartial framework of towing laws, but also provides a clear pathway to advance these efforts,” Guerrera said in a statement.
Cohen said the bill was intended to “fix the broken process,” and lawmakers had worked on that aspect for years before the bill was passed.
Connecticut towing companies use remaining belongings in the car as leverage to collect fees, drivers say
News of the passage of the bill brought relief to Melissa Anderson, who was featured in the CT Miller and Propopavica stories after the car was towed and sold by a car in Hampden apartment due to an expiration of the expiration of the parking permit.
The bill requires a 72-hour grace period before towing a car for an expired parking sticker to allow a person to take the time to get a new one.
“I’m glad you made a difference,” Anderson said. “This will help a lot of people.”
The bill then heads to Lamont’s desk.
“The governor appreciates all the work that has entered this law, which provides great protection for the public and their vehicles,” Lamont spokesman Rob Blanchard said in a text message. “He plans to sign the law once it gets to his desk.”
