My car got towed and now the fine and storage is more than the value of the car. Can I negotiate with the towing company to lower the storage charge?
There are two different components here that you need to separate, the fine and the tow company fees. Being a tough guy/gal is not going to help you with this situation.Worst scenario - DO NOTHING. You don’t pay the storage fees or the fines, then the tow company can file a mechanics lien and sell your vehicle to cover your bill. You will still be on the hook to pay the fine and any excess fees. So the tow company now owns your car, you still owe them money (which hits your credit rating), and the government still wants their money so has a bench warrant out for your arrest.Best scenario - TALK WITH EVERYONE. Go to the tow company with the cash you have and plead for mercy. Crying, bringing along babies, etc, will all help your cause. Tow companies tend to be small businesses and though they have a tough job and have to be tough guys, they can be swayed. They would rather take the money they can get over selling your car and all the hassle that goes with that anyways. Once you get your car back, same thing with the fines. Go to court, talk with the DA, beg for some help.The trick with negotiating from a position of weakness is to allow yourself to be vulnerable and ask for help. Good luck![The landlord for my garage owns a towing company, and we have to file liens on vehicles that are abandoned by customers who don’t want to / can’t afford to pay for repairs]
Do storage places give you a notice before they put a lock on your unit?
Question: Do storage places give you a notice before they put a lock on your unit?They provide you with multiple notices.You begin to fall behind on your payments and they will mail you notices stating that fact. How long they will do this depends upon the contract that you sign. In most cases, three months is the maximum that they will allow a customer to fall behind before they add their own lock to the unit and prevent you from removing your items.Most of the larger chains will also leave you voicemails or text messages. Again, if you fail respond to these as well, they impound your unit until you either make payments or until you have violated the terms of your contract and they can then access your unit and auction off its contents. You’ll usually receive a notification that the auction is going to occur.My advice: Before begin to fall behind on your payments, call the storage facility and tell them about your financial situation. Most will want to get paid and will be willing to work with you, so long as this isn’t going to be a regular payment situation going forward. The few who won’t will be an indicator that you need to go to the facility and remove the most valuable items from the locker on the off chance that you’ll be unable to pay for the unit.If you are ill, if you travel for work or you are elderly, it’s a good idea to have a family member or close trusted friend who knows that you have the locker and who can either pay for it, or vacate it, if you end up being hospitalized, incarcerated, or die. After having gone to a number of storage locker auctions myself, I always surprised that people find themselves in scenarios where they cannot pay their storage fees and have made no provisions to remove their valuable items or have some pay for them in case they cannot.
If a car is contained in a storage unit being auctioned, how does the winner get title?
I think that the answer to this really depends on where your self storage unit actually is situated. If I'm not wrong, sometimes the vehicle has to be reported and the local authorities will figure out whether to impound or whatever. The owner of the car doesn't leave the title of the car to the storage company I think and it's something that will probably have to go through a lot of red tape before it's really released to the public through the auction.
Is it illegal to live in a storage unit in America?
I had had a friend who did it. When I was a kid, I was in a garage band. The problem was, none of us had a garage we could use. So we rented a storage unit. Between the four of us, we spent $20 a month (in the 1980s). The place had one outlet, and a drop light that we put a plug converter in. We set up, and it stayed set up. We salvaged a couch and some other nice stuff like some cooler and a mini fridge from an eviction or two. It was an awesome set up. Eventually, a few other bands set up, and it was quite the scene. We had access 24hrs, through a key pad. The owners didn't seem to mind, and we cleaned up after ourselves.Anyhow, a dude from one of the other bands stopped going home. He was a little older than us, out of highschool and from a less than stellar home. He threw a mattress on the ground, got himself a mini fridge, a TV and VCR and some other furnishings. He lived there for over six months at least, maybe even a year. He finally got a job and moved out. I think he did personal hygiene at the local recreation facility. There was a gas station right on the corner and a restroom on the premises. We kept that thing pristine as it was the only time we got any friction from the facility management.Was it legal? I doubt it. But, considering he wasn't stupid about it. Nor were we. We were a bunch of teenagers drinking and doing other things the law may not approve of. So we made sure that we kept the place clean and didn't break stuff. We didn't give out the access codes. We played our music, had a lot of fun and probably inadvertently provided a little security. And, we kept our little piece of heaven tidy. So, even if it isn't legal, if you do it right, I don't think it would create any problems.
Can my landlord at a large commercial storage facility deny me access to my unit when my account is current but I have been paying late?
It’s going to depend on your local laws, and the contract you have signed, but in general commercial contracts operate under different laws and have far less protection for tenants than residential ones. Your lawyer should have advised you of the consequences of delayed payments before you signed it.Also, if you are paying late, your account is not current. As soon as your payment is late, you are behind. If payment if due by 5pm on the first of every month, at 17:01 you are behind. This may well allow the landlord to take action.
My car title is under someone else's name and I can't register my car. I can't locate the previous owners who sold it me. What should I do?
Buy another car very similar from the junkyard, with title. Remove the windshield and underlying VIN from that car, ans put them on your car.Check with your state’s tax office. If your car has a lien, you can /have to negotiate with the lienholder. I did this once and TTL’d an abandoned car for $400.Junkyards don’t sell titles? No problem, just do the same thing with another used car. Next time save yourself this hassle and get the title transferred before handing over the cash.
Who is the responsible party to pay the impound fees when you have a vehicle stolen, recovered by the police, and impounded to a private in-pound yard?
In most places in the USA if it is in a private yard the victim (owner of vehicle) gets stuck with the fees. If the owner has towing on their insurance policy the insurance company may pay for it. The insurance company may also find a way to weasel out of paying for it. If they do pay for it the owner’s insurance rates will go up. This is one of the many injustices built into the legal system.IF the perpetrator is caught you could try to go to small claims court to get the money back but you’ll have to prepare the paperwork, pay the court fees up front, and take time off of work to show-up in court. Then you’ll have to hope the perpetrator shows-up for court, prove that perpetrator did it, and if successful hope the perpetrator actually complies with the order and pays you back. If not then you’ll spend more money to try to force them to pay. However, you can’t get water from a dry well or money from a perpetrator that doesn’t have any, and if the perp is going to jail he’ll have no way to earn that money either.Long story short the private impound lot benefits from a stolen vehicle and the victim gets victimized twice (once from the original theft and then from the law enforcement agency and private company that impounded the vehicle once it was located).