Unpaid Towing and Storage Charges

What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? CA

The registered owner of a vehicle was unable to pay for towing and storage fees which resulted to a lien sale. I am the legal owner; therefore, the towing company is going after me for the charges. I never received any notice from them since my address of resisdences had changed. I was made aware of the situation through the grapevine.

My question is am I 100% liable for the charges? If so, are there ways or steps for me take in order to be relieve from such liabilities?

Thanks.

v12oom said:

What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? CA

The registered owner of a vehicle was unable to pay for towing and storage fees which resulted to a lien sale. I am the legal owner; therefore, the towing company is going after me for the charges. I never received any notice from them since my address of resisdences had changed. I was made aware of the situation through the grapevine.

My question is am I 100% liable for the charges? If so, are there ways or steps for me take in order to be relieve from such liabilities?

Thanks.

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Question for you: How is it that you are the LEGAL owner and not the REGISTERED owner of the car? Does that mean that you hold the title to the car (i.e., you purchased it), but you are allowing the REGISTERED owner to use it?

Bottom line is that the towing company can go after who ever is listed as the owner of the vehicle, be it the REGISTERED owner or TITLE owner of the vehicle. All share liability for any costs that are incurred in a situation like this. If one does not pay, they can go after the other, and it would be just as legally effective.

Best bet for you is to pay the towing and storage charges, and then you can sue the REGISTERED owner to recover the costs you incurred as a result of them not paying the charges.

Thanks for all the responses. If I haven't received any of the notices from the towing company regarding the incident, do I have a legitimate reason in the eyes of the law not to be responsible for 100% of the charges. The total charge as of now exceeded 10 times the value of the vehicle. I read somewhere in the vehicle code that the towing company has to contact the registered owner and the legal owner (lien holder) prior to commencing the lien sale. I'm sure they have contacted the registered owner; however, I have not received any paperwork from them because I've moved and my address on the title is not current. Had I known about it earlier, I would have taken care of it before the charges stacking up daily.

Did you move and not change your address with the DMV?

I did move and I did change address with DMV. However, for some reason, DMV did not update my info for this vehicle. My other vehicle and DL have updated info.

v12oom said:

I did move and I did change address with DMV. However, for some reason, DMV did not update my info for this vehicle. My other vehicle and DL have updated info.

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Then how do you know they haven't attempted to contact you? This vehicle doesn't have updated information for you.

I'm sure they attempted. I said I haven't received any notice from them.

Why don't you pay, mitigate the damages and then sue the REGISTERED owner.