Florida and Miami Beach same laws for towing on abandoned vehicle?

[grego.gs]

And you are crying foul because it was removed the 25th.

It seems pretty clear that the vehicle was removed because it was deemed "abandoned".

No, it was not wrongfully towed, and you do not have a compelling argument to contest the towing fee (which is a bigger issue than the fine).

I am not crying, I'm trying to find a lawful way to fight a tow whose the process was suspicious. Do you live in Miami beach? It's full of scam.
Even the time set on the towing company receipt is adjusted wisely to add one more day of storage.
Only coincidences after all..

 

[grego.gs]

No you are not supposed to leave your non-functioning cars out on the street,

It can happens. Anyone may have a lifetime situation with a car left on the street during a big week-end or short vacation. If one of the tires get flat or even without that, you would just be good to get towed as soon as 48h..
No way to be contacted over mail or any sources..
I am pretty sure that without calling the towing companies in the city my car would've probably cumulated 3 or 4 weeks of storage.
Even during the records request, a lot of inaccuracies and coincidences..

 

[PayrollHRGuy]

@grego.gs DIdn't you say you checked the car regularly? It is very easy to have a tire changed.

 

[HighwayMan]

They need to tell you why your vehicle was towed! Whether it s a window sticker or a mailed notice, or an oral notice, or otherwise. This is one of your rights as a citizen of this country. They don't just get to tow your vehicle and not say why.

"Rights as a citizen"? It's hardly a right.

Unless a notification is required by some statute then there is no requirement.

I impound cars all the time. I don't give anyone notice - it's hardly a "right". The owner finds out when they report their car stolen and it shows up as an impounded vehicle in NCIC.

 

[RJR]

Why would this statute be irrelevant ? Am I wrong saying that cities can make their own ordinances as long as they do not contradict state law ?

Article 8: Sec. 2: Florida Constitution;

http://www.leg.state.fl.us/statutes/index.cfm?submenu=3#A8S02

All states should have general provisions as such, commonly known as "Home Rule". In my state, Ohio, we have such, and the case law is tangled at times. As long as the HR provision does not "Conflict" with the "General laws". Laws can be different, yet not Conflict, then if worded different, they may conflict. Case law Annotations may offer a clue?

I have no opinion on state v. local laws and if they contradict each other as asked.

 

[Ejay]

RJR,

In California the power granted to municipalities is similar to that in FL yet it says within our vehicle code and the courts have also ruled that vehicle matters are not municipal affairs. Municipalities are free to adopt rules and regulation that coincide with the CVC but they can not contradict or veer from it.

I wonder if FL is similar.

Highway man,

5th amendment of the Bill of Rights:

"No person shall... be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law."

Would it be a violation to do it without notice beforehand, maybe maybe not. Would it be a violation to not tell him, ever, why it was towed thus offering him no legal justification. Certainly. He was deprived of his property and he has the right to know why. Nothing he has been given tells him why his vehicle was impounded.

I impound cars all the time. I don't give anyone notice - it's hardly a "right". The owner finds out when they report their car stolen and it shows up as an impounded vehicle in NCIC.

Which may be fine but if the citizen asks why the vehicle was impounded they will be told. Surely you don't impound vehicle without legal justification.

 

[HighwayMan]

Notification does not necessarily have anything to do with due process.

The owner finds out what the problem is when they try to find out what happened to their vehicle.

 

[Ejay]

Notice is one of the essential elements of due process. Impounding a vehicle then not giving or at least attempting to give the owner notice is arguably a violation of due process. I don't doubt that y'all get away with it in NY but for this reason most jurisdictions require that notice of some sort be issued. That being said this has nothing to do with this thread. I will discuss in a separate thread if you would like.

In this thread the OP wants to know if the towing costs can be recovered. In order to determine such, he must know which law the tow was ordered pursuant to. In this thread this is what I claim he has the right to know. I also claim that not telling him why his vehicle was towed is a violation of due process.

 

[not2cleverRed]

Notice is one of the essential elements of due process. Impounding a vehicle then not giving or at least attempting to give the owner notice is arguably a violation of due process. I don't doubt that y'all get away with it in NY but for this reason most jurisdictions require that notice of some sort be issued. That being said this has nothing to do with this thread. I will discuss in a separate thread if you would like.

In this thread the OP wants to know why he was towed. That's it. He is simply asking the agency that authorized the tow which law the tow was ordered pursuant to. In this thread this is what I claim he has the right to know. I also claim that not telling him why his vehicle was towed is a violation of due process.

Wrong. OP wants to know if he can get the costs associated with towing waived, as he is convinced that he was wrongfully towed it's not fair because he was in the process of selling the clunker as a parts car.

Post #1"
Hello, my car got towed on August 30 in Miami Beach as abandoned vehicle within a free spot. Though, when I take it back I saw the cardboard notice on the side of my car saying I had 48h to remove the car before getting towed. But in Florida statutes, the notice has to be 5 days and not 2 ! Does Miami Beach can have different rules ? Can I ask a refund for the towing fees and fight the parking ticket I got ?

Excerpt from Post #5
...However, it was an old car with one flat tire, about to be sold. It stayed a few weeks in this spot. So they probably considered as abandoned...
...They had put a yellow sticker on my car but sticked to the window and impossible to take because of the rain who deteriorated it. The notice wasn't really readable I was just able to see 48h before towing. Once towed, I didn't get any informations I had to look for by myself and then pay the towing and storage fees 400$. I sold the car right after in front of the tow company. Where I have to go to contest ? And where can I ask a receipt for the 48h notice ?

Post #50
Here is the sticker left on my car. The problems are the dates because I checked the car after those 2 dates and I'm pretty sure it wasn't there. Furthermore, I find that suspicious last time she knew the codes of the ordinance while I was filling out the request. I wanted it printed out but I got nothing. Finally, my car got towed the 25th, wasn't it supposed to be the 17th as noticed on the removal order date section ? It's getting difficult for me now. Hard to prove, I'm going to appear crazy. [Followed by photo.]

OP had ample notice. Whether the car was towed on the 25th or the 30th, there had been complaints about it being abandoned by the 12th.

You are giving OP crappy advice that will waste his time and potentially cost him more money.

 

[Ejay]

The fact that the OP is interested in recovering the costs of the tow is more accurate. I've corrected the post.

Y'all say the tow was lawful and costs can't be recovered but you don't actually know this. There is no way for any of us to know if he can recover the costs of the tow unless we know why he was towed. This is something the OP has the right to know.

For example, if the vehicle was towed for being abandon, even if the notice was posted for a sufficient amount of time, he still did not recieve proper notice becasue the statute requires that the notice be protected from the weather elements.

I have already said that contesting the tow will cost more than the tow itself and that it ony makes sense to do it based on principal so I am not sure how I am giving him crappy advice. If he wants to contest the tow he needs to figure out why he was towed, plain and simple.

 

[HighwayMan]

Impounding a vehicle then not giving or at least attempting to give the owner notice is arguably a violation of due process.

Hardly. They find out why when they try to retrieve their vehicle.

We don't not enforce the law because we cannot notify the violator ahead of time about what's happening.

When someone is arrested we're under no obligation to provide them the details of the charges against them. They find out at their arraignment, that's what arraignments are for.

 

[grego.gs]

All states should have general provisions as such, commonly known as "Home Rule". In my state, Ohio, we have such, and the case law is tangled at times. As long as the HR provision does not "Conflict" with the "General laws". Laws can be different, yet not Conflict, then if worded different, they may conflict. Case law Annotations may offer a clue?

For example, just out of curiosity, if the Florida statutes prevails a 5 days notice for towing, can any municipalities within the State can shorten the notice to 1,2 or 3 days ?

 

[grego.gs]

Wrong. OP wants to know if he can get the costs associated with towing waived, as he is convinced that he was wrongfully towed it's not fair because he was in the process of selling the clunker as a parts car.
OP had ample notice. Whether the car was towed on the 25th or the 30th, there had been complaints about it being abandoned by the 12th.

You are giving OP crappy advice that will waste his time and potentially cost him more money.

You have a lot of informations lol..
Who said my car was a clunker and sold as a parts car.
I sold this car for several hundred dollars but lost this value in order to pay the tow company, it's still significant.
How you know I had ample notice. Did you leave in the neighborhood ? Did you take pictures of the car ?
I checked it several times each week and I didn't see any notice. I'm pretty sure I would have seen a such sticker given its size.Especially from the 12th.
Besides when I retrieved the car, this notice and the ticket violation wasn't readable because of the rain, we are in Miami, in September...
I got my answers with the elements above, so it's gonna be hard for me to fight the tow process because the section (d) and (e) give pretty much authorization to the officer to find or not the car owner's identity until a few days after towing.
I know we are supposed to know the law but the process is very opaque.

 

[Ejay]

The precedent is set partially by these:

https://scholar.google.com/scholar_case?case=5749695024061504439

https://scholar.google.com/scholar_case?case=3386680333428018735

In some situations this has been ruled constitutional, in others, such as with abandoned cars, it is not.

Grego,

I will look into that for you.

 

[HighwayMan]

T...such as with abandon cars...

You've said this enough times to show that this is not a simple typo. It is "abandoned".