The Akron Legal News

Bill would ease liabilities when impounding abandoned cars

KEITH ARNOLD
Special to the Legal News
Published: February 17, 2016

A pair of northeast Ohio lawmakers have championed Substitute House Bill 341 to remedy some of the unintended consequences of a measure passed by the Ohio General Assembly to ease the disposal of abandoned vehicles left at tow lots.

Reps. Ron Young, R-LeRoy Township, and Martin Sweeney, a Democrat from Cleveland, were joined recently by towing company representatives and a supervisor from the Cleveland Police Department Impound Lot to illustrate the need for changes to the law, resulting from passage of Senate Bill 274 last year.

House State Government Committee members derived from the testimony that SB 274-associated requirements initiated by the state’s Bureau of Motor Vehicles have clogged municipal tow lots to capacity.

Cleveland Police Sgt. Keith Larson, supervisor of his department’s impound lot, said private parking lot owners are left with only one alternative when the towing company refuses to move an abandoned car from the lot because the company has no room at its lot and wants to avoid the hassle of obtaining yet another salvage title.

“As a result, private property owners often drag or push a car onto a public street causing it to be a police ordered tow,” Larson said. “A police ordered tow causes our department to process the required paperwork, to take title and to dispose of the vehicle.

“Moving abandoned vehicles to public streets is a public safety issue and a strain on police resources.”

The substitute bill would allow for more entities to obtain a salvage title to a motor vehicle in a given party’s possession.

A towing service, storage facility or repair garage could obtain a salvage title for any vehicle valued less than $1,500.

Larson explained that by allowing for a salvage title process for towing companies, it creates another incentive for those companies to properly establish and perform private tow-away zone tows as intended.

“The process used by Cleveland Police Department in general takes 21 days to acquire a tile for vehicles we impound, with proper notification to owners and leinholders in accordance with state law and city ordinances,” he said. “Currently the private towing and storage company does not have a similar process; but (Sub.) H.B. 341 would create a salvage title process, marked ‘for destruction’ to properly dispose of abandoned vehicles.”

Jordan Davis, owner of Camcar Towing in Columbus and president of the central Ohio region of the Towing and Recovery Association of Ohio, told committee members that the new regulations have nearly done in private property impounding.

“They greatly increased a towing company’s exposure to legal repercussions, implemented excessive requirements to dispose of junk vehicles abandoned on our storage lots by the vehicle owners and introduced a rule that would allow the courts to suspend our operating license which would order a company to stop all towing operation,” he said.

“Most of these companies provide other services to the community such as police ordered impounds, roadside assistance and clearing accidents from our roadways. These services would also cease if a suspension were ordered.”

The substitute bill eases some of the legal liability with adjustments to both the notice and salvage title processes and categorization of towing violations into major and minor violations.

Davis also commended the directive requiring the Public Utilities Commission to raise the existing statutorily designated towing and storage fees regularly by the percentage increase in the Consumer Price Index.

Additionally, PUCO may be given authority over rates to address price gouging, testimony revealed.

The committee is scheduled to hear testimony opposing the measure in hearings scheduled for today.

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