Florida HOA Hires Tow Truck To Take Cars From Driveways

Read the full story on The Auto Wire

It’s not unusual for an HOA to use a tow company to haul away cars illegally parked, but one home owners association in Florida is angering the actual homeowners for having a tow truck take cars from private driveways. That move has left owners shocked and outraged as they question how the move can even be legal.

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Footage taken by one victim shows a man and woman smugly explaining they’re just doing their job while asking for money to put the victim’s car back on the ground. The reason for the tow company doing this shakedown, at the invitation of the HOA, is shocking: they’re taking cars with lapsed registration stickers.

That’s right, one guy said his registration had lapsed by just a month. Even though he had backed into his driveway, a tow truck driver walked up and took a photo of the license plate with the expired sticker before hooking it up and taking the vehicle to an impound lot. He had to cough up a few hundred to get it back.

Is this even legal? ABC Action News spoke with the attorney who represents the HOA, who said she “thinks” it is. However, she said “whether that’s a good idea is an entirely different issue.”  She went on to explain what we all know: the tow company has a financial incentive to tow as many vehicles as it can for any reason possible.

It gets even better: when residents called the sheriff’s department, deputies asked to see the physical tow order for the vehicle being taken. The tow truck driver tried arguing he didn’t need it, and that’s when deputies told him he was technically engaging in vehicle theft.

This reminds us of the Arizona HOA which started ticketing residents for going 2 mph over the speed limit. While HOAs can be a good thing, they also have a negative side most people can expound upon with ease.

While one could put all the blame on the HOA in this case, you have to admit the towing company was being incredibly aggressive, walking up driveways with a flashlight in the middle of the night to look at vehicle registration stickers, etc. It just goes to show some guys think because they have a tow rig they have the right to take whatever vehicle they please, then demand money to turn it back over to the rightful owner.

Image via ABC Action News/YouTube

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