F.C. Council Moves to Stiffen Fines, Require 30 Minute Grace Period to Deter 'Predatory Towing' in Business Parking Lots

In the last year, a marked increase of incidents of "predatory towing" in the City of Falls Church has frustrated local merchants and, even more so, their customers. Towing companies, citing contractual agreements with property owners, hired "look out" to spot any unsuspecting individual parking in a lot not designated for the store he or she went into.

The "look out" called a tow truck dispatcher on a cell phone, and often literally within seconds, the tow truck would swoop into the lot at high speed, and its occupants would hook and chain the car and speed off with it.

The confiscated cars would then be hauled to distant locations, such as Eisenhower Avenue in Alexandria. The car owner would have to find a way to that or another location, pay a hefty fine in cash, often over and above levy authorized by the City code (with the towing company insisting on added administrative costs).

Two members of the Falls Church City Council were eyewitnesses to just such an incident last spring in broad daylight behind a popular Falls Church restaurant. The deter the practice, the Council gave preliminary approval Monday to a revision of the City code on towing that does two things:

1. It requires that no towing henceforth be done without a 30 minute grace period, thus giving a vehicle owner an opportunity to discover that he or she has parked improperly, is in jeopardy of being towed, and to move the car.

2. It increases the fine charged to tow truck companies for violations of the City ordinance to from $100 to $500 (with some sentiment on the Council that in its final vote on Sept. 27 the fine be upped to $1,000).

Tow truck companies violate the law most commonly when they do not notify the City police prior to removing a car and when they overcharge for the retrieval of the car. They often fail to comply with the City law requiring them to release a vehicle they've begun to seize if its owner returns prior to it being removed. And, when this new law goes into effect, they will also be subject to a fine whenever they fail to comply with the 30 minute grace period, as well.

With the current fine for violations so low, and the companies are challenged so rarely, it is simply not a deterrent, the Council noted Monday.

Jurisdictions have been frustrated in efforts to enact other means of regulating two truck companies because of federal deregulation moves of the 1990s. The tow truck industry was placed under the jurisdiction of the Interstate Commerce Commission, and when that was abolished, the industry was left without any regulatory control.

Rep. Jim Moran introduced federal legislation this summer to re-regulate the industry and a recent court ruling in Prince William County, Virginia, also found against an egregious pattern of activity by a towing company.

Moran said his effort will take time to accumulate the necessary support, including bi-partisan support, for passage, but that he's optimistic. "The current situation is an aberration, an unintended consequence of the abolition of the ICC, and not some kind of symbol of deregulatory ideology," he said.