After court ruling, Charlotte likely to end $120 cap on towing

Four years ago, the Charlotte City Council voted to cap how much towing companies could charge to tow or boot your car.

For a tow, it was $120 and $15 a day for storage. For a boot: $50.

But an N.C. Supreme Court decision last year said Chapel Hill didn’t have the authority to set fee caps for towing.

Council members Monday are scheduled to vote on changing its 2011 “predatory towing” ordinance to align with the court’s ruling. The caps will be removed from the ordinance.

In a briefing to council members last month, City Manager Ron Carlee said the court’s decision in George’s Towing vs. the town of Chapel Hill creates a “completely free market now.”

In theory, a business and a towing company could charge parking scofflaws $100 or even $1,000 to retrieve their cars.

Council members will likely vote to change the ordinance, though they aren’t happy about doing so. Officials are often deluged with complaints about their cars being towed.

Events such as Food Truck Friday in South End lead to towing complaints from residents. In the city’s presentation to council about the issue, the city used a photograph of the parking lot at Starbucks on East Boulevard in Dilworth. That parking lot is the source of a number of complaints about towing.

When the full council discussed the changes last month, Republican Kenny Smith said “there is a bi-partisan distrust here with the towing industry.”

“We all get complaints on towed cars in which people feel very strongly they should not have been towed,” he said. “It is across all four corners of the city.”

The amended ordinance will include other changes.

▪ For the first time, business must post the amount of fees and charges on a sign in the parking lot or street.

▪ Employees of businesses that boot cars must be in a uniform, and have their first name and the name of the booting company. If they don’t have such a uniform and name tag, they must present an ID with their name and photograph.

▪ The maximum fine for violating the ordinance increases from $50 to $500.

Brian Moody, who works at Ace Towing and Recovery on Hebron Commerce Drive, said he was OK with the old caps.

“My boss complains about the people who charge too much,” Moody said. “He was all for the cap. It keeps everyone in line. We were fine with $120 and $15 for storage.”

After the June 2014 decision, the city stopped enforcing the $120 cap. Since June, the public safety committee has been discussing other changes to the ordinance, in addition to removing the caps.

“It’s a clean-up of the ordinance,” said City Attorney Bob Hagemann.

This story was originally published November 21, 2015 at 8:00 AM with the headline "After court ruling, Charlotte likely to end $120 cap on towing."