By Madina Toure
State Assemblyman Ron Kim (D-Flushing) has introduced legislation proposing new measures to crack down on predatory towing.
The bill, known as the Predatory Towing Prevention Act, will increase the bond to protect consumers to a minimum of $50,000 and a maximum of $250,000 from the $5,000 set in 1987 and empower the Consumer Affairs Commissioner to revoke licenses of repeat offenders. The bill will also eliminate the usage of “spotting” techniques—towing company employees on the ground actively looking for cars to tow away—and require towing truck operators to acquire written permission from the owner or manager of private or commercial property before towing a vehicle.
Kim said immigrant communities, especially women members, tend to be targeted the most and that there has been pushback from the city because it would change Consumer Affairs Department regulations.
“They themselves are waiting outside preying on drivers,” he said. “They’re not supposed to be doing that. We want to make sure we can strengthen the law.”
Kim has been working closely with the Legal Aid Society and the Consumer Affairs to fight against predatory towing, which he said has led to hundreds of thousands of dollars in restitution for consumers and more than $30 million in fines levied against unethical towing operators.
Citywide 13 companies were issued violations for ignoring the towing laws this year, three of which are in Queens, according to the DCA. Last year, 35 companies citywide were issued violations, eight of which were in Queens.
“The agency is reviewing his proposed bill and looks forward to working with him to strengthen protections for New York City’s consumers,” a DCA spokeswoman said.
Sateesh Nori, attorney for Legal Aid Society’s Queens Neighborhood Office, said All About Automotive II Inc., a Brooklyn-based company, was operating a parking lot on 156th Street and Northern Boulevard in Flushing. It is unclear if All Automotive still operates the parking lot.
In the fall of 2014, one of Kim’s constituents, a pregnant Korean woman who was shopping, came back to her car at the parking lot and a man told her she had parked illegally, Nori said.
The man told her she had to pay $300 and she had to call a relative to bring the money to her, which she then gave to the man, he said.
“We found all kinds of shady behavior and various fines and other complaints that had been filed against them,” Nori said, referring to All About Automotive. “And that’s where this bill was born.”
Legal Aid Society operated a hotline to field calls and its consumer law attorney assisted clients and Kim’s office.
In January 2014, All about Automotive entered into a settlement agreement with DCA in response to violations issued by the agency and agreed to comply with the law, submit monthly compliance reports and pay $55,000 in consumer restitution and fines, according to the DCA.
But All About Automotive continued to violate the law despite the agreement and the agency received additional consumer complaints, so the agency issued additional violations and sought to revoke the company’s license and obtain restitution for consumers, Nori said.
Most of the complaints were about overcharging, demanding cash, failing to take towed vehicles back to the storage yard and damage to towed vehicles. DCA also found the company was towing from lots without owners’ authorization.
In January, an administrative law judge issued the final decision in the DCA’s case against All About Automotive, revoked the company’s license and ordered it to pay $375,418.41 in restitution to more than 2,800 consumers.
Reach reporter Madina Toure by e-mail at mtour
