Predatory Towing in Portland: The City of No Back-in Parking

By Sean Aaron Cruz

The Oregon legislature passed reform laws governing predatory towing in 2007, but the news has not yet reached the City of Portland Towing Coordinator’s office.

Predatory towers manufactured the "offense" of Back-in-Parking, colluding with the City of Portland's Towing Coordinator

None of the citizen rights passed in SB431 and SB116 are listed on the Towing Coordinator’s list of Citizen’s Rights when Towed from Private Property.

There is no place where a citizen can learn what his/her rights are, a fact that works to the benefit of the unscrupulous towers and to the Office of the Towing Coordinator itself, which is funded by towing fees gouged from an uninformed citizenry.

The Towing Coordinator has even allowed PPI predators to impose new fees and create a wholly contrived offense called “No Back-in Parking”, where a tenant’s vehicle can be towed from the tenant’s assigned space, even if it is legally parked and registered with the apartment management.

The 2007 legislature enacted laws stating that no vehicle can be towed from a tenant’s assigned space without the permission of the tenant at the time of the tow, and that the tenant cannot be required to agree to towing.

Throughout the City, however, tenants are routinely required to sign rental agreements that expressly require them to agree to have their vehicle towed from their assigned space even for the nonsensical reason for being parked in backwards. These are direct violations of Oregon state law.

The 2007 legislature also banned towers from bribing property owners and managers.

ORS 98.854 A tower may not: (g) Provide consideration to obtain the privilege of towing motor vehicles from a parking facility. For the purposes of this paragraph, the provision of: (B) Goods or services by a tower below fair market value constitutes consideration

The entire PPI business model as practiced throughout Portland is built on the principle that property owners/managers should receive free towing services. There is no other type of service that property owners get for free, but the Towing Coordinator is dug in on protecting these illegal contracts.

Operating a fleet of trucks that burn fuel 24-7 is a money-losing proposition, unless the towers have a way of forcing motorists to pay a ransom or face the loss of their vehicle, which is where the Towing Coordinator comes in, providing the official muscle, often in the form of Portland Police officers responding to 911 calls from vehicle owners. This is where your tax dollars come into the picture. And none of the police officers have been informed of the citizen rights they ought to be protecting.

The 2007 legislature required PPI towers to place warning signs at every entrance to any parking facility they are patrolling, but it is only in the past several months that the Towing Coordinator has gotten around to doing something about it.

The Towing Coordinator has even allowed PPI predators to slap a $ 20 fee on every tow to compensate the tow companies for their signs, with no upper limit, so that the signs themselves are a revenue generator.

Since 2007, failure to provide printed rate sheets has been an Unfair Trade Practice under the Attorney General’s SB 116, but PPI towers have been getting a free ride on that law also, courtesy of the City of Portland's Towing Coordinator.

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Sean Aaron Cruz served as Senator Avel Gordly’s legislative staff 2003-2008, led her workgroup on SB 431 and participated in the Attorney General’s workgroup on SB 116.