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2005 SESSION

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HB 2754 Towing and recovery operators; licensure.

Introduced by: Fenton L. Bland, Jr. | all patrons    ...    notes | add to my profiles

SUMMARY AS INTRODUCED:

Towing and recovery operators. Requires towing and recovery operators to obtain licenses from the Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV). It further requires that towing and recovery operators have a permanent, fixed street address in Virginia and working telephones where they can be reached 24 hours a day. The bill provides that whenever any towing and recovery operator tows any vehicle without the express consent of its owner, he must tow the vehicle to a facility nearest to the place from which the vehicle was towed, and not to the towing and recovery operator's business address or any other location, and notify the vehicle owner that his vehicle has been towed. This notice must include the name, street address, and business hours of the towing and recovery operator; his telephone number and 24-hour telephone number, if different from his ordinary telephone number; the location of the towed vehicle; and the vehicle's license number, make, and model. In order to facilitate providing this notice, the bill authorizes towing and recovery operators who tow vehicles without the express consent of their owners to enter into agreements with DMV to allow them direct on-line access to DMV's vehicle owner data.

The bill also prohibits towing and recovery operators from charging separate fees for obtaining vehicle owner data from the Department or for releasing towed vehicles, and limits charges for storage and safekeeping to no more than $35 per day, with fractions of a day calculated on a pro rata basis.


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