Everyone knows HOAs suck, but as with all things that suck, Florida HOAs are on one other level. An HOA in Florida contracted with a tow company to tow vehicles with expired registration out of individuals’s driveways and, predictably, that is pissing people off.
This mess belongs to the Lone Star Ranch HOA positioned right outside of Tampa in Shady Hills, Florida, ABC’s Tampa Bay affiliate WFTS reports. The HOA contracted with local tow company A-1 Recovery to implement parking laws that just aren’t the business of an HOA: towing peoples vehicles out of their private driveways over expired registration. That’s exactly what happened to resident Brennan Wells in October at 2 a.m.
Security footage shows a stranger lurking outside Brennan Wells’ home at 2 a.m. “Someone got here up into my driveway,” Wells said. He observed the person take an image of his license plate and haul it off his property. “My registration was outdated by a month,” Wells said. “This happened in October, my registration went out in September. When Wells woke up that morning, he thought his truck had been stolen. But a tracker he installed on the vehicle showed it had been towed to the A-1 Recovery impound lot in Latest Port Richey 14 miles away.
Wells’ girlfriend took him to select up his automotive. Two hours and $200 later he had it back. He ended up missing his aviation mechanic training classes due to it. “That’s my grocery money for the month,” he told ABC.
A pair nights later, one other A-1 truck, this time with two employees within the truck was as much as no good again, except this time they were confronted by the vehicle’s owners.
“You’re gonna come out here and harass individuals who live here?” a neighbor asked the driving force.
“You’re harassing us. We’re doing our job,” the feminine worker responded.
“You’re not doing all of your job. That is in the midst of the night,” Allison Shaw said.
Like Wells, Shaw’s security camera had caught one in every of the A-1 staff walking up into his driveway and taking pictures of his family’s Tesla. The driving force already had the Tesla attached and was prepared to tow it though the automotive was still plugged in and charging. Shaw confronted the driving force. “It’s essential drop it,” Shaw told the driving force. The driving force fired back saying there could be a $75 drop fee. “We are able to take card or money,” he said. Shaw said hell no in fact and that’s when the driving force threatened to call the cops.
An attorney for the HOA told ABC that “she believes the HOA has a right to send vendors onto private property to implement rules outlined within the HOA’s covenants and declarations.” Nonetheless even she admitted that what the tow company is doing probably isn’t the very best solution to go about things.
While A-1 declined an interview request, whoever is in control of the HOA has been busy and watching residents; one in every of the residents that was threatened with a tow says the driving force told them that they got an inventory of cars with expired tags and that that they had already taken 10 of the 31 cars on the list.
As for Shaw and her Tesla, she called the driving force’s bluff the night of the attempted tow and as an alternative called the police on the driving force. In video provided by Shaw, Pasco County Sheriffs arrived on the scene and confronted the driving force, asking him for his company’s authorization to tow. When he said he didn’t have it, the sheriff told the driving force he had no business being there. “You could have no authority to be here in any respect. Should you hook as much as a vehicle and take it, it’s considered vehicle theft. You will likely be prosecuted,” a deputy told the tow truck driver. “The subsequent time you are trying to take one other vehicle, our supervisor said you will likely be prosecuted for vehicle theft,” the sheriff told the driving force.
Two days later, a stop and desist sent directly from the HOA president suspended towing activities within the neighborhood.
This Article First Appeared At jalopnik.com
