DENVER — Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser announced Thursday that his office reached an agreement for a $1 million settlement with Wyatt’s Towing, alleging the company towed vehicles without proper permits or authority, charged fees without documentation and kept too much in proceeds from the sale of towed vehicles at auctions.
Wyatt’s Towing denied all of the allegations, according to the settlement document, but still agreed to pay the settlement.
Weiser’s office found the towing behemoth, which operates under a number of trade names throughout the metro area and state of Colorado, violated Colorado’s Consumer Protection Act in multiple ways discovered through an investigation of the company that began on Oct. 7, 2022.
According to the settlement agreement, the state alleges Wyatt’s Towing towed hundreds of vehicles during several periods where their state towing permits had lapsed and only refunded customers who had made a complaint to the Colorado Public Utilities Commission. During two permit lapses, the AG’s office alleges Wyatt’s made more than $100,000 from towing fees and auction sales of vehicles.
The allegations also claim the company towed more than 3,000 vehicles during a period of one month after the state’s Towing Bill of Rights took effect, which barred tow truck drivers from authorizing tows from residential property, only ceasing that practice when the Public Utilities Commission informed the company they were in violation of the law.
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Under state law, towing carriers can only charge a notification fee and storage fees if they’ve notified the owner of a vehicle about a non-consensual tow by certified mail. The investigation found about 2,000 owners of vehicles were charged a notification fee of at least $75 without any documentation by Wyatt’s that the statutory requirements of notification had been met.
If towed vehicles are found to be abandoned at a tow lot, a towing carrier can sell the vehicle to recover the cost of the tow and any other fees incurred by the towing operator. State law previously required the towing carrier to pay any proceeds of the sale to the Colorado Department of Revenue, which would disperse the money to the owner of the vehicle.
Weiser’s investigation found Wyatt’s didn’t pay any overages of vehicle sales to the Department of Revenue between 2017 and 2022. It also found the company would keep vehicles longer than the allotted 60 days in state statute before selling to accrue higher storage fees in order to keep more of the proceeds from a sale.
The investigation also alleges Wyatt’s withheld information from people who’d had their cars towed about a law that allowed them to pay only a portion of their fees up front to get their vehicles and, for a while, required customers to enter into a loan agreement to utilize the Towing Bill of Rights.
As part of the settlement, Wyatt’s towing will forgive roughly $236,000 of debt for customers who haven’t paid some fees relating to the allegations of this case. They will also pay the state $764,000 to pay restitution to consumers impacted by the allegations. A spokesman for Weiser's office said information about how consumers can obtain that will come at a later date.
State lawmakers are considering a change to towing laws this session following an increase in complaints to the Public Utilities Commission about towing issues.
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