BUFFALO, N.Y. — It's never a good day to see your car with a tire boot on it. The day gets worse once you see the bill.
Buffalo Common Council President Darius Pridgen is suggesting something needs to be done about it.
"I have no problem if you pull up on somebody parking lot and there's signage and you know your suppose to pay and you don’t. There should be some penalty for that, but without any regulation that penalty can literally cost you more than your car," Pridgen said.
He wants to add more oversight to unlicensed towing services. He said it would prevent residents from paying excessive fines from predatory companies. Right now licensed companies can't charge over $75; however, unlicensed companies have free reign to do what they want.
"That the market is fair. That the market is regulated, and that the consumer is protected," Pridgen said.
He, along with a Towing Buffalo, said tow services will wait for people to park illegally before giving them a boot or even towing the car.
"Well if I’m going to monitor your lot and I know there a spot people pull in all the time absolutely you would post somebody there," Dan Knoll of Towing Buffalo, said.
That's not illegal. Charging whatever the company wants is not illegal either.
"To have to pay $250 to get their car out is really not unreasonable," Knoll said.
Plus, businesses have the right to protect their parking spaces. Pridgen acknowledges all of this. He said he wants to make the punishment fit the crime.
