OHTA.ca

Hi everyone, I got charged with stunt driving on the 17th in Highway 400 southbound near the Maple area. This is my first offence; the streets were empty and I got carried away. 100% my fault and I have been regretting this since it happened.

The OPP officer called a towing company and the first tower took me to the nearest ONroute (~1/2 km away from the incident). Then another guy showed up and took my car for the 7 day impoundment. He gave me a business card and told me to call. I called the guy 20 times to know how much he is gonna charge me; first 2 days he did not pick up. Then I looked up the address in google maps and found a business that shared the same address. Called the other business and the guy gave a number. Called the number and this guy knows the tower and assured me he will tell him to call me. After 10 minutes he calls me and says the fees are:

350$ for tow + 80$/day for storage + 3.5$/km driven (he claims around 26 km; even though google maps shows 16-17) + HST

These add up to be almost 1140$. I am so shocked; my car never left the city of Vaughan and afaik from the internet, the rates are regulated there. Can I lower the fees somehow? I will go pick up the car next Sunday. Any advice/suggestion will be greatly appreciated.

I miss my car and this stupid mistake will cost me so much. I am having a bad week mentally. Never speed.

York Region (like most others in Ontario) now have by-laws setting out the fees that can be charged by tow companies. The price changes depending on whether it needed to be "winched", a second tow truck, or if it went outside city limits. You can review the rates for York Region here.

The one thing that you may be able to negotiate is the daily storage fee. It seems like it should be between $50-$60/day; not $80. I don't know if the rate has been updated, but at least that should save you a couple of bucks. Otherwise, the rates are pretty standard.

Keep in mind though that if you don't pay the fee, they can hold on to your car and put a lien on it (plus your daily charges keep racking up), so sometimes its not worth it to argue too much. After all, it wouldn't make sense to keep racking up storage fees while you try to get some recourse.

If they aren't willing to change their price, you may need to pay the bill with your credit card and file a dispute with your credit card company, plus contact the Region for their by-law investigation. It wouldn't be worth the time and expense to go to small claims court, given the small amount of money you'd possibly recover.