Being towed is expensive – even for every day that the car is on the premises. According to the BGH, these stand fees must generally be paid. But there are limits.
If a car is towed and remains on the towing company’s premises for some time, the company can generally collect money for it. The Federal Court of Justice (BGH) decided this today.
A man from Dresden had sued. He had lent his car to his sister. This promptly violated a parking ban. The result: The car was towed and the towing company charged him for the towing costs. The man wanted his car back, but without paying the bill for the parking fees. The towing company didn’t accept this, simply kept the car and charged additional parking fees for each additional day. The man didn’t want to let that happen. The car ended up being with the company for almost two years. The stand fees added up to almost 5,000 euros.
The man then went to court. Now he only has to pay a small part of the required stand fees, according to the Karlsruhe judges today.
Which limits the stand fees
The BGH says: A towing company may first take any towed car onto its premises. You don’t have to go searching and find a free public parking space. Because she is allowed to store the car at her home, she can then claim the daily costs for it.
But this only applies for a short period of time, according to the BGH. The towing company must locate the owner and inform him that his car has been towed. If the person then wants the car back, the towing companies are no longer allowed to charge any further parking fees from this point on. Then the parking fees were no longer used to process the towing process, according to the presiding judge Bettina Brückner. The ever-increasing fees are only an economic means of pressure for companies to get their original towing costs.
Higher fees are still possible
However, the presiding judge emphasized that the judgment does not exclude the possibility that higher stand fees may apply in individual cases. This is when the towing company expressly asks the owner to pick up his car against payment of the towing costs and the owner then continues to refuse.
However, the company had not done that in this case. Lucky for the plaintiff: Instead of the estimated 4,935 euros, he now only has to pay 75 euros in demurrage fees.