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The bill signed by Gov. Lamont overhauls CT's 100-year-old towing law in an attempt to protect consumers from predatory towing. Credit: Shahrzad Rasekh / CT Mirror

This article was produced in partnership with ProPublica through its Local Reporting Network. Sign up for our newsletter to get stories like this one as soon as they are published.

Gov. Ned Lamont has signed into law an overhaul of Connecticut’s century-old towing statutes that came after an investigation by the Connecticut Mirror and ProPublica exposed lax standards and predatory practices that victimized people who live paycheck to paycheck.

The bill was one of 28 that Lamont signed before departing for a vacation to Europe, followed by attendance Sunday through Tuesday at the Paris Air Show as part of a delegation of Connecticut aerospace manufacturers. Lamont now has signed 64 of the bills passed in the session that ended June 4.

Public Act 25-55 offers new protections against tows without warning from private property. In some cases, vehicle owners who could not afford to pay the fees to recover their vehicles lost them permanently. CT Mirror reporters found cases where companies required them to pay in cash or wouldn’t allow them to retrieve personal belongings.

[Gone in 15 days: How the Connecticut DMV allows tow companies to sell people’s cars]

State law allows tow companies to begin the process of selling a towed vehicle with a value of $1,500 of less after 15 days, too quick to challenge the legitimacy of a tow. 

It is the shortest window in all but two states, Iowa and North Carolina, and a far different standard than neighboring states. Massachusetts, Rhode Island and New York require at least 60 days before a towed car can be sold for non-payment of towing and storage charges.

The new law still allows the sales process to begin after 15 days for a car worth $1,500 or less, but it extends the minimum time that garage owners must hold a vehicle before selling it to 30 or 60 days, depending on a vehicle’s value. 

It also requires, among other things, tow companies to accept credit and debit cards  for payment and provide access to the contents of a towed vehicle or allow an owner to recover it within four hours.

Mark is the Capitol Bureau Chief and a co-founder of CT Mirror. He is a frequent contributor to WNPR, a former state politics writer for The Hartford Courant and Journal Inquirer, and contributor for The New York Times.