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A Connecticut Department of Motor Vehicles working group is poised to examine portions of the state’s towing law that range far beyond its original mandate, potentially leading to more extensive reforms than those passed by the legislature last session. 

The 10-member committee, which met for the first time Monday, must report its recommendations to lawmakers by February. It was originally tasked with examining a piece of the Connecticut law that requires proceeds from sales of towed cars to be remitted to the state, but members said they also want to study the way vehicles are valued by towing companies and other aspects of the sales process. 

The committee, which is chaired by DMV Commissioner Tony Guerrera, includes three tow company owners, two consumer advocates and other DMV officials. At its first meeting, the group discussed several issues still plaguing the towing industry even after the legislature overhauled the state’s more than 100-year-old law in May.

The legislation passed with bipartisan support following reporting from The Connecticut Mirror and ProPublica which revealed that Connecticut allows tow truck companies to start the sales process in 15 days on cars valued under $1,500, one of the shortest windows in the country. The stories also explained how this and other laws favored towing companies at the expense of low-income residents.

The bill, which will take effect Oct. 1, requires towing companies to accept credit cards and doesn’t allow them to tow vehicles immediately just because of an expired parking permit or registration. Vehicles can’t be towed from private property without notice unless they’re blocking traffic, fire hydrants or are parked in a handicapped accessible spot.

Under the bill, towing companies can still start the sales process for vehicles worth $1,500 or less after 15 days, but they will now have to take more steps to give the owner a chance to claim the vehicle and the actual sale couldn’t go through until 30 days after the tow.

The bill also created the working group to study the remittance mandate in state law. Under that law, towing companies can sell a vehicle if the owner doesn’t reclaim it, but they are required to hold onto the proceeds for a year so the vehicle owner can claim the money. If the owner never comes forward, companies are required to turn over the proceeds to the state after subtracting their fees. 

Earlier this year, Guerrera told lawmakers the DMV never set up a system for this process to occur and wasn’t aware of any money being remitted to the state by towers. He said the DMV has been reviewing the issue and that the committee would be prepared to address it in the report.

Guerrera said Monday that the working group should expand its mission to study broader changes that make it easier for low-income residents to get their cars back.

“There’s got to be a way, too, to make sure that people know what’s going on when their car gets towed,” Guerrera said. “That’s important because that $1,000 vehicle is a lifeline for them, and they need to get it back. So how can we get it back in a way that doesn’t keep accumulating more fees?”

Committee members discussed creating a new way to monitor who actually owns a vehicle by having DMV require the owner to submit a record of sale. Currently, towers try to reach the last registered owner of the vehicle after they tow it but that process is not reliable because when people buy cars they aren’t always registered right away. The new legislation does allow the vehicle owner to submit a title or bill of sale instead of a registration to get their car back.

“A huge part of the problem is the fact that we can’t get a hold of the owner of the vehicle. People are buying a car, they don’t register them, it gets towed, and everything’s going back to the last person that owned it a few years ago,” said Sal Sena, owner of Sena Brothers and Cross Country Automotive in Hartford.

The committee also tackled several other issues, such as developing a standardized form to determine the value of a car that has been towed.

“How do the towers … come up with a value of a vehicle based upon that, especially for under $1,500?” Guerrera asked. “If it’s borderline, I’m saying, if you’ve got a car that’s three grand or four grand, next thing you know, it’s valued under $1,500. How did that happen?”

A wide-ranging discussion ensued on how to inform people when their vehicle is towed and whether to raise the threshold number for the 15-day sale from $1,500 to $2,000. 

Connecticut Legal Services attorney Rafie Podolsky said how the towers value the cars has long been an issue for consumers.

“We’ve had a long-standing concern about the way in which motor vehicles are disposed of,” Podolsky said. “We’ve had a fair amount of experience with car owners who’ve been unable to get the cars back for a variety of reasons. I’m hopeful that either the department or the industry will have data that will allow us to kind of make some comparisons between the presumed value of the car, the dollar amount that comes in on a resale and even what happens after resale.”

Towing company representatives said another priority should be modernizing the DMV’s process for getting permission to sell someone’s vehicle. 

Eileen Colonese of Farmington Motor Sports said they spend weeks sending paperwork back and forth through the mail to DMV and vehicle owners.

“There’s portals out there for all kinds of things. Why is there not a portal for this?” Colonese said. “Everyone can submit everything electronically and have access to a more standardized and modernized system.”

The working group  must submit a report to the legislature’s Transportation Committee by February and Guerrera said it’s important to produce something that all members support.

“If we go to the legislature with a piece of information that says we have met with the industry on both sides, and this is what we’ve come up with, we’re in good shape,” Guerrera said. “If we bog down now again, you know, now it’s in the hands of the legislature and we don’t know what could happen.”