FINAL BILL REPORT

                  HB 2746

                     Synopsis as Enacted

                          C 18 L 92

Brief Description:  Authorizing contracts between tow truck operators and landowners for payment of impound charges.

By Representatives Zellinsky, R. Fisher, Ballard, Van Luven and Ferguson.

House Committee on Transportation

Senate Committee on Transportation

Background:  Registered tow truck operators may not receive compensation from a private property landowner or his or her agent for impounding a vehicle.  The provision is to prevent collusion between landowners and tow truck operators.

If a tow truck operator responds to a call from a private property landowner to remove abandoned junk vehicles, the tow truck operator cannot recover costs incurred for removal from the registered vehicle owner who has abandoned the junk vehicle on the landowner's property.

Summary:  In limited situations, a landowner may pay a tow truck operator for removal of a vehicle that has an approximate fair market value equal to the scrap value in it.  The vehicle must be impounded in the manner prescribed in statute.  Any compensation from the landowner must be deducted from the amount of the vehicle lien resulting from impoundment and storage charges.

Votes on Final Passage:

House  92   0

Senate 46   0

Effective:    June 11, 1992