Miami Beach says tow company overcharged people. Did city overcharge the company?
The amount of money Miami Beach’s towing companies were found to have overcharged people “pales in comparison” to how much the city owes its towing operators, according to the attorney for one of the companies.
Ralph Andrade, who represents Beach Towing, sent a letter to the city in May demanding it pay about $836,000 in alleged overcharges and missing payments.
He renewed his calls for payment following the release of a Sept. 24 audit by the Miami Beach Inspector General’s Office, which found that the city’s only two towing companies charged inflated fees for services in violation of their towing permits.
“The IG audited the towing companies’ obligations, but not the city’s,” Andrade wrote in an email to the Miami Herald. “If he had, he would have found that the city owes to the tow companies millions of dollars for services they haven’t paid for and for ‘overcharging’ on the permit fee.”
The city, which Andrade said never responded to the letter, released a statement to the Herald last week denying that it owes money to the company.
“The allegations identified by Beach Towing are inaccurate, and the city has complied with its financial obligations pursuant to the Administrative Rules and Regulations for the Police Department and Parking Department Towing Permits,” a spokeswoman said.
Andrade wrote the May 22 letter on behalf of Beach Towing and Tremont Towing, the only two companies permitted to operate in the city. He no longer represents Tremont Towing, which did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The letter alleges the city owes Tremont about $982,000.
The letter points to a discrepancy in the listed towing fees the city collects. The towing permits state that companies must pay the city up to $30 per towed vehicle, while an appendix of the city code sets the fee ceiling at $20. Over five years, that compounded to more than $622,000 in alleged overcharges for Beach Towing, according to the letter, which also alleges that the city owes Beach Towing about $214,000 in unpaid service fees for vehicle storage and release.
The $30 fee has been included in towing permits since 2012, the city said, and “shall be controlling and take precedence over any inadvertently inaccurate fee amount” listed in the appendix.
The city has been extending its permits with the towing operators on a month-to-month basis since they were set to expire in February. In July, the City Commission approved to extend the permits through November 28.
“Beach Towing looks forward to discussing this matter with the city and is hopeful that any outstanding issues will be resolved fairly and amicably,” Andrade said in an email.
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