Local Canadian towing companies are preying on tornado victims, towing away their vehicles off their private properties without proper insurance authorization.

According to Ottawa News Network and their Facebook post warning local Ottawa residents earlier today (June 3,2019) tow companies are on the hunt using predatory tow tactics to take your car from your property without authorization.

Having your two largest life investments, your house and your car, damaged by mother nature is a stressful life event, one filled with a lot of emotion. Local tow companies are cashing in on your vulnerable state in one of the skeeziest ways possible.

According to a report by CBC.ca earlier last year, 

“…auto insurance contracts stipulate the insurer must reimburse its client for towing expenses.”

By towing away your car and placing it in their towing yard, these towing companies are essentially holding your car for ransom where, although you aren’t directly paying for the tow to the right repair shops, after the fact, everyone ends up being affected by higher premiums. Their supposedly victimless crime has thousands of victims.

In that same report above the Provincial Towing Association of Ontario reminds Canadians that

“…only a vehicle’s owner, the owner of the property where it’s parked, or police can authorize a tow.”

That means if a tow truck shows up to your house and promises they’ll take it straight to a repair shop and you haven’t spoken with your insurance, it’s probably a scam.

In that same vein, if you’ve already authorized a tow via your insurance and a tow truck shows up, make sure that towing company matches the one you’ve authorized.

Googling around online, looking at stories of predatory towing around Canada, these towing companies are charging the rightful insurance companies upwards of $2,000 CAD for storage fees.

As per CTV News, this towing company, story linked here, charged this tornado victim’s insurance $1,400 just to get their car out of a fenced off part of their tow yard.

It is downright deplorable if you’re a towing company taking advantage of tornado victims.

Know who’s coming to your house to help and make sure they are who they say they are.

Have anything to add? Let me know in the comments below.