Impounded vehicles.

Plain English Breakdown

The official source material does not provide specific details on the consequences if someone cannot pay fees or provide required documents.

Rules for Impounded Vehicles

AB-2437 requires storage facilities to accept debit card payments without extra fees and mandates current registration proof before releasing impounded vehicles.

What This Bill Does

• Requires storage facilities to accept debit cards without charging any additional fee when releasing an impounded vehicle.
• Prohibits asking for documents other than those already required by law when releasing a seized car.
• Adds the requirement that the registered owner must show proof of current registration along with their driver’s license before getting back their impounded vehicle.

Who It Names or Affects

• People who have had their cars impounded by police.
• Storage facilities that hold seized vehicles.

Terms To Know

Impound

To take and keep a vehicle because someone broke traffic laws, like driving without a license or with a suspended license.

Storage facility

A place where impounded vehicles are kept until they can be released to their owners.

Limits and Unknowns

• The bill does not specify what happens if someone cannot pay the fees or provide required documents.
• It is unclear how this will affect local agencies and storage facilities that already have different procedures in place.
• This bill has passed both chambers of the legislature but its final status, including whether it becomes law, is still pending.

Official Summary Text

AB 2437, as amended, Chen.
Impounded vehicles.
Under existing law, whenever a peace officer determines, among other things, that a person was driving without a license or while their driving privilege was suspended or revoked, the peace officer is authorized to remove and seize that vehicle. Existing law requires the law enforcement agency and the impounding agency, including any storage facility acting on behalf of the law enforcement agency or impounding agency, to comply with specified provisions. Existing law
prescribes requirements and procedures for the release of impounded vehicles to a legal owner or the legal owner
requires that a vehicle be released to the legal owner of the vehicle or the legal owner’s agent prior to the end of 30 days’ impoundment if specified conditions are met, including, among other things, that the legal owner or the
legal owner’s agent pays all towing and storage fees related to the seizure of the vehicle and presents specified documents showing proof of legal ownership. With regards to the payment of the fees, existing law requires a person operating or in charge of a storage facility where vehicles are stored to accept a valid bank credit card or cash for payment by a legal or registered owner or the owner’s agent claiming the vehicle. Existing law prohibits any tow yard, impounding agency, or governmental agency, or any person acting on behalf of those entities, from refusing to release a vehicle or other collateral to anyone that is legally entitled to that vehicle or other collateral.
Existing law prohibits a legal owner or legal owner’s agent from releasing the recovered vehicle to the registered owner or the person who was listed as the registered owner when the vehicle was impounded until the registered owner or that owner’s agent presents their valid driver’s license or valid temporary driver’s license to the legal owner or the legal owner’s
agent.
A violation of any provision of the Vehicle Code is punishable as a crime, unless otherwise specified.
This bill would additionally require the acceptance of debit cards, as defined, for the payment of the fees described
above and would prohibit charging any fee for the use of a debit card.
above.
The bill would provide that requiring any documents to show proof of ownership other than those specified in the provisions described above constitutes a refusal to release under the prohibition described above.
The bill would prohibit a legal owner or legal owner’s agent from releasing a recovered vehicle to the registered owner or the
person who was listed as the registered owner when the vehicle was impounded until the registered owner or that owner’s agent also presents current registration to the legal owner or the legal owner’s agent.
The bill would also make other technical, clarifying, and conforming changes. By expanding the scope of existing crimes and creating a new crime, this bill would impose a state-mandated local program.
The California Constitution requires the state to reimburse local agencies and school districts for certain costs mandated by the state. Statutory provisions establish procedures for making that reimbursement.
This bill would provide that no reimbursement is required by this act for a specified reason.

Current Bill Text

Download Bill PDF