On Please – A $28,000 parking fee at an airport?

Here's an article about some cars abandoned in a Pretoria, South Africa parking structure. Some have been there five years. It's at the airport so naturally the government is involved. They are saying the bank can't foreclose on the vehicles until the parking fees (more than the cars are worth) are paid. And you will love this:

The other vehicles are an Isuzu double cab, which has been parked in the open for three years, a Gauteng registered Proton Gen2, a BMW 318i and a Fiat Sienna, which has been parked since last month. A tow-truck came to pick up the Proton earlier this month but security staff refused to let the vehicle leave without the owner paying the parking fee.

I'm of two minds about this – First, why the hell did the parking operator wait five years to do anything, but second – at least security was on the ball, they wanted their parking fees.

This is just classic mismanagement. There should be a note on the ticket that cars left more than a certain amount of time will be considered abandoned and will be sold. This doesn't seem so difficult to me. But the, what do I know about the laws in South Africa.

How do you handle this problem at LAX or JFK or MIA or DEN or HOU or ORD or CDG or LHR? Come on, HPR, get your act together

JVH

Comments

[mc]

A large number percentage of airports outside of the US are privately run, not government, and I believe this one is private too. Most large US airports say no parking beyond 30 days. State and local laws may then dictate how you proceed from there. An airport I worked at sent certified letters to owners at around 35 to 45 days, and towed around 60. We could not collect the parking fees if we towed. Sometimes the letters worked, people had been traveling and become ill, or even passed away and a family member came to get the vehicle, or people left on a 2 month trip and called to tell us when they would be back.

[peter guest]

In the UK, any car thought to be abandoned can be towed but there is a fairly complex process between towing and final disposal which involves notifying the registered keeper waiting, doing something else and waiting and so on, and waiting. The biggest issue tends to be at places like heathrow where the central parking is premium rate. People running late for their two weeks in the sun, instead of parking at the long stay drop their cars in the centre which is about ten times the rate. Two weeks later they come back and the parking costs more than the vacation. More than one driver has apparently handed over their keys and walked off to the bus stop.