If you park your car in forbidden terrain, you have to expect trouble - including being towed away.
But the parking offender does not have to be ripped off by the towing company.
That has now been decided by the Munich District Court.
The judge found clear words for the reasons for the judgment.
Fürstenfeldbruck / Munich - The case is somewhat unusual.
A towing service from the Fürstenfeldbruck region was called to Munich on February 21, 2020 by the branch manager of a discounter.
In the Hasenbergl district, two cars illegally parked in the loading zone of his store.
What happened next is documented to the minute: An employee of the towing service started at 9:01 p.m. in the company's depot.
At 9:28 p.m. he arrived at the discounter.
He took photos of evidence and loaded one of the wrongly parked cars onto the tow truck.
A few minutes' drive away, he parked the car at the side of a road.
At 9:36 p.m. he finished with it.
At 9:56 p.m. he was back at the towing company's depot.
The second car was still blocking the discounter's loading area.
The towing service sent another car for this car.
It left the depot at 9:32 p.m., was on site in Munich at 9:56 p.m. - and relocated the second car in the same way as the first.
That lasted until 10:07 p.m.
21 minutes later the tractor was back on the company premises in the Fürstenfeldbruck area.
This double Gemoppel was found out because both towed cars belonged to the same owner.
When the parking offender received the bills, he rubbed his eyes: The company charged him for two complete bets at 330 euros each.
The Munich resident refused to pay for it.
After all, it would have been a lot cheaper if both cars had been moved by the same tow truck.
The Bruck company then went to court to fight for its money.
You can never say how long such an operation would last.
Therefore it was necessary to send two tow trucks.
It is completely unusual for both cars to belong to the same owner.
The company could not have known.
With different owners and a tow truck, it would have been unfair to charge the first car owner with an hour and the second only half an hour.
With this argument, the company from the Fürstenfeldbruck area fell completely on the nose in court.
Your bill definitely violates the principle of economic efficiency.
It does not matter whether the excessive sum was due to organizational deficiencies or whether it was intentionally caused by “making unnecessary additional expenses and deliberately increasing sales”.
The company's arguments suggested that the latter was the case, the judge said.
At the latest when the second tow truck left the company premises, the situation could have been cleared up with a simple phone call.
Even if it had been two different vehicle owners and a tow truck, the judge believed the bill could easily have been split fairly. Conclusion: Instead of the originally requested 660 euros, the parking offender now only has to pay 415 euros to the towing service.