Solutions · Towing and patrol
Plate checks and tow records for towing and patrol companies
A private property tow is only as defensible as the information behind it. GuestPark gives your drivers and patrol officers a live answer for every plate on a community’s lot, holds the cases that deserve a second look, and keeps a record of each step that stands up when the car’s owner calls.
The short answer
With GuestPark, a towing or patrol company checks every plate on a participating community’s lot against live guest passes, permits and banned plates, using the phone camera and the community’s patrol PIN. Near matches are held, a grace period protects guests whose pass just ended, and each violation is recorded with photos, GPS position and server time in a chained record the community can export. GuestPark is the check and the record; the tow stays with you and the property, under your state’s law.
Why guest parking is where tow disputes start
Most tow disputes at apartment and condo communities are not about cars that obviously did not belong. They are about guests: a pass registered with a typo, a pass that ended ten minutes earlier, a registration the resident made by email to an office that had closed, a hang tag that looked expired by flashlight. Each of those becomes a phone call to your yard, a complaint to the property and sometimes a claim.
The fix is information at the moment of decision. If the driver can see that the car is a near match to a registered guest, or that its pass ended within the grace period, the tow does not happen and the dispute never starts.
What your team gets on each lot
- A plate check on the walk. The patrol page reads plates through the phone camera as the officer moves, with one soft buzz for a registered guest and three for a problem.
- A clear result for every plate. Guest, permit, within grace, near match, expired, banned or no record, with the apartment and the time left when there is a pass.
- Near match holds. A plate one character from a registered guest, or the same once look alike characters such as O and 0 are set aside, is held for a second look.
- Sealed evidence. Photos, GPS position and accuracy, when the car was first seen and the server time of each step, chained to the record before it.
- No accounts to manage. Each community has a patrol PIN. Officers enter it with their name, which goes on every record they make.
A protocol before the hook
- Check the plate in GuestPark, including near matches.
- Leave any car that is within the grace period.
- Hold near matches until the apartment or the office confirms.
- Photograph the car, the plate, its position and the nearest tow sign, with GPS and time recorded.
- Confirm who at the property authorized the tow, in the form your county or city requires.
- Complete your own statutory steps, such as police notice in Florida, and keep the storage and release details with the record.
The record GuestPark keeps covers the first four steps. The last two belong to the property and to you.
Your duties under Florida law still apply
In Florida, section 715.07 sets the conditions for towing from private property. Many of them fall on the towing company: storage within set distances, hours for redemption, notifying the police within 30 minutes, releasing a vehicle when the owner arrives during the tow, filing and posting rates, marking trucks, and release within an hour of a request. GuestPark does not perform any of these for you.
The same section prohibits paying or accepting anything of value for the privilege of towing from a particular location. It is worth repeating to every property you serve. Our Florida towing guide sets out the duties line by line. Outside Florida, follow your own state and local rules.
Working with the properties you serve
GuestPark is set up by the community: the property manager or association creates the community, sets its limits and gives your team the patrol PIN. If you serve several communities that use GuestPark, you use the PIN for each one, and every check and record stays with that community.
If the properties you serve still run on hang tags, GuestPark is worth introducing. Fewer disputed tows means fewer calls to your yard, and a written record protects your drivers. Send the property manager to the property managers page, or book a demo together.
When a car owner disputes a tow
When an owner calls, the property can export the full record: whether the car had a pass, who registered it and until when, whether it was a near match, how long it had been seen, and the photos and GPS position from the lot. Because each record is chained to the one before, a gap or a later change is visible. That record answers most disputes before they reach anyone’s attorney.
Questions
- Do my drivers need special equipment?
- No. Any recent phone with a camera and a browser runs the patrol page.
- Can my company sign up on its own?
- Communities are set up by the property or association, which gives your team its patrol PIN. If you would like to bring GuestPark to properties you serve, contact us.
- Does GuestPark tell us which cars to tow?
- No. It tells you what the record says about each plate and holds near matches. The decision follows the property’s written policy and the law.
- Who owns the records?
- The community. Records stay with the community that recorded them, and the property can export them when a question comes up.
See it on your own layout.
Tell us about your buildings, visitor spaces and rules, and we will walk you through GuestPark set up the way your community would use it.