So here's something that just came across my desk that affects folks in our community who've had cars towed. According to CalMatters Housing, Governor Newsom vetoed a bill this week that would have required the DMV to handle excess proceeds from towed vehicle sales differently. This is actually pretty important stuff, so let me walk you through what's happening here.
When a car gets towed and the owner can't pay the fines and fees, the vehicle ends up in a storage yard. These yards can sell the cars at what's called a lien sale to recover their costs. Here's where it gets problematic: if that sale brings in more money than what's owed, the DMV gets to keep the difference. And according to CalMatters' investigation, they've been keeping millions without even telling the owners they could claim it.
The bill in question came from state Senator Kelly Seyarto and would have pushed that unclaimed money over to the state Controller's Office to be handled like other unclaimed property. The Legislature passed it, but the governor said no. In his veto statement, Newsom acknowledged he supports helping owners recover what's rightfully theirs, but he argued the bill didn't create a clear enough process and could cost money without guaranteeing better results for those car owners.
What's interesting is that the bill originally required the DMV to notify owners within fourteen days of getting that surplus money, but that requirement got stripped out during the legislative process. According to CalMatters, the DMV collected over eight million dollars from nearly fifty-three hundred cars sold between twenty sixteen and the fall of twenty twenty-four. The governor did note that the DMV has now created a tool to help owners check if they're owed money, which apparently was modeled after a tool CalMatters itself had created.
What I am seeing locally is that people need to understand their rights when they're dealing with towed vehicles. This veto means the burden is still on you to find out if you're owed money from a sale, and the clock is ticking because you lose your rights to that money after three years. If you've had a car towed in the Bay Area or anywhere in California, it's worth checking the DMV's tool to see if there's money waiting for you.
