Getting the boot off your car in Houston

(11/13/07 - KTRK/HOUSTON) (KTRK) -- If you park downtown, be careful you don't get the boot. It's a new parking enforcement tool that some private lots now use. It's so new, there are no regulations, but that could change.

If you get towed, you have a way to appeal, but if you get a boot placed on your car, there's no formal appeals process in place.

The warning signs are all over this downtown lot, but Charles Dawson somehow missed them.

"We got out of the truck, we were talking and looking at each other, I'm not really looking around to become familiar with my environment here," Dawson said.

Dawson may not have noticed the signs when he pulled in, but he sure noticed what happened to his truck when Dawson failed to pay at the lot box.

"I looked and sure enough there was a boot there," Dawson said.

Dawson's truck had an immobilizing boot put on it. The boot is a relatively new tool Houston parking lot operators are using on violators. The practice of booting is so new there are no city regulations in place. While this lot has signs that tell consumers what will happen if they park without paying, it's not required and the price to remove a boot is not controlled either. In Dawson's case it cost $100 to have the boot removed.

"There is a lot of concern and some awareness of the changes that are going on within the private parking industry," said Public Parking Commission Bob Eury.

Bob Eury is a member of Houston's public parking commission. He says the city is looking at immobilizing boots. One issue being considered, a place consumers can go if they feel their cars were booted improperly.

"That is an issue and there are issues like that that, that I know the city is looking at," Eury said.

The rules being considered are similar to those that regulate towing. Things like proper signs and a phone number consumers can call. If you think you're towed by mistake, you can head to tow court. And if a judge rules in your favor, the bill is thrown out.

Right now, none of these rules exist for the boot. The city of Houston has a parking boot draft ordinance, but it could be some Time before the draft ordinance becomes law.

Parking lot owners who use the immobilizing boot say they get about 20% of the fee charged to violators. They say if the city eliminates their ability to collect that portion of a boot fee, booting may go away.

What can you do if you don't think you should have been booted? We have the answers on The Consumer Blog.
(Copyright © 2007, KTRK-TV)

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