Police Towed My Car To A Lot, Told Me Couldn’t Remove It Pending Police Report, Car Accrued Fees I’m Now Expected To Pay.

I was hit by a truck at an intersection that completely totaled my vehicle. Police towed my car without notifying me, though I was at the scene upon towing, no one spoke to me. I had to call later to ask where my car was, they told me and said I was not permitted to remove it until the police report was completed, the tow yard echoed this sentiment.

Police report was finally completed late last week, I wasn’t notified I had to go to the department in person yesterday. During this time frame I was never notified I would be liable for the accrued fees. I personally was not able to get the other drivers insurance, the police officer collected everything.

Here’s the issues: I was never formally notified about my vehicles storage, according to searches: I am supposed to have been mailed that notice within 48hrs. I am not sure if my calling somehow nullified their legal responsibility to do that.

I only learned my car was accruing fees via a pending lien notice sent within the, according to sites, timeframe the tow yard was meant to notify me. Within that 14-day timeframe I received no other nothing besides my initial call the day of the accident.

Am I liable for the fees? I spoke to the tow yard and they halved my fees as well as halted any further fees for 5 days.

Important note: I did NOT have the other party’s insurance until yesterday, the police report was only concluded days prior.

I only have liability insurance on my car, they told me they would’ve removed the car for me at the time but my lousy lawyer screwed us over in that fact by telling us to inform my insurance: “we have a lawyer”.

Under normal circumstances my insurance would have handled all of this, but due to my lawyer sticking his nose in something he actually can’t help me with, and my insurance plan they could not. That or the other parties insurance would’ve handled it, but I fear now, even though I literally could not have removed the car, they could argue I didn’t “mitigate damages”.

I was NOT given the option to junk the car when I visited to collect my stuff, nor when I called the police the day of the accident.

Location: CA, Sanbernadino County.

TLDR: What do I do about these fees? It’s $1.3k I don’t have and I have no idea I was even responsible for. My family nor I had any knowledge or notice our car was being stored and accruing fees I would be responsible for. And to reiterate again, until Monday we did not have the other drivers insurance information.

I couldn’t move the car because: 1, police and tow yard said I couldn’t until the police report was finished, 2. The car had total structural frame damage and cannot move, 3. I had no means to move the car. Even now I have not been cleared to remove the car.

UPDATE: Other party’s insurance did not claim my failure to “mitigate damages”, they will be handling fees and transport of the vehicle.