Sd - Family Member Died In A Car Accident. Towing Company Wants $24,000 From Her Estate.

Location: South Dakota

The towing company sent a certified letter to her house within a week of towing her car. We did not know this letter was sent at the time, and it was not received or signed for, because she lived alone and was in the hospital dying. We assumed the car, which was totaled, was disposed of.

Six months later, the towing company sends a notice to her address (we now have her mail forwarded to us, as executor), saying that they’ve held the car this whole time, and the fees now total $24,000, and they’re going to get the certificate of title issued to them if they don’t hear back from us, and then send the bill to collections.

My questions are:

1. The towing company sent the initial certified letter to the car owner’s address in the appropriate time frame, but it was not received or signed for (because she was in the hospital, dying). I found this law that seems to be relevant (https://sdlegislature.gov/Statutes/32-36-8). Is the towing company sending that certified letter, which they know nobody received, sufficient notification, or did they have an obligation to keep trying to let the executor know they had the car (before it racked up a $24,000 bill)? I just don’t understand how my family member’s estate can be responsible for a $24,000 bill when we weren’t actually notified for the first six months, but that law I linked above doesn’t seem to suggest to me that the towing company has an obligation to make sure that certified letter is *received*, just that it is *sent*. I was wondering, since the certified letter wasn’t received and we weren’t notified they were still holding the car for six months, would that ten day cap to the fees apply? It says “If the removal agency does not give notice within ten days from the date of removal, no storage may be charged beyond the ten-day period until the notice is mailed.” They mailed the certified letter, but was “notice given” if nobody received/signed for the certified letter? Do they get to just suck up her entire estate without actually notifying us, or does that 10-day cap protect us because we weren’t actually *notified*?

2. Do we need to fight this before it goes to collections, or is it okay to wait until it goes to collections?

Thank you for any advice you can give us!