TowingBossPro Blog — Impound & Storage

Property Manager Accounts for Private Property Impound Work

A good property manager account can send you steady impound work for years. A badly organized one turns into a mess of calls you cannot connect to the property, managers who cannot get answers, and invoices nobody can reconcile. The work is the same either way. The organization is what decides whether the account grows or walks.

Handling Police Impound Tows Under a Municipal Account covered police accounts. This article is about the other big source of impound volume: property managers.

One Account, Every Call Under It

In TowingBossPro, a property manager is a commercial account, and the account's calls and invoices are kept under it. When the manager at a complex calls in a vehicle, the call is created under their account with the pickup at their property.

That gives you something most lots do not have: a full history per account. How many vehicles did this complex have towed this quarter? Which ones are still in the lot? What has the account been invoiced for? It is all in one place.

It also protects you when a manager changes. Property managers turn over often, and the new one usually knows nothing about the arrangement with your company. With the account history in one place, you can show the new manager what you have been doing for the property, how many vehicles you have handled and how the work has gone.

Managers With Several Properties

Many property management companies run several complexes. Decide how you want to organize them. Some towing companies set up one account per management company and record the specific property on each call through its pickup address. Others set up an account per property when each one has its own contact and its own rules.

Either works. Pick the one that matches how the manager talks to you and how you need to report, and stay consistent.

Notes and Custom Fields for Each Property

Every property has its quirks: which lots are enforced, who can authorize a tow, the gate code, the after-hours contact, where the signage is. Keep those on the account or as custom fields so the driver and the dispatcher see them on every call. A driver who knows the rules of the property makes fewer mistakes, and fewer mistakes means fewer angry owners and fewer unhappy managers.

Your local rules on private property towing may also require specific information about who authorized a tow. Make sure your fields capture whatever applies where you operate.

Who Pays What

Private property impound arrangements vary. In many cases the vehicle owner pays the tow and storage at release. In others, the property manager pays for certain services. Whatever your arrangement, set it up clearly on the account and on each invoice. Storage days on vehicles from that account are counted from the start date at the daily rate you set, and the invoice shows them.

Fee rules for private property tows vary by state and city, and some places cap what can be charged. Check what applies before you agree to anything.

Keep Managers Informed

Property managers get calls from their own residents asking where a car went. Make it easy for them to answer. When a manager asks about a vehicle, the account history shows when it was towed, whether it is still in storage and what it looks like in the pickup photos. Fast answers make you the towing company managers want to keep.

Some managers want a regular summary. If yours do, pull the calls under their account for the period and send it. It takes a few minutes, and it reminds them that you are doing the work they hired you to do, which is exactly what you want them thinking about when the contract comes up for renewal.

Use Reports to Grow the Account

Reports show which accounts send the most work and which bring in the most revenue. Use them. A property manager who sends steady volume deserves a check-in call, and one whose volume dropped may be using somebody else on weekends. The numbers tell you which conversation to have.

The Impound & Storage Software page shows how accounts tie into storage. Next: the day the owner comes to get the car.

Reports also show you properties where nothing happens. An account with a long contract and almost no tows may mean enforcement is not being called, signage is unclear, or the property simply has few problems. Any of those is worth a conversation.