While this was happening, I did some investigating about where my boat actually was. The letter from the HOA had mentioned appropriate storage, but hadn’t specified where. I called the towing company whose truck I’d identified from my security camera footage. The person I spoke to was cagey at first, but when I mentioned that I had filed a police report and hired a lawyer, they became more cooperative. They told me the boat had been delivered to a marina about twenty miles away.
I drove out to the marina that afternoon. Sure enough, my boat was there sitting in their dry storage area along with dozens of other boats. I spoke to the marina office and explained the situation. They were sympathetic, but said they couldn’t release the boat to me without authorization from whoever had arranged for storage. In this case, the towing company that had delivered it.
Here’s where it got interesting. The marina charged premium rates for unscheduled storage, forty-five dollars per day for a boat of that size, plus a two-hundred-dollar intake fee since it had arrived without advanced arrangement. The person in the office pulled up the account and showed me the charges accumulating. The intake fee alone was two hundred dollars and with daily storage at forty-five dollars per day, the costs were climbing fast. After the first week, the bill was already over five hundred dollars.
I asked who was responsible for paying these fees. The marina employee explained that their policy was straightforward. Whoever delivers a boat to them is responsible for all associated fees until the boat is picked up or the account is settled. In this case, that was the towing company. The towing company had an account with the marina and had delivered the boat there, so they were on the hook for the storage fees.
I filed a second police report specifically documenting my attempt to retrieve my boat and the marina’s statement that they couldn’t release it without authorization. The officer who took this second report was different from the first, and he seemed more interested in the situation. He made notes about the accumulating storage fees and the HOA’s refusal to return my property. Then I waited.
The storage fees at the marina continued to accumulate. My lawyer’s demand letter had been sent via certified mail and we had confirmation of delivery. The five business days passed with no response from the HOA. My lawyer filed a lawsuit. We sued the HOA, the HOA president personally, and the property management company.
The lawsuit alleged wrongful taking of property, abuse of HOA authority, and demanded return of my boat, compensation for my expenses and time, attorney’s fees, and punitive damages. We also filed for a temporary restraining order requiring the return of my boat pending the outcome of the lawsuit. The court scheduled a hearing on the restraining order for two weeks out. In the meantime, the storage fees continued to accumulate. After two weeks, the bill was around eight hundred thirty dollars. After three weeks, it exceeded twelve hundred dollars.