We live in Atlanta, so we all know the sinking feeling of walking out to our cars after parking in town, and seeing a boot on one of the wheels. That usually means at least $70 to get it off, and waiting while the boot company employee comes to take it off. Night out on the town ruined.
But that might be changing for the better. A new bill just got voted out of the Senate public safety committee, and will head to the Senate rules committee, before going to the house to see if it passes.
What is the bill?
House Bill 119, which is proposed by Senator Josh McLaurin (D-Sandy Springs), seeks to ban private property owners and businesses from hiring booting companies to monitor parking lots. Basically, the bill is saying booting companies can’t just wait out in parking lots for you to come park.
Read the full proposed bill here.
Why is this important?
As we are all well aware, there’s a booting epidemic happening in Atlanta. With booting company employees hired by companies to sit in the parking lot to wait for people to come, leave their car, and get a boot, it’s easy for booting to get out of hand fast. And it doesn’t help that companies are also allowed to, according to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, “pay a portion of their fees to property manager owners for the privilege of monitoring their lots.” So not only can booting companies wait for you in the lot… they’re paying to do it.
More About Bill 119
The AJC reports, that “McLaurin said the bill will prevent property owners from making money off booting; they would instead have to call the booting company to handle cars parked there without authorization instead of having the companies monitor parking lots.”
Already Georgia law prohibits booting, but individual municipalities allow private property and companies to boot, making a moot point of the GA law.
The AJC says that “McLaurin tried this last year without success, as some senators expressed concerns over private property rights, and has tweaked the legislation this time.”
Stay tuned to see what happens with the new booting laws in Georgia!