HOUSTON -- First it's a car crash, then a financial blow from a car repair shop. Houston police say it's happening all too often in our area. Now one Spring Branch woman is asking Amy what to do about it.

KPRC Local 2 investigative reporter Amy Davis explains what experts in the industry say is a scheme, and how you can keep it from happening to you.

The city and state have passed a lot of new laws to regulate towing and storage fees, but they say body shops are still not regulated.

People in the towing and storage business say it happens when wrecker drivers make deals with car repair shops. The wrecker reels the vehicles in and the repair shops clean the catch.

"An administrative fee for $175. What is that?" Davis asked an employee at Carless Auto on Westview Drive.

"It's all right here," the woman answered, pointing to the handwritten repair order.

"No, it doesn't explain what an administrative fee is," Davis replied.

"They'll charge a $400 to $500 fee for writing an estimate on a car, something that in most places is done for free," said Ken Ulmer of the Texas Towing and Storage Association, when Davis showed him the repair order from Carless Auto. "They'll charge an impound fee, an admin. fee, all of these fees. That sounds like a made up name because it is."

Ulmer says he knows car repair shops like Carless are charging exorbitant fees. He says it gives his industry a bad name.

What Carless gave driver Janth Lopez was a $1,278 bill.

"They were going to get my money one way or another," Lopez said. "I don't think that's fair."

Another car hit Lopez's Toyota Matrix at the intersection of Laverne and Hammerly in April. Lopez says a Spring Branch Towing wrecker was the first to show up.  She says the driver told her he knew just where to take her car.

"He said he knows a place where I'm going to be treated right," Lopez said.

That place was Carless Auto, where Lopez says she signed paperwork to rent a car.  She says she asked the shop to wait on repairs until she could talk with her insurance company.  She thought Carless agreed, but two days later when Lopez decided she'd rather take her car to the dealer for repairs, she says Carless demanded payment anyway.

"They asked me to pay $1,400 or my vehicle's not going to be released," Lopez told Davis.

The repair order that Carless gave Lopez reads in tiny print that she agrees to pay a 35 percent surcharge of the total repair cost, even if she changes her mind about getting the repairs done at Carless.

"It's like you either fix the car there or you're going to have to pay them, which I don't think nobody should force you to do business with them," said Lopez.

The Houston Police Department doesn't think so either. It ticketed Carless in January in a case almost identical to Lopez's. The Houston Better Business Bureau has received 12 similar complaints against Carless since November.

"In most cases, the consumer has signed a document that spells out most of these fees which are very, very exorbitant," Ulmer explained.

But Carless couldn't show us any paperwork Lopez had signed or give us an explanation of the fees.   Lopez has filed a complaint with the Houston Police Department Auto Dealers Detail. It licenses all towing and storage lots in Houston.

HPD found that Carless didn't have the proper licenses to repair or store cars back in January. The business has since obtained the proper licenses. That allows HPD to keep track of complaints against these types of companies.

If you are in a car accident and need to be towed to a repair shop, but you don't know of a reputable shop yourself, you should ask the wrecker to tow your car to a licensed storage facility. Rates at licensed storage lots are regulated so there won't be any surprises.  It will also give you some time to find a good repair shop.

We've posted the towing and storage fees that are regulated by the city of Houston.  You can find that information on the Ask Amy blog.