Vehicle Management Solutions SCRA Settlement: About 93 Vehicles

What happened

On May 28, 2026 the Justice Department announced that Vehicle Management Solutions, Inc. (VMS) would pay $280,000 to resolve allegations that it illegally sold or scrapped approximately 93 vehicles owned by U.S. servicemembers. The parties agreed to resolve the claims without legal proceedings, and DOJ's case page lists no complaint, only the settlement agreement, which takes effect on the last signature (agreement paragraphs 6 and 7). The agreement describes VMS as a Texas corporation that tows and provides roadside assistance in and around San Antonio (paragraph 3). It is a different company from United Road Towing, the Delaware corporation that did business as UR Vehicle Management Solutions in the separate El Paso case.

DOJ's release says the investigation started when a servicemember complained that VMS had towed and auctioned his vehicle in 2024 while he was serving on an overseas deployment in Kosovo. The United States alleges that VMS had no SCRA policies or training materials at any relevant time and took no steps to verify owners' military status before selling or disposing of towed vehicles to enforce its liens (paragraph 4), a pattern or practice of violating Section 3958(a) (paragraph 5). In exchange for the agreement, the United States will not pursue its allegation that VMS enforced such liens without court orders from August 13, 2020 to June 12, 2025 (paragraph 8).

The policies VMS had to send the United States within 30 days must test whether an owner is protected by looking in three places: at what the owner, police, a government agency or a third party has told it, such as statements about service, APO or FPO addresses, or an address on a military installation; at the vehicle and its contents, such as military paperwork, uniforms, equipment, registration stickers or insignia; and at the Defense Manpower Data Center database. When the owner's Social Security number or birth date is not readily available, VMS must search a commercially available public records database by name and address to obtain one, and it must run a separate search for every known surname variant or alias (paragraph 10(a)). In a court lien case where the owner does not answer, the attached status report can be no more than two days old when VMS asks for a default judgment (paragraph 10(c)).

VMS may still seek a written waiver under Section 3918, but only with the notice attached to the agreement as Appendix A (paragraph 10(d)). The waiver form that comes with that notice states that in exchange VMS gives up any deficiency balance, towing or storage charges, or other fees tied to the tow or impoundment of that vehicle (Appendix A).

The law behind this: 50 U.S.C. § 3958

Enforcement of storage liens: read the statute , or read § 3958 in plain English, with its enforcement record .

When members of our Armed Forces are called to fight for our country, they should not have to return home to find that their car has been illegally sold.

Worrying about the safety and security of one’s personal property while deployed is a concern no member of our military should carry.

Who was covered

One sergeant named in the agreement, paid on his own line (paragraph 17), and the potentially aggrieved servicemembers identified in records the United States produced to VMS covering vehicles VMS auctioned, sold or otherwise disposed of between August 2020 and June 2025 (paragraph 20). The notice VMS must mail them says a servicemember may be entitled to an award if VMS disposed of the vehicle between August 1, 2020 and June 12, 2025 while the owner was in military service, after the owner had received orders to report, or within 90 days after leaving service (Appendix C). For a reservist, protection runs from receipt of orders to the reporting date (agreement footnote 1).

What the settlement paid

• $20,000 to the sergeant within ten days of the effective date, delivered only after he signs a release of his Section 3958 claims against VMS (agreement paragraph 17).
• $200,000 placed within ten days in an interest-bearing escrow account called the Settlement Fund, for other servicemembers the United States has determined may have been harmed (paragraph 18). VMS must skip trace each one and mail notices within 30 days (paragraph 20). The United States has 240 days to send a final list of names and amounts, a deadline it may extend in the interest of justice, and VMS then has ten days to deliver the checks (paragraphs 21 and 22). The checks together may not exceed the fund, and money still in it when the four-year agreement expires goes to the United States Treasury (paragraphs 25, 26 and 43).
• A $60,000 civil penalty, payable to the Treasury within ten days of the effective date under 50 U.S.C. § 4041(b)(3) (paragraph 29). DOJ's case page and release describe $220,000 to compensate servicemembers plus that penalty, $280,000 in all; in the agreement that figure is the sergeant's $20,000 plus the $200,000 fund.
• No set-off against anything a servicemember owes VMS, and no refusal to pay because of an earlier waiver or release (paragraph 27). For four years VMS must also train every employee who handles the storage, sale or disposal of vehicles once a year and report each SCRA or military-related complaint to the United States every six months (paragraphs 13 and 31).

Why this case matters

Read the waiver before you sign it. This agreement does not bar VMS from asking a servicemember to give up the court order, but the form it must use makes VMS forgive any deficiency, towing and storage charges, and related fees on that vehicle in return. Without a waiver, a judge reviewing the lien could pause the proceeding or adjust what is owed under Section 3958(b). And treat the $200,000 as a ceiling rather than a payout figure: money not distributed to servicemembers by the time the agreement expires goes to the Treasury.