For years, the California Department of Motor Vehicles has been keeping profits from the sales of towed cars without giving the owners much of a chance to claim the money that's rightfully theirs.

That's changing.

Thanks to a CalMatters investigation, the state DMV is now offering a lookup tool on its website, allowing people to see if the agency owes them money from what's known as a lien sale.

The tool is nearly identical to the one CalMatters created for our story in March.

By law, towing companies, storage yards, and car repair shops can sell your car to recoup their costs if you don't pick up your vehicle.

Lien sales have to be approved by the DMV, and any money left over is supposed to go to the agency.

However, CalMatters found that the DMV collected more than $8 million from nearly 5300 cars sold at auction between 2016 through the fall of 2024.

Owners are entitled to that surplus and have up to three years to claim it.

But the agency does not notify owners of the refunds.

Now, in addition to the lookup tool, there's a list of frequently asked questions and instructions on exactly how to reclaim refunds.

The DMV said it had sent more than $5,000 to a family after admitting it erroneously denied the refund request of Steven McCallister, who was featured in the CalMatters investigation.

His now deceased sister, Joan McAllister's vehicle racked up $1,113 in parking fees in San Francisco in 2022 while she was hospitalized.

Eventually, the vehicle was towed and accumulated over $8,300 in storage fees.

By the time he was appointed as her conservator, the towing yard had sold the car.

McAllister reached out to CalMatters and I contacted the DMV.

An agency spokesperson apologized and said the denial was an error.

For CalMatters, I'm Byrhonda Lyons.