Dearborn Heights, MI Business Licensing & Operations: Towing Companies (2026)

Under Dearborn Heights City Code § 32-120, the custodian of a vehicle removed from private property at the direction of someone other than the registered owner or the police department, meaning a private tow company hired by a landlord, property manager, or business, must notify the Dearborn Heights Police Department right away and supply the information the department needs to enter the vehicle into the law enforcement information network. The police department then checks whether the vehicle has been reported stolen before entering it into that network.

Once that step is complete, the vehicle's owner can get it back simply by paying the accrued towing and storage fees to the custodian, and the custodian must in turn tell the police department how the vehicle was disposed of. If the owner does not claim the vehicle within seven days of the police department being notified that it was taken into custody, section 32-120(d) deems the vehicle abandoned and rolls the case into the abandoned-vehicle procedure at section 32-118(d)(3) through (i): a mailed notice, a twenty-day window to redeem the vehicle or petition for a hearing, and, if neither happens, a public sale under section 32-124.

An owner who disputes the tow or the reasonableness of the towing and storage fees can request a hearing under sections 32-122 and 32-123, where the district court with territorial jurisdiction over the tow location decides the matter and the police department carries the burden of showing the procedure was followed correctly. If the court finds the vehicle was not properly deemed abandoned, the police department, not the towing company, must reimburse the owner for the accrued towing and storage charges.