Hercules, CA Business Licensing & Operations: Towing Companies (2026)

Chapter 6 of the Hercules Municipal Code (Secs. 08) governs vehicles parked on private property without consent; Hercules regulates the removal process itself rather than issuing separate tow-company licenses. Under Sec. 01, parking on private property without the consent of the owner, the person entitled to possession, or an authorized agent is unlawful, but only where the property has posted signs at every entrance meeting the code's exact specifications: twenty-two by seventeen inches, one-inch lettering, stating that illegally parked cars may be removed at the owner's expense, and printing the Department of Public Safety Services phone number.

Signs must be approved by that department both for wording and placement before a tow is valid. Once posted, Sec. 02 lets any Hercules police officer cite the vehicle's owner or driver, and Sec. 03 lets a police officer, the property owner, or an authorized agent remove the vehicle. Sec. 04 allows removal to the nearest garage, another place of safety, or a city-designated garage, and Sec. 05 requires the remover to notify the vehicle's owner as the state Vehicle Code requires. Sec. 06 gives the garage keeper a lien on the vehicle for towage and storage charges, satisfied under Vehicle Code procedures.

Sec. 07 flips liability if the tow was wrongful: if the vehicle was rightfully parked there, the complainant or the person who ordered the removal, not a police officer, owes all towing and storage charges instead of the vehicle owner. Sec. 08 makes violating the parking prohibition itself an infraction.