Henrico County, VA Business Licensing & Operations: Towing Companies (2026)

Henrico County Code § 22-161 gives the owner, operator or lessee of a parking lot, parking area or building, public or private, the right to have an unattended, unauthorized vehicle towed once it has occupied the space for more than ten days without the property owner's permission. The vehicle can be removed 'by towing or otherwise' to a licensed garage, where it is held until the vehicle's owner or agent claims it. Notice of the action must go to both the state Department of Motor Vehicles and the county's division of police, first or simultaneously with the removal, so the vehicle can be tracked through DMV records and located by an owner searching for it.

The vehicle's owner, not the property owner, bears the cost: § 22-161 makes the owner chargeable for a reasonable removal and storage fee, and the garage may hold the vehicle until that fee is paid. The section carves out two situations where a lot owner cannot invoke it: police and fire vehicles are excluded outright, and a vehicle left temporarily on someone else's property because of a wreck or other emergency cannot be towed under this authority either. The county's power to write this rule traces to the state code sections named in the ordinance, Code of Virginia §§ 46.2-1213 and 46.2-1232, which let localities authorize removal of unattended vehicles from private property. Henrico's general code does not layer a separate towing-company license or permit scheme on top of this authority; the ordinance governs when a tow may happen, not who may operate a wrecker.