Buffalo, NY Parking Rules: Towing & Impound Rights (2026)

Which schedule applies depends on who ordered the tow. When the City removes a vehicle to its own impound area under § 307-8, the Chapter 175 fee table governs, and that table was last amended April 1, 2025, effective July 1, 2025. It charges $150 to tow a two-axle vehicle, motorcycle, boat, small trailer or mobile home under 25 feet and up to 6,500 pounds, $30 for each half hour of debris cleanup, $50 per day of storage after the first 24 hours, and $75 per day for vehicles 25 feet or longer. Anything over 6,500 pounds is billed by the truck the job requires, with a two-hour minimum and half-hour increments after that: $75 an hour light-medium duty (6,501 to 10,000 pounds), $150 medium duty (10,001 to 17,999 pounds), $200 heavy duty (18,000 pounds or greater), $250 an hour for a fifty-ton plus hydraulic wrecker and $300 an hour for a forty-ton plus heavy rotator. Recovering a vehicle from a body of water, gully, ditch or underpass is $150 an hour. A mini-tow of 500 feet or less is $60 plus the parking fine under § 307-11, and towing a car out of a space reserved for the disabled, or away from a lowered curb cut, is $150.

When an authorized City tower does the work, § 454-24 caps what that company may bill: $80 for a standard tow of a vehicle up to 10,000 pounds, $90 for a flatbed, $75 an hour for truck and driver, $25 for dolly wheels, $20 for a motorcycle, ATV or snowmobile trailer, $20 per quarter hour of winching, $20 per day of storage, and $20 to release a vehicle after 5:00 p.m. on a weekday or outside required business hours on a Saturday, Sunday or holiday. Staying inside that schedule is a standing condition of the company's letter of authorization under § 454-17A(8).

Buffalo also limits weekend storage billing, which is unusual. Section 454-9D requires every licensed tow operator to keep a staffed office for vehicle retrieval open Monday through Friday from 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m., and bars any storage charge for a Saturday or a Sunday unless the storage location is open and allows retrieval that day from at least 10:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. An authorized City tower carries further duties under §§ 454-17 and 454-19: respond within 30 minutes, keep at least two tow trucks per zone, post a twenty-four-hour retrieval telephone number conspicuously at the storage site, and hold vehicles behind a chain-link or stockade fence at least six feet high with on-site room for no fewer than 10 vehicles.

Notice runs in two directions. A tower that removes a car from private property at the property owner's request, without the vehicle owner's consent, must immediately notify the local police station in writing as § 1210(c) of the state Vehicle and Traffic Law requires, and failure to report may be cause for revocation of its license (§ 454-9B). Removals must also be reported without delay to the Police Department 911 Lieutenant at (716) 851-4549 (§ 454-20A). Where the driver is not at the scene, § 454-19I requires the tower to establish contact with the registered owner in a timely manner, say where the vehicle is being stored, and convey the storage rates at that time.

The Police Department divides the city into tow zones and dispatches from a rotational list for each zone, so only the tower assigned to a zone may tow within it. During a highway emergency such as a snowstorm or flood the Department may suspend those zone boundaries to move vehicles more efficiently, but not for more than 10 consecutive days without Common Council authorization (§ 454-23).

Release itself is handled by the Division of Parking Enforcement, which establishes the procedures and issues the standardized forms used for all impounded vehicles (§ 454-21). Section 479-1 adds a hard rule on top of § 307-8D: no lost, abandoned or stolen vehicle, or vehicle removed from a body of water, gully, ditch or underpass, is delivered to anyone until the towing and storage charge is paid, except by unanimous vote of all members of the Council or on the order of a court. Booting carries its own numbers. Chapter 175 sets the boot removal fee at $60, and a parking lot or garage licensee that immobilizes a car on its own lot may charge no more than $75 for installing and removing the device, plus the maximum daily parking rate for each day the vehicle remains (§ 307-34B).