Flint, MI Parking Rules: Towing & Impound Rights (2026)

Flint's non-consent towing rules for police-ordered removals sit in Chapter 28, § 28-38. Subsection (a) gives the Chief of Police or a designated representative eight grounds for immediate removal of a vehicle from public or private property to a place of safekeeping, always at the registered owner's expense: a vehicle whose continued operation would be an immediate hazard to the public; one parked or standing so as to create an immediate public hazard or an obstruction of traffic; one parked in a posted tow away zone; reasonable cause to believe the vehicle or any part of it is stolen; seizure to preserve evidence of a crime, or reasonable cause to believe the vehicle was used in one; removal needed in the interest of public safety because of fire, flood, storm, snow, or other disaster; a vehicle hampering an owner's use of private property or parked so as to impede another vehicle; and, eighth, an owner who has failed to satisfy or answer six or more parking violation notices. Section 28-94(b), the general stopping and parking prohibition that also covers spaces reserved for handicappers, routes its tow-away-zone removals back through § 28-38, so the same eight-ground section governs a tow from a posted zone or an accessible space.

The six-ticket track is Flint's most distinctive feature, because it is run by the Downtown Development Authority rather than by the Police Department alone. Under § 28-115.1 the DDA may direct impoundment from public or private property once an owner has six or more unanswered parking tickets, but only after the DDA, its designated representative, or the 68th District Court Clerk has sent the registered owner a prior notice. That pre-immobilization notice must tell the owner to contact the DDA in writing within 14 days to request a hearing on whether the six-ticket count is correct, and the 68th District Court must schedule that hearing within 14 days of the written request, with the court clerk notifying both the DDA and the owner as soon as it is set. If the court determines the owner did not accrue six or more unsatisfied tickets, § 28-115.1(e) requires the DDA to cease and desist immobilization and impoundment efforts on those tickets. Section 28-114 declares a vehicle parked in violation of the parking article a nuisance and directs that the DDA collects all proceeds of such impoundments.

Where a boot is used instead of a tow, § 28-38(a)(8)b caps immobilization at 24 hours except under emergency or unusual conditions determined by the Chief of Police, forbids immobilizing a vehicle within the traveled portion of a street or on a sidewalk where that would create a hazard to the public or to traffic, and makes it unlawful for anyone to remove the device without police authorization. The device comes off when the violations are paid together with a device removal fee, when security is posted for a court appearance on the violations, when the violations are dismissed, or when the city decides to impound after all. Under § 28-115.1(f) a vehicle impounded on this ground may be held until every outstanding citation is satisfied or answered and all towing and storage charges tied to the impoundment are paid.

The notice clock runs from the tow. Section 28-38(b) requires the police agency to check whether the vehicle is stolen and to enter it into the Law Enforcement Information Network within 24 hours if it has not been redeemed, an entry that does not apply to a vehicle removed from the scene of a traffic accident. If the vehicle is still unredeemed 10 days after removal, the agency must send the registered owner and any secured party of record a Secretary of State form notice by first class mail or personal service; that stretches to 30 days where the agency informed the owner or operator of the removal and the vehicle's location within 24 hours and the towing service complains. The notice must give the year, make and vehicle identification number, where and when the vehicle was taken into custody, which agency ordered it, where it is being held, the procedure to redeem it, the procedure to contest the removal or the reasonableness of the towing and daily storage fees, a form petition the owner may file in person or by mail, and a warning that failing to redeem or request a hearing within 20 days may end the owner's and the secured party's rights in the vehicle and in the sale proceeds.

Section 28-38(c) is the owner's remedy for tows under grounds (1) through (7). The registered owner may contest whether the vehicle was properly removed or whether the towing and daily storage fees are reasonable by filing a petition with the court named in the notice within 20 days of the notice date, and the matter is then resolved at a hearing conducted under MCLA § 257.252(e) and (f). The owner does not have to leave the car in the lot to litigate: release can be obtained either by posting a towing and storage bond with the court equal to the accrued fees or by paying those fees outright. If the court finds the removal was not proper, the police agency must reimburse the accrued towing and storage fees. For six-ticket tows, § 28-38(d)(3) allows the same contest of the immobilization, the impoundment, or the reasonableness of the immobilization, towing and daily storage fees, with release on a bond or cash deposit equal to the outstanding accrued parking charges plus those fees, and § 28-38(d)(4) requires the Police Department to reimburse the accrued towing and storage charges and return the vehicle if the court finds it was not properly immobilized or impounded.

Flint publishes no towing or storage rate in its code. The impound release fee in § 28-152(a) and the immobilization device removal fee in § 28-38(a)(8)b are each "established from time to time by resolution of the City Council, kept on file by the City Clerk, and contained in Appendix A of the City Code," and Appendix A itself carries only an editor's note that a copy of the City's Master Fee Schedule is available in the offices of City Hall. The dollar amounts are therefore set by council resolution rather than printed in the ordinance, and nothing in Chapter 28 caps what a private wrecker charges, which is why § 28-38 hands the court, not the code, the job of judging whether a fee is reasonable. One refund is written straight into the ordinance: under § 28-152(b) a vehicle impounded after an arrest is returned without the fees if the person arrested is acquitted of the charge that occasioned the impound, and where the vehicle was released before the case ended the owner is entitled to a refund of all sums charged and paid, on written application and on producing satisfactory proof of acquittal to the Chief of Police.

A tow from private property that neither a police agency nor the registered owner ordered is handled separately by § 28-37. The custodian of the vehicle must immediately notify the police agency in whose jurisdiction the vehicle was towed and supply what that agency needs to enter the vehicle into the law enforcement information network; the agency then determines whether the vehicle has been reported stolen and makes the entry. The owner obtains release by paying the accrued towing and storage fees to the custodian, who must then notify the police agency of the disposition. If nobody claims the vehicle within seven days after that notification, it is deemed abandoned and the § 28-36 procedures apply. An unredeemed § 28-38 vehicle goes to public auction no sooner than 20 days after the hearing or the notice, under the control of the Police Department, on at least five days' published notice in a newspaper of general circulation in the county, with proceeds applied first to outstanding accrued parking charges, then towing and storage, then the City's expenses, then any secured party or the owner; a remainder unclaimed for 30 days becomes the property of the City. If there are no reasonable bidders the Police Department may turn the vehicle over to the towing firm to satisfy the charges against it, take title itself by paying the towing and storage charges, or hold another sale.