Indianapolis, IN Parking Rules: Towing & Impound Rights (2026)

Indianapolis and Marion County run as one consolidated government, so the first question on any towing bill here is which territory the ordinance actually reaches. Chapter 995 of the Code of Indianapolis and Marion County applies only to non-consensual tows that originate "in the city" (Sec. 995-301), and Sec. 102-3(2) defines that geography as everything inside Marion County except territory inside an excluded city. The $150 cap and the rest of Chapter 995 therefore govern a private-lot tow that begins anywhere in the consolidated city, but not one that begins inside Beech Grove, Lawrence or Southport, or inside the excluded Town of Speedway. Storage reaches further than the tow does: Sec. 995-304(d) requires the vehicle to be stored within the county or within a fifteen mile radius of where the tow originated, and "the county" under Sec. 102-8 is all of Marion County, excluded cities included.

The money is fixed in the ordinance rather than left to the operator. Sec. 995-305(a) caps the tow at $150.00 and storage at $30.00 for each twenty-four-hour period, and storage cannot begin to accrue until twenty-four hours have passed since the vehicle arrived at the lot, so a car collected the same evening carries no storage charge at all. A business may ask for proof of insurance if you intend to drive the car off the lot, but may not withhold the vehicle on that ground; it may instead charge a set out fee of no more than $25.00. Two qualifiers matter. Sec. 995-305(d) lifts the fee limitation entirely for a vehicle of 13,000 lbs. gross vehicle weight or more, and Sec. 995-305(c) lets the license administrator review and adjust these dollar limits by promulgating a regulation. Sec. 995-305(g) settles the argument in the parking lot: arrive before the tow and there is no tow and no fee, and arrive with the truck already hooked up and at least two tires off the ground and the car is still released to you, on cash payment of a fee capped at half the regular towing fee.

Release is governed by Sec. 995-304 and Sec. 995-306. The vehicle must go directly and continuously to a lot the tow business owns or leases, with no temporary holding area, and must be available to claim within sixty minutes of the tow or thirty minutes of arrival at the lot, whichever is less. The lot must keep an attendant on site twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week excluding holidays, or post a lighted sign carrying a telephone number answered at any hour. Storage fees do not accrue on a day the facility is not open for redemption, and booting a vehicle to hold it for towing is prohibited outright. You must be given a reasonable amount of time to take unaffixed personal property out of the car, at the scene or at the lot before paying, at no charge, and no release or waiver of liability may be required as a condition of getting the vehicle back. Payment must be accepted in cash, travelers checks or money orders, or by debit card and all major credit cards with no surcharge for using a card, against an itemized receipt naming the person who authorized the tow.

That authorization is itself regulated. Sec. 995-302 makes it unlawful to tow from a parking lot unless the lot owner or an authorized agent, present at the time, signs a contemporaneous written authorization carrying seven listed items, among them the vehicle identification number and plate, the reason the vehicle was subject to tow, and a statement that the lot owner will be liable for damages if the tow is improper. The tow company and its drivers may not serve as that agent, except at a multifamily rental lot running twenty-four hour permit parking with permits issued at lease signing and photo or video documentation kept with the authorization. Sec. 995-303 requires signs in plain view at each entrance and exit, permanently installed for at least twenty-four hours before any vehicle is removed; the Code prescribes no letter height of its own and leaves construction, placement, content, lettering and number to the license administrator.

Two further things sit outside Chapter 995. The price of the license is in a separate fee schedule at Sec. 131-501, which lists the tow business license at $145.00 plus $21.00 for every five tow truck operators employed or contracted by the licensee. Each licensee must also file with the division of construction and business services its own schedule of every fee it may charge, show it to a vehicle owner on request, and may neither exceed it nor charge for an unlisted service, with ten days written notice required to change it (Sec. 995-206). And a tow ordered by the police is a different chapter: Chapter 611, Article II puts city-ordered impounds in the hands of franchise wreckers selected by competitive solicitation and paying the city a franchise fee, with rates set in the franchise contract rather than by the $150 and $30 caps. The wrecker must notify the Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department within two hours of a removal, and release requires payment of accrued fees plus authorization from the department director, the IMPD chief, or a court.