Los Angeles, CA Parking Rules: Towing & Impound Rights (2026)

Los Angeles adds a flat City charge on top of whatever the tow yard bills. LAMC Sec. 80.77.1(a) requires every person who redeems a vehicle or pocket bike from an Official Police Garage after a City Police or Traffic Officer directed the impound to pay $115.00 per vehicle to reimburse the City for costs related to the impound. Subsection (b) makes that fee payable to the garage operator at the same moment as the towing and storage charges, and treats it as a debt owed to the City that is extinguished by payment to the operator, so there is no separate City counter to visit. Subsection (c) puts the duty to collect on the operator, who reports and remits on the 15th and the last day of each calendar month to the Office of Finance and pays a 25 percent penalty on anything more than 15 days late. The $115.00 figure was set by Ord. No. 181,312, effective 10/25/10, and California Vehicle Code Sec. 22850.5 is the state authority that lets a local agency impose a release fee of this kind.

The tow and storage rates themselves are not printed in the Municipal Code. Sec. 80.77.4 B.3 delegates them: each Official Police Garage contract "shall provide for towing and storage fees which shall be uniform throughout the City", those fees "shall be determined by the Board" (the Board of Police Commissioners, defined in Sec. 80.77.4 A), the Board must consider the Los Angeles County Transportation Index as a factor, and the fees are effective for a calendar year. A driver looking for the per tow charge or the per day storage rate will not find either in the LAMC; both come out of the Board's annual rate determination and the garage contract. Police directed tows run through 18 Official Police Garage service areas whose boundaries are the maps on file with the City Clerk in Council File 08-0418, contracts run a fixed term of five years with one five year renewal option, and each garage must maintain its primary storage facility inside the City.

Getting the vehicle back is governed by the towing operation permit rules in Chapter X. Sec. 103.204(j) requires every permitted towing operation to provide for release of vehicles Monday through Friday from 9:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m., excluding officially recognized holidays. Operators may open longer and many do, but those are the hours the permit compels, and the Board may adjust a permittee's release days and hours only on an application showing hardship. Sec. 103.204(k)(1) requires a sign listing the rules and charges of all services offered, conspicuously placed in the office or other place where customer financial transactions take place, in letters at least one inch high with a one quarter inch stroke and in a color contrasting with the background. Under Sec. 103.204(k)(2) the operator files a schedule of rates and charges with the Board on application, may make no charge outside that schedule, and must give the Board 10 days written notice of any change while posting a duplicate copy beside the existing schedule for the same 10 days. Sec. 103.204(f) entitles the registered owner, the legal owner, either one's insurance carrier, or an authorized agent to an itemized statement of services performed, labor and special equipment used, and the operator must furnish the copy "without demanding payment as a condition precedent". Sec. 103.204(e) also bars attaching a vehicle to a tow unit before written authorization listing the services offered and the rates and charges is obtained and a signed copy handed to the person authorizing the tow, carrying the business name, address, phone number and the days and hours the yard is open for release.

Challenging the tow runs through the state post storage hearing. Sec. 80.77(e) implements the hearing provisions of California Vehicle Code Sec. 22852 whenever a vehicle is removed from a signed tow away zone under Sec. 80.77(d) or stored as provided in Sec. 22852. Where the tow follows the 72 consecutive hour street storage rule in Sec. 80.77(a), an officer who can identify the owner from the vehicle or from DMV records must immediately give written notice of the removal, the grounds for it and the place the vehicle went, with a copy to the proprietor of any public garage holding it. If the owner cannot be identified and the vehicle is not returned within 120 hours, Sec. 80.77(c) requires the officer to mail a report to the Department of Motor Vehicles in Sacramento describing the vehicle, the date, time and place it was taken from, the grounds, and the garage holding it.

Boots are treated separately and more cheaply. Sec. 80.77.2(a) sets a $150.00 immobilization charge where a vehicle is booted under Vehicle Code Sec. 22651.7 and its owner or the person in control has five or more delinquent parking notices, but subsection (b) removes that charge where the vehicle is towed to an impound garage before release rather than released in place. The boot notice must state the right to a post immobilization hearing on the validity of the immobilization and on any booting, towing or storage charges, conducted by an appointed hearing officer within 48 hours of the request excluding weekends and holidays. The device stays in place 72 hours unless the owner complies with Sec. 22651.7 or the hearing officer orders it removed, and a booted vehicle in a tow away zone, a restricted parking area, or blocking traffic remains subject to immediate towing. Since Ord. No. 185,756, effective 10/14/18, a motorist who pays all outstanding fines and the boot fee gets an unlock code for a self releasing boot, then has 48 hours excluding weekends and holidays to return the device, with a $25 per day fine capped at $500 for a late return and a repair or replacement cost of up to $500 for a damaged one.

Private property towing is handled by Sec. 80.71.4. A property owner or person in lawful possession may remove an unauthorized vehicle to the nearest public garage, but on anything other than property improved with a single family dwelling only where a sign of not less than 24 inches by 24 inches is displayed in plain view stating that public parking is prohibited, indicating that parked vehicles will be removed at the expense of the vehicle owner, and carrying a Los Angeles Police Department telephone number that the person parking can call and that the property owner uses to give notice of the intent to remove. Subsection (d) requires the person causing the removal to comply with all the notice provisions of California Vehicle Code Sec. 22658 both before and after the tow, which is where the state one hour wait, the reduced drop charge for an owner who returns before the vehicle leaves the lot, and the duty to accept a credit card come from. Subsection (e) makes LAPD tell a requesting property owner which number belongs on the sign.