Madison, WI Parking Rules: Towing & Impound Rights (2026)

Madison splits the non-consensual tow across three chapters, and the private-lot rules are the ones a driver meets first. Sec. 23.561, created by ORD-12-00093 and rewritten by ORD-14-00125 effective July 1, 2014, turns four steps of the state trespass-parking procedure into City offenses. A tow operator may not pull a car off a private lot without first giving the Madison Police Department the make, model, vehicle identification number and registration plate number along with the address the car is going to. It may not tow a vehicle that has been reported stolen. It may not tow at all unless the lot is properly posted, a repossession judgment has issued, or a parking, traffic or police officer has taken a formal complaint and written a parking citation. And nobody but a licensed tow service may do the removal, which shuts out the lot owner and the property manager.

What Madison does not do is set its own price. The dollar ceilings on a trespass tow come from the state administrative code, Wis. Admin. Code section Trans 319.03(1), which caps the tow itself at $150 and daily storage at $25 outdoors or $35 indoors, under the authority of Wis. Stat. section 349.13(3m). Madison layers procedure on top of those ceilings rather than replacing them, so a driver arguing about a private tow in Madison is usually arguing about notice and posting rather than about the rate.

The one fee Madison does cap itself is the boot. Sec. 23.56(13) fixes the maximum removal fee a private parking enforcer may charge at $50.00, and the rest of Sec. 23.56 is unusually detailed about how that $50 may be collected. The lot must carry a sign at every vehicular entrance plus one more for every 10 parking spaces, each at least 12 inches by 18 inches, stating that unauthorized parking is prohibited, that an immobilization device may be used, and whether a removal fee will be charged and how much. The device itself must carry a sequentially numbered written notice with the enforcer name and a telephone number staffed 24 hours a day. Once the driver calls, the enforcer has 60 minutes to appear, cut to 10 minutes when the request comes from a Madison Police Department or Department of Transportation employee on duty. The enforcer must display a photograph identification card before releasing the boot, and Sec. 23.56(7) forbids conditioning release on a credit card number, a business address, a business telephone number, goods, services, or a waiver of legal rights.

A driver who does not want to pay on the spot may sign a deferral agreement instead, then pay or contest within 14 days. Contesting means an appeal to the Transportation Commission under Sec. 23.565, filed within 14 days of the boot coming off. The enforcer then has 14 days to answer, and failing to answer counts as an admission of every material allegation. The Commission decides on the written filings alone, and the burden of proof sits on the parking enforcer, who must show the car was illegally parked, that the lot was posted under Sec. 23.56(3), and that the fee was within the $50 limit. If the driver wins, the enforcer pays the driver an amount equal to the removal fee within 14 days. A boot applied to a lawfully parked car triggers that same payment automatically under Sec. 23.56(12), with no appeal needed.

Booting also requires a City license. Sec. 9.51 charges a nonrefundable $25 application fee, demands proof of at least $1,000,000 in bodily injury and property damage coverage per use of an immobilization device, and requires a two inch by two inch photograph of the applicant and of every employee. Licenses expire at midnight on June 30. The City Clerk may revoke a license once a licensee collects five or more convictions under Sec. 23.56 or Sec. 23.565 in a rolling 12 months, and a revoked or refused applicant waits six months before reapplying. Every private enforcement service also files a monthly log of immobilized vehicles with the Chief of Police.

When the City itself tows, Sec. 12.1331 applies. The Police Department, the Department of Transportation and, for fire lane violations under Sec. 34.503(1)(b), the Fire Department may tow, and the owner of a lawfully towed vehicle forfeits $115 on top of whatever the removal, impounding, immobilization, storage or disposal actually costs. Parking in a posted commuter lane or towaway zone carries $115 to $500. Note that the schedule of cash deposits printed earlier in the same code export still lists the older $65 and $45 figures for Sec. 12.1331(3) and (4); the section text carries the later amendments, ORD-23-00119 of December 19, 2023 and ORD-24-00020 of March 29, 2024. Sec. 12.1331(5) directs the Transportation Commission to review those forfeitures beginning in 2025 and once every two years after, so confirm the current number with the Parking Division before relying on it.