Minneapolis, MN Parking Rules: Towing & Impound Rights (2026)

Two separate rule sets apply in Minneapolis depending on who ordered the tow. When a police officer, traffic control agent or other authorized city agent orders an impoundment from public property, Chapter 478, Article X governs, and section 478.1080 builds in a free walk-away: if the owner or operator appears before the vehicle has been hooked to the tow truck and the wheels hoisted from the ground, the operator must release it without payment of any fee or towing charge. Once the wheels are up, once a power winch has been used, or once the car has been moved forward but not yet off the block it was parked on, the operator may collect a service fee capped at $15.00 between November 15th and April 1st and $5.00 during other times of the year, and must give a receipt for it. Those same two figures have to ride on the truck: section 349.185 requires every licensee towing from public property to post the drop charge on each service vehicle in letters not less than two inches high. The higher winter number lines up with the season in which cars get towed off snow emergency routes, which section 478.1020 authorizes at the owner’s cost and expense. Section 478.1080 does not apply to a vehicle taken as abandoned under Minn. Stat. ch. 168B or as a scofflaw vehicle under Minn. Stat. 169.041.

The impound tow and storage rate itself is not in the ordinance. Section 478.1070 says only that the charge for towing and storage, including administration and clerical expenses, shall be set by the city. Section 478.1050 has the purchasing agent advertise for bids by towing district, the city council picks the winner for each district under section 478.1055, and that impound tower files a $100,000 bond with the city finance officer conditioned on the safekeeping of towed vehicles and the property inside them (section 478.1060). Redemption runs through section 478.1046: only the registered owner, someone the owner authorizes, a lienholder of record or a buyer with proof of ownership may collect the car, and the impound lot must accept cash, major bank credit cards, certified bank drafts, money orders and personal checks, though it may ask for two pieces of identification on a personal check and may refuse a check it has reasonable cause to believe is uncollectible. The supervisor of impound and towing must mail notice to the registered owner, and to any known lienholder or other claimant, not more than 72 hours after impoundment, with Saturdays, Sundays and city holidays excluded from that count, and the lot must also post its redemption procedure on a sign in a conspicuous place (section 478.1044).

Private property tows are licensed as Class A motor vehicle service under Chapter 349, and the real price control sits in the parking lot chapter. Under section 319.230(e) any lot that tows unauthorized vehicles must post a sign at each entrance, at least two feet by three feet with letters at least two inches high, carrying the Class A tower’s license number, name and telephone number and the current fee charged for towing, and no tower may charge more than the amount shown on that sign at the time of the tow. Section 349.105 goes further and bars a licensee from towing at all from a lot whose signage does not comply. Section 349.80 gives the same pre-hoist free release on private property, with a fixed drop charge afterward that each Class A licensee has to file with the police license inspector under section 349.60(b). The car must go directly to a storage lot the licensee owns or operates inside Minneapolis city limits, with no temporary drop anywhere else, and the lot must be staffed for release at all hours except midnight to 8:00 a.m. Monday through Thursday (section 349.140). Storage does not begin to accrue until 12:01 a.m. of the day following the tow, and no licensee may charge more than ten days of storage until it has given the notice Minn. Stat. 168B.06 requires (section 349.115). Section 349.120 bars any demand for payment, for a signed delivery receipt, or for a release from liability before the owner has had a reasonable opportunity to inspect the vehicle for damage or loss of contents.