New Orleans, LA Parking Rules: Towing & Impound Rights (2026)

Two chapters carry this subject in Orleans Parish. Chapter 154, Article VIII, Division 3, headed Seizure or Immobilization of Certain Vehicles, governs vehicles the city itself takes. Sec. 154-777(a) makes any unoccupied vehicle found on a street or highway with a recorded and unpaid delinquent parking citation subject to immediate immobilization or towing and impoundment, or both, and Sec. 154-778(a) lets the parking division act against any vehicle with three or more adjudicated citations whose assessed fees, fines or penalties remain unpaid. Chapter 66, Article III supplies the redemption and hearing track that runs beside it.

Release under Sec. 154-777(b) goes only to the registered owner or that owner's agent, and on one of two footings: a cash bond covering the fines and penalties for every unpaid citation recorded against the vehicle plus the towing, immobilization and storage fees, or a form prepared by the department of law waiving the right to a hearing, admitting liability and paying the same amounts. Whoever posts a bond is issued a notice to appear, and both Sec. 154-777(c) and Sec. 154-778(d) require an expedited hearing within three business days of a written request. The bond is forfeited if the parking adjudication bureau's assessment goes unpaid for six months, and returned if the owner is found not liable.

The city fixes no tow or storage rate of its own. Sec. 154-777(f) adopts, for immobilization, towing, storage, administrative fees and gate fees alike, the rates the Louisiana Public Service Commission sets annually in its Schedule of Prescribed Rates and Requirements for Non-Consensual Towing and Recovery Services. Storage accrues only after the first 24 hours. Sec. 154-776 pushes that to 72 hours and charges no towing fee at all when the police impound a vehicle a departmental brake inspector has found unsafe, and that vehicle comes back only on a recognized mechanic's authority that it will be made safe first.

Where New Orleans does set its own figures they are local and specific. A self-releasing boot not returned to the parking division within one business day costs the owner $25.00 a day up to $500.00 under Sec. 154-778(c), which also bars the division from handing out the combination code to anyone but the owner or an authorized agent until the fines and the boot fee are paid. Sec. 66-112 charges the property owner, occupant or lessee who asks the policing authority in writing to remove a vehicle from private property a $100.00 administrative fee, and lets the authority demand indemnification against loss arising from the removal, storage or sale. Sec. 154-778(f) requires the department of police to notify the last owner of record, traced by license tag or VIN, of the place of impoundment once a vehicle has gone unreclaimed for 24 hours, and Sec. 66-109 sets the probable cause hearing on a removal within 72 hours, exclusive of legal holidays, of the request.