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

Two chapters of the Code of the City of New Orleans carry this subject. Chapter 154 (Traffic and Vehicles), Division 3, headed Seizure or Immobilization of Certain Vehicles, governs vehicles the city seizes over parking debt. 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, by a police officer or other authorized person. Sec. 154-778(a) separately lets the parking division or another duly authorized agency immobilize, tow or impound any vehicle with three or more adjudicated parking citations when any assessed fees, fines or penalties on those citations are still unpaid. Chapter 66 (Environment) supplies the redemption and hearing track for abandoned and nuisance vehicles removed by the policing authority, defined in Sec. 66-102 as the police department or another authorized agency.

Sec. 154-777(e) ties the unoccupied-vehicle power to a list of parking violations in chapter 34 and chapter 154, and Sec. 154-777(i) adds a narrower list that supports immobilization of oversized vehicles. The vehicle comes back only on a payment or a waiver. Sec. 154-777(b) releases it solely to the duly registered owner or that owner's agent, either on a cash bond equal to the fines and penalties on every unpaid citation recorded against the vehicle (including the citation that caused the tow) plus towing, immobilization and storage fees, or, for the person actually charged, on a form prepared by the department of law that waives the hearing, admits liability and pays the fines and fees for the period of impoundment or immobilization. Sec. 154-778(b) uses the same test: the parking division releases a vehicle only when all outstanding fines and penalties recorded against it and all towing, immobilization or storage fees are paid in full or covered by a cash or surety bond.

A bond buys a hearing, and the clock on it is short. A person who deposits a bond receives a notice to appear, and Sec. 154-777(c) and Sec. 154-778(d) both promise an expedited hearing within three business days of a written request. The Sec. 154-778(d) hearing has a narrow scope: whether the vehicle belongs to the owner or the owner's agent and whether that person failed to appear when required, admitted liability and did not pay, or was found liable and did not pay. A bond is forfeited if the fines assessed by the parking adjudication bureau go unpaid for six months after assessment (Sec. 154-777(d), Sec. 154-778(g)), and it is returned to the depositor or agent when the responsible person is found not liable (Sec. 154-777(d), Sec. 154-778(e)).

The fee schedule is set by the state, with one city formula layered on top. Sec. 154-777(f) directs the department to collect towing and storage fees, including administrative and gate fees, at the rates the Louisiana Public Service Commission establishes annually in its Schedule of Prescribed Rates and Requirements for Non-Consensual Towing and Recovery Services. The immobilization fee is 75% of the minimum non-consensual towing rate for the vehicle's weight rating in that Schedule, rounded up to the nearest dollar. Under Sec. 154-777(g) and (h), every impounded vehicle is assessed a towing fee, and a storage fee starts after the first 24 hours; truck tractors, semitrailers, boats, buses, school buses, freight-carrying vehicles, trailers, tow trucks and dump trucks, dual-axle or tandem-axle, fall in the heavier class. Sec. 154-777(j) applies the same tow-then-storage structure to vehicles impounded through immobilization, and treats boats over 18 feet with the heavy class.

Boots have their own rules. For a self-releasing boot, Sec. 154-778(c) has the parking division hand over the combination code only to the owner or an authorized agent once all unpaid parking fines, penalties and the boot fee are paid, and the division must assist with removal on request. If the boot is not returned within one business day after removal, the owner is fined $25.00 per day up to $500.00. If a vehicle sits impounded for 24 hours without being reclaimed, Sec. 154-778(f) requires the department of police to notify the last owner of record, traced by license tag or VIN, of where it is held.

Chapter 66 works differently. A vehicle is abandoned when it is left on a public street in violation of a parking prohibition, sits inoperable on public property for more than three days, stays on private property without the owner's consent for more than 24 hours (inoperable) or more than three days, or is left on city property for more than three days (Sec. 66-102). Sec. 66-105 requires a windshield notice giving a removal date at least 48 hours out, Sec. 66-106 excuses the notice for traffic obstructions and the designated places in Sec. 154-777, and Sec. 66-107 and Sec. 66-108 send storage, disposal, notice and hearing procedures to the Louisiana Towing and Storage Act (R.S. 32:1711 through 32:1735). Sec. 66-109 sets a probable cause hearing within 72 hours, exclusive of legal holidays, of the request, and Sec. 66-110 lets the owner redeem at any stage, including before that hearing, by paying the tow and storage charges or posting a bond for double the amount. Sec. 66-112 charges the owner, occupant or lessee who requests removal from private property a $100.00 administrative fee, and Sec. 66-114 exempts vehicles in enclosed buildings and vehicles legally parked within 50 feet of the property line of the owner or occupant, unless the vehicle is a nuisance vehicle.