North Charleston, SC Parking Rules: Towing & Impound Rights (2026)

Article IX of Chapter 10.5 of the North Charleston Code, Nonconsensual Towing of Vehicles, was adopted by Ord. No. 2019-013 on April 11, 2019, and its fee schedule was last amended by Ord. No. 2025-001 on January 9, 2025. City council wrote its own findings into Sec. 10.5-1100, stating that vehicle owners towed from private property are at the complete mercy of the tow truck operators and are subjected to price gouging, and the rest of the article is the remedy it built.

Sec. 10.5-1113 fixes the ceiling. For a Class A wrecker or car carrier the tow is $185.00 and storage is $25.00 for each twenty-four hour period; for a Class D wrecker the tow is $250.00 and storage is $30.00 per period. The same figures apply to the no-tow or decoupling fee, $185.00 for Class A and $250.00 for Class D, and an after hours redemption or release of personal property, where the lot offers one, is capped at $30.00. Nothing else may be added: the section states that no private property owner or wrecker service may assess any additional cost or fee, nor characterize any further recourse as being in the nature of a fine. Sec. 10.5-1105 allows only two extras, $10.00 if dollies are required and used and $10.00 to cover certified or registered mail notice to the owner and lienholder, and it declares any charge that passes money back to the property owner an unfair trade practice.

The timing rules are where North Charleston goes past the state framework. S.C. Code § 29-15-10 sets no statewide rate cap on towing or storage, so the $185.00 and $250.00 numbers are purely local. Sec. 10.5-1103(c)(3) gives the wrecker service sixty minutes from the removal to telephone the North Charleston Police Duty Officer and verbally report the tow along with the location where the vehicle may be claimed, tracking the notice duty in S.C. Code § 56-5-2525. Sec. 10.5-1103(e) requires an operator or attendant on call during normal business hours who must hand the vehicle over no later than forty-five minutes after a proper request, and it forbids any additional fee once those forty-five minutes have run. If the owner walks up before the car is physically connected to the tow truck, subsection (g) limits the charge to the no-tow fee; if it is already connected, subsection (h) requires the operator to disconnect and return it on payment of no more than the maximum towing charge.

Several duties protect what is inside the car. Sec. 10.5-1104(e) and Sec. 10.5-1109(e) require the wrecker service to hand over personal property without charge and without regard to any unpaid towing or storage bill, and Sec. 10.5-1101 defines personal property to include strollers, car seats, diaper bags, walkers, crutches, medications and prescriptions, wallets, handbags and identity papers. Sec. 10.5-1104(c) bars staging: except on police directed tows, the wrecker must proceed directly from the property to the final storage location. Sec. 10.5-1106 requires every storage facility doing business in the city to accept major credit cards with no added fee, and Sec. 10.5-1107 requires a sign at the place of payment listing the maximum fees and the required methods of payment. Sec. 10.5-1102 requires the carrier name, address and telephone number to be permanently affixed to each side of the truck and prohibits magnetic signs. Sec. 10.5-1114 carves police generated tows out of the article entirely.