Oak Lawn, IL Parking Rules: Towing & Impound Rights (2026)

5, and, added by Ord. 24-01-02, operating a bus in violation of Title 11, Chapter 15. Two carve-outs matter to owners. The chapter does not apply if the vehicle was stolen at the time and the theft was reported to police within twenty four hours of discovery, and a suspended-licence tow is off the table when the suspension is for an unpaid parking or moving citation or for failing to comply with emission testing. The release path runs through two hearings. At or before the tow the officer must notify, or reasonably attempt to notify, the owner, lessee or whoever is in control of the vehicle, and must tell them about the preliminary hearing right.

That preliminary hearing is requested in writing within twenty four hours and is conducted by the Chief of Police or a designee within twenty four hours of receiving the request, excluding Saturdays, Sundays and village holidays. If the Chief finds probable cause the vehicle stays impounded unless the $600 bond is posted and the tower is paid; if there is no probable cause the vehicle comes back without penalty or other fees. Within ten days of the tow the village must give notice, by personal service or first class mail to the Secretary of State address, of a posttow hearing before a hearing officer designated by the Village Manager who has been licensed to practice law in Illinois for at least three years.

That officer decides by a preponderance of the evidence, may direct witnesses to appear, and enters a default order if the owner does not show up. A finding for the village makes the owner civilly liable for the $600 and keeps the vehicle impounded until both the village fee and the tower's charges are paid. Miss the deadlines and the vehicle is gone. An owner who defaults at the posttow hearing has thirty five days to pay before the vehicle is deemed unclaimed and disposed of under the Illinois Vehicle Code.

In every other case the clock is thirty days after the window for judicial review closes, or thirty days after a review action is resolved in the village's favor. Section 11-14-6 lets a lienholder who has started foreclosure take possession first, but only on a written agreement to refund the village the net foreclosure proceeds up to the administrative fee plus applicable fees, and it defines owner of record as the record titleholder registered with the Illinois Secretary of State. A second and cheaper track applies to parking tickets.

Under section 11-5-14 a registered owner with three or more unadjudicated or unpaid parking complaints goes on the immobilization list after twenty one days' written notice sent by certified and first class mail. The boot notice gives twenty four hours to pay, to present filed appearances from the Circuit Court of Cook County, or to deposit collateral of five dollars per outstanding complaint up to $750; after that the vehicle is towed. 00), and no fee at all is assessed for an immobilization or tow later determined to be in error.

Contesting those charges requires a $25 deposit on each fee within twenty one days of the impoundment notice, with a hearing before a hearing officer designated by the chief within forty eight hours; failing to attend forfeits the deposits, and the hearing decides only whether the fees were properly assessed, never the underlying tickets. Notice of impoundment goes out by certified and first class mail within fifteen days, and after thirty days the vehicle is treated as abandoned under Chapter 10 of Title 11. Two points of confusion are worth clearing up.

The $1,000 per towing vehicle figure and the $5,000 underreporting fine that appear in the village's fee tables are business registration and licence charges billed to tow companies operating in Oak Lawn, not anything a vehicle owner pays. And Oak Lawn's own removal authority for ordinary parking situations sits in section 11-5-11, which lets police remove a vehicle that is disabled and obstructing traffic, parked as a hazard, abandoned, sitting in a meter space too long, parked against a posted sign, or standing within fifteen feet of a fire hydrant, with all removals carried out under the Chief of Police's standing general order rather than a rate schedule in the code.

That section also covers vehicles removed from private property without the owner's consent. Oak Lawn is in Cook County, where the state's Commercial Relocation of Trespassing Vehicles Law applies under 625 ILCS 5/18a-700 unless the village has excluded itself by resolution, and nothing in the codified village code sets local rates or limits for those private lot tows.