Orlando, FL Parking Rules: Towing & Impound Rights (2026)

Article IX of Chapter 39 governs every trespass and private property tow that begins inside the city limits, and it fixes maximum rates by four weight classes. Class A covers vehicles up to and including 10,000 pounds at $125.00 for the tow and $20.00 maximum daily storage. Class B, more than 10,000 and up to 19,500 pounds, is $250.00 with $30.00 daily storage. Class C, more than 19,500 and up to 50,000 pounds and upright and in a towable condition, is $375.00 with $60.00 storage. Class D, above 50,000 pounds, is $500.00 with $60.00 storage. Immobilization is $22.00 per 24-hour period in every class. Section 39.89(3) bars any charge at all for the first twenty-four hours the vehicle is in the operator's control, measured from delivery to the storage facility and in 24-hour increments rather than calendar days; a $50.00 administrative fee becomes available only after the first forty-eight hours, and only if the company has executed and mailed the lien notice required by section 713.78, Florida Statutes.

If the owner or agent reaches the vehicle before it leaves, section 39.88 stops the tow. Once the vehicle is connected the operator may charge a drop fee of not more than one-half the applicable rate, which works out to $62.50 on a Class A tow, and must then wait at least twenty minutes at the scene for the driver to get payment together and disconnect the vehicle within twenty minutes of being paid. No fee at all may be charged if the vehicle turns out to have been lawfully parked. Payment for a drop or a boot release must be accepted at the scene or somewhere within one-half mile, and no one can be made to travel farther than that to free an immobilized car.

Section 39.86 carries the operational duties. The company must notify the Orlando Police Department at (321) 235-5300 within thirty minutes of finishing a private property tow, and pays the City $10.00 for each notification, a fee it may pass to the vehicle owner but not exceed. Trespass-towed vehicles must be stored within a ten-mile radius of where they were picked up and driven there directly, with staging in a holding area prohibited. A booted vehicle cannot be towed until four hours after the boot went on, and when a vehicle is both booted and towed only the tow rate applies. The lot must staff a phone twenty-four hours a day, return an owner's call within an hour, have the vehicle available within an hour of request, release it within thirty minutes of payment, and accept cash, money order and cashier's or bank check. Owners may retrieve unattached personal property at the scene or before paying, free of charge, and may inspect the vehicle before accepting it back without signing any damage waiver. Where a lot issues temporary visitor permits, a car must be observed illegally parked for at least fifteen minutes first, and no vehicle may be towed or booted while a person or a live animal is inside.

Signage is prescribed down to letter height. Notices go at each driveway or curb cut within five feet of the right-of-way line, or one sign per 25 feet of frontage where there are no curbs, in two-inch reflective letters, with "Tow-Away Zone" in four-inch letters and "Strictly Enforced" in two-inch letters. The sign structure may be no more than thirty-six inches tall and eighteen inches wide, must carry "Tow-Away Zone" between three and six feet above ground, and must stand for twenty-four hours before any vehicle is removed. Rates themselves must be posted in two-inch letters at the point of payment at the storage yard.