Reno, NV Parking Rules: Towing & Impound Rights (2026)

Reno does not publish a tow rate schedule of its own. What a tow may cost is a state question: RMC 6.10.020 defines an "operator of a tow car" to include any tow company holding a certificate of public convenience and necessity from the state regulator, and RMC 6.10.180 requires every operator to comply with NRS, NAC and other law. What the city regulates instead is conduct, in unusual detail. Chapter 6.10 sorts tows into Category A (a law enforcement, owner or driver request needing a tow car of 9,000 pounds unladen weight or more), Category B (the same request with lighter equipment) and Category C (a tow requested by anyone else). Category C is the non-consent tow this page is about.

Before a Category C tow or a boot happens, a clock runs. Under RMC 6.10.065 a booting company patrolling under contract must call an independent dispatch service the moment it spots a violation and wait at least ten minutes before the boot goes on. Where a property owner requests one vehicle individually, the request is logged with a dispatch service, an authorization slip is signed showing the time, the same ten minutes must elapse, and the person who authorized the tow or boot must remain present while it is carried out. If you reach your car before those ten minutes run out, RMC 6.10.065(e) lets you drive away with no boot and no charge. A booting company then has 45 minutes to answer a release request and must release the car immediately on payment.

Getting the vehicle back draws on several sections at once. RMC 6.10.030 requires release at the point of origination if you ask before the tow leaves and pay the release fee. RMC 6.10.070 requires access to a stored vehicle during normal business hours with no charge for the first visit, a written procedure for release outside those hours, and a chance to inspect and inventory the vehicle before release, after which the operator must either resolve a damage or theft complaint or name its insurer and explain how to claim. RMC 6.10.050 bars holding cargo or personal property as security for the bill, and RMC 6.10.190 forbids a cash-only demand.

The refund rules are the sharpest teeth here. RMC 6.10.090 voids every charge, and orders repayment of anything already collected, if the person who requested the tow was not the property owner or an authorized agent, if the lot lacked the signs state or city law required, if a fee-charging lot did not follow the rules, if the tow operator failed to notify police within one hour as RMC 6.10.140 requires for a Category C tow, or if a booting company took longer than 45 minutes to answer a release request. RMC 6.10.110 forces the bill to itemize sixteen specified items, including the odometer reading on arrival at the vehicle and again at the storage yard, so the charges can be checked line by line.

Boots carry their own rules. The warning placard must be blaze orange, no smaller than 44 square inches, fixed to the center of the driver's side window or to the windshield in front of the steering wheel, and the company must offer to remove the decal and its residue once you pay. RMC 6.10.210 lets it demand payment only in the immediate proximity of the booted car, RMC 6.10.220 makes the property owner who authorized the boot liable for damage to the vehicle, and RMC 5.16.020 requires booting companies to carry at least $25,000.00 of property damage and $100,000.00 of personal injury cover.

Paid parking lots sit under Chapter 6.09. A commercial lot may not impound for non-payment unless access is physically limited and it either issues a two-part serial-numbered receipt, one half reading "KEEP THIS RECEIPT WITH YOU" in twenty-four-point type, or offers the driver the chance to pay the parking fee plus a charge capped at ten percent of that fee or $5.00, whichever is greater, and nothing more. Producing the receipt is conclusive proof of payment under RMC 6.09.045 and the car must then be released immediately at no charge. An impound in breach of those sections is a ground for suspending or, on repeat violations, revoking the lot owner's business license.

Police-ordered impounds run separately. RMC 6.20.070 lets an officer impound an illegally parked vehicle, or one left unattended for 48 hours after a notice is posted on it, releasable only to the identified owner on payment of towing and storage. The scofflaw track at RMC 6.30.520 to 6.30.610 boots a vehicle carrying three or more unanswered notices of infraction within two years, with a hearing before a city hearing officer the next business day, a $50.00 immobilizer removal fee, and impoundment if the owner does not appear or does not pay. A vehicle left unclaimed for more than seven consecutive days is then treated as abandoned under NRS 487.205 to 487.270. Note that the heading of RMC 6.30.570 still reads "five or more" while its text, as amended by Ord. No. 6678 on 5-22-24, says three or more.