Fairfax County, VA Parking Rules: Towing & Impound Rights (2026)

Section 82-5-32 sets the minimum requirements for every trespass tow initiated in Fairfax County, and it applies even when the vehicle is hauled to a lot outside the County. Subsection (g)(2) is the price list. Hookup and initial towing may not exceed $210.00 for a passenger car, $210 for a non-passenger vehicle rated at 7,500 pounds GVWR or less, $305.00 from 7,501 through 10,000 pounds, and $610.00 above 10,000 pounds. A $30.00 surcharge applies to a tow between 7:00 p.m. and 8:00 a.m. or on a Saturday, Sunday, or holiday, and no more than two such surcharges may be charged for one vehicle. Nothing else at all may be billed during the first 24-hour period. Storage is free for the first 24 hours; after that the operator may charge up to $61.00 for each following 24-hour period, or any part of one, for a vehicle 22 feet or shorter, and $5.00 per foot for anything longer. An administrative fee for handling an unclaimed vehicle is capped at $92.00 and may not be charged until the car has been on the site more than three full business days, and the DMV report behind it must be handed over on request within ten business days. Booting is priced separately: releasing an immobilized vehicle costs at most $75.00, and the ordinance adds that no other fee of any type may be charged. The drop fee, owed when the truck is already hooked up but still on the lot, is capped at $80.00, and if the driver reaches the car before it is connected there is no fee at all. Virginia leaves this schedule to the County: Va. Code § 46.2-1233 lets a locality set its own reasonable limits, subject to a floor of $135 for the hookup and initial towing fee in Planning District 8, which is Northern Virginia.

On recovery, a towed or immobilized vehicle must be immediately available for release at the owner's request, the storage site must be staffed and open 24 hours a day and seven days a week, and the operator must take cash, two major national credit cards, and MasterCard or Visa debit cards, with personal checks accepted when the card machines are unavailable. Personal property in the car must be released immediately and free of charge. The receipt has to itemize every fee and carry the driver's employee number, the name of whoever authorized the tow, the reason for it, and the phone number of the Department of Cable and Consumer Services for filing a complaint. An operator may not require the owner to sign away the right to compensation for damage to the vehicle as a condition of release.

Signage is prescribed down to the typeface. Entrance signs must be metal, 18 inches high by 12 inches wide, reflective red on a reflective white background with a 3/8 inch trim strip, using Series B or Clearview lettering, reading "Towing Enforced" in two-inch letters and "If Towed Call 703-691-2131" in one-inch letters. A tow originating in the Town of Vienna must instead show 703-255-6366, and one in the Town of Herndon 703-435-6846. Where a non-residential lot carries no such sign, a warning notice must be affixed to the vehicle and the tow may not occur for 48 hours, although a second offense on the same unmarked lot may be towed at once. Single-family homes outside a common interest community need neither sign nor notice. The operator must report the tow to the Department of Public Safety Communications within 30 minutes, drive the vehicle directly to an approved storage site, and if that site is outside Fairfax County keep it within a straight-line ten miles of the tow origin as measured on County GIS and Mapping Services Branch data and inside Virginia. An unclaimed vehicle stays in that lot for 15 calendar days. Rates are not fixed forever: the Director reviews them every two years or at the request of the five-member Trespass Towing Advisory Board, which holds a public hearing before recommending any change to the Board of Supervisors, and operators must post notice of a proposed change on an 8.5 by 11 inch sheet in at least 12-point type within ten days of the staff report.