Arkansas Lets You Buy Your Belongings Back for 5% of the Tow Bill

Arkansas regulates towing through licensing and complaint adjudication rather than a published tariff. The Arkansas Towing and Recovery Board, housed in the Department of Labor and Licensing, licenses every nonconsent towing, storage, immobilization and repossession business for $150 a year and permits each tow truck for $72 under 27 CAR § 170-108. There is no rule in the board's Part 170 that fixes a maximum hookup, per-mile or per-day storage rate. Instead 27 CAR § 170-111 tells the board what to weigh when deciding whether a bill was excessive or unnecessary: the size and number of trucks needed, total time on scene, regular employees required, extra people actually used, special equipment, the location of the vehicle, hazardous materials or cargo recovery, weather, and comparison with reasonable prices in the region. That rule also settles the argument that starts most storage disputes by presuming that a storage day runs midnight to midnight, so a car retrieved at 9 a.m. cannot be charged for two days on a same-night tow.

The 2025 reform, Act 932, was signed on April 21, 2025 with an emergency clause and took effect that day. Its most useful provision for drivers is a new subdivision (D) added to Arkansas Code § 27-50-1208(a)(2). A possessory lien no longer extends to the contents of a personal vehicle once the owner or an authorized representative pays a fee of no more than five percent of the towing and storage invoice, or to freight cargo once the owner pays no more than twenty percent. You must give the firm an assurance of future financial responsibility for the full invoice, but the statute says in terms that you cannot be made to pay the whole invoice before your belongings are released, and whatever you pay under the cap is credited against the final bill. Whoever collects the property has to be insured for damage caused at the tow yard during the pickup.

Police-initiated tows get their own rule in the same subdivision. If there is no dispute about the fees, you pay the invoice and the firm must release the vehicle and any cargo immediately. If there is a genuine dispute about whether the fees are reasonable, the company must still release the cargo immediately on proof of ownership, or, where the cargo belongs to a transportation company, on a letter from the vehicle owner's insurer giving a claim number, a policy number and the policy limits, or a signed letter of guarantee if the carrier's policy will not cover the cleanup.

Notice charges are capped even though tow rates are not. Under 27 CAR § 170-110(c) a licensee may charge no more than the greater of $25 or actual postage for each notice required by law, and one notice counts as one charge no matter how many owners and lienholders receive it. A booted vehicle must carry a conspicuous sticker stating that it has been immobilized, the immobilizing company's name, location and local phone number, a 48-hour limit before the vehicle is towed, and the name, location and phone number of the company that will tow it.

If a vehicle sits unclaimed for 45 days after the towing lien is perfected by keeping possession and mailing certified notice under § 27-50-1208(b)(2) or (3), it goes to a nonjudicial public sale under §§ 27-50-1208 through 27-50-1210. Owners looking for a missing car have a free search tool: 27 CAR § 170-116 requires the tow business to post the vehicle on the board's website by the tenth business day after the tow, to post any scheduled sale at least 15 days beforehand with the specific sale date, and to make the listing searchable by full VIN, make, model, year and the county of impound. Consumers and law enforcement use the site at no cost.

Act 932 also rebuilt the board itself. All sitting members were removed on the effective date and the Governor appoints nine members confirmed by the Senate to three-year terms: three licensed nonconsent tow operators, the Director of the Division of Arkansas State Police or a designee, a current or former municipal police chief or county sheriff, a commercial trucking insurance representative, a trucking industry member, a consumer representative with no towing affiliation, and someone with at least five years of fire and emergency response experience. Part 170 does not reach car carriers built for five or more vehicles operating under FMCSA authority, government-owned trucks used noncommercially, or tow vehicles used for personal, antique or parade purposes.

Complaints go to the Arkansas Towing and Recovery Board under Arkansas Code § 27-50-1218. gov. Under 27 CAR § 170-105 the board investigates, and the deadlines cut both ways. You must answer a staff request for more information within 10 days or the complaint is dismissed, though you may ask in writing for an extension within those 10 days. The tow business has 10 business days to answer a staff request and is fined up to $25 per day until it does. or a board rule, it may fine or impose a civil penalty, reprimand, suspend or revoke the license or permit, and award you restitution.

Restitution covers actual losses only, never punitive damages, and filing with the board does not give up any other legal remedy. The company gets at least 15 days written notice of a hearing and can appear with counsel and cross-examine, and the board may summarily suspend a license where public health or safety imperatively requires it. , closes, and an unpaid fine lets the board ask the Office of Motor Vehicle to suspend the tow company's own license plates and registration. Failing to post a vehicle on the board's website carries a civil penalty of up to $5,000, license suspension or revocation, or both.