Connecticut Trespass Towing: $50 Drop Fee, Two-Hour Police Notice

The signage rule in Conn. Gen. Stat. § 14-145(a)(1) is the first thing to check after a Connecticut tow. An owner or lessee of private commercial property, or the agent, must install conspicuous signage stating that motor vehicles left without authorization may be removed or rendered immovable, and indicating where the vehicle will be stored, how it may be redeemed, and any costs or fees that may be charged. Six situations in subdivision (a)(2) let a lot tow with no sign at all: a vehicle in a space reserved under section 14-253a for exclusive use by persons who are blind and persons with disabilities without the required placard or plate, a vehicle in an area reserved for authorized emergency vehicles, a vehicle within ten feet of a fire hydrant, one blocking building access, one blocking entry or exit from the property, or one left for forty-eight or more hours. Repossessions by a lending institution under section 36a-785 also need no signage.

Section 14-145a(a) requires that no vehicle be towed or removed from private property except on the express instruction of the property owner, lessee or agent, or for repossession, and the same express-instruction rule applies to a wheel-locking device. Section 14-145a(b) bans the kickback that used to drive predatory towing: no towing firm may rebate or pay any money or other valuable consideration to the property owner, lessee, agent or lending institution for the privilege of towing, removing or booting the vehicle.

Once the vehicle moves, section 14-145(b)(1)(A) gives the wrecker two hours to notify the local police department, in writing or by facsimile or electronic mail, with the record retained under section 14-66b. Subparagraph (B) is the consumer teeth: no storage fee may be charged for the time the vehicle is stored before that notification. If the vehicle is not claimed within forty-eight hours, the wrecker or garage must immediately complete a notice of tow on a form prescribed by the Commissioner of Motor Vehicles and mail it certified mail, return receipt requested, to the owner and all lienholders of record. Within forty-eight hours of receiving the tow notice, the local police department must enter the vehicle identification number into the National Crime Information Center database and the Connecticut On-Line Law Enforcement Communications Teleprocessing System to check whether the vehicle was reported stolen.

Redemption is governed by section 14-145b. The vehicle must be stored at the site of the towing company's business in a secured storage lot that is open 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. Monday through Friday and reasonably available on Saturday, Sunday and holidays for redemption. It must be released to the owner or an authorized person on demand during those hours on proof of registration and payment of towing and storage. Subsection (c) gives you three rights at the counter: you may inspect the vehicle before accepting its return, you may not be required to sign any general release of liability for damage or for a claim that the tow was unjustified as a condition of getting the car back, and you must be given a receipt at the time of payment showing the name of the person or firm that towed the vehicle and an itemization of the charges.

Booting is capped in the statute itself. Under section 14-145(b)(2), the property owner, lessee or agent must notify the local police within two hours of immobilizing a vehicle and must keep the record on the property for at least six months for inspection. No fee may be charged to remove the device before that notification, the fee may not exceed fifty dollars, the person claiming the vehicle may choose to pay in cash, by check or by debit or credit card, and ten per cent of the fee must be remitted to the local police department. Section 14-145b(a)(2) requires personnel to be on the property for at least eight hours after a vehicle is immobilized, with signage describing redemption hours once those eight hours pass.

Tow and storage prices are not free market in Connecticut. Section 14-66(a)(2) directs the Commissioner of Motor Vehicles to establish and publish a schedule of uniform rates and charges for nonconsensual towing, transporting and storage that are just and reasonable, reconsidered on petition no more than once every two years after a public hearing, and section 14-66(a)(3) makes it unlawful to charge more than the published rates. An appeal from the commissioner runs under section 4-183 with venue in the judicial district of New Britain. The Department of Motor Vehicles schedule of maximum nonconsensual private property trespass towing charges effective January 1, 2026 sets a light duty base charge of $130.63 for a vehicle under 10,000 pounds gross vehicle weight rating, which includes mileage to the scene and two loaded miles, with $6.65 per additional mile capped at thirteen miles. Medium duty is $200.00 and heavy duty $350.00, with mileage of $8.65 and $10.65. The drop fee, charged when the vehicle is released before removal from the private property, is $50.00 light duty, $125.00 medium duty and $175.00 heavy duty. Winching and other exceptional services are billed at $50.00, $150.00 and $175.00 per hour in fifteen minute increments, and an extra person charge is not permitted.

Section 14-145(e) makes any violation of the section an infraction with a fifty dollar fine for a first offense, and for each subsequent offense a fine of not less than fifty and not more than one hundred dollars, imprisonment of not more than thirty days, or both. The civil remedy is aimed at the party that ordered the tow rather than the wrecker: under section 14-145c, when an owner or lessee of private property or a lending institution, or an agent, improperly causes a vehicle to be towed, removed or rendered immovable, that party is liable to the vehicle owner for the costs of towing or removal and of storage, or for the fee charged to remove a wheel-locking device, and for reasonable attorney's fees and court costs.

Overcharging is a separate violation, because section 14-66(a)(3) forbids charging more than the rates the Commissioner of Motor Vehicles publishes, and wrecker operation is licensed through the dealer and repairer license the same section requires, which the Department of Motor Vehicles can act against. Complaints about a Connecticut wrecker go to the Department of Motor Vehicles, and the tow record the operator must keep under section 14-66b, including the time the tow commenced and was completed, the mileage at both ends and every charge, is the evidence to demand.

One separate prohibition catches many Connecticut lots: under section 14-145(d) no private property owner, lessee or agent may issue a parking citation by written warning, posted signage or any other means to impose a monetary sanction on a driver, and only independent institutions of higher education as defined in section 10a-173(a) and private secondary schools are exempt.