Hawaii Caps Private-Property Tow and Storage Charges (HRS §290-11)

The state rate schedule is in HRS section 290-11(b)(1), last amended by L 2024, c 60. A towing company engaged by the property owner or occupant may charge no more than $75 for a tow, or $85 for a tow using a dolly, plus $7.50 per mile towed and $25 per day or fraction of a day for storage for the first seven days, dropping to $20 per day after that. Three surcharges exist and no others: $30 for a difficult hookup, defined in the same paragraph as an above or below ground hookup in a multilevel facility; $15 overtime when the tow occurs between 6:00 p.m. and 6:00 a.m. Monday through Thursday or between 6:00 p.m. Friday and 6:00 a.m. Monday; and up to $35 more if the tow involves an overturned vehicle. The statute states flatly that the charges listed are the only charges tow companies are authorized to charge vehicle owners.

Hawaii's version of a drop fee is a zero fee. Under paragraph (b)(2), if the vehicle is in the process of being hooked up, meaning up to the point when the tow truck is driving away, and the vehicle owner appears on the scene, the company shall release the vehicle to the owner at a location that ensures the safety of all persons and property involved, and no fee will be charged. "Scene" is defined in subsection (i) as the location of the vehicle while it is being hooked up or where it was hooked up, and anywhere within a fifty foot radius of that spot. "Vehicle owner" is defined broadly enough to include the insurer, a renter under chapter 437D, and any person in possession of the key or remote keyless ignition device.

A tow is only lawful if the lot was posted first. Subsection (a) requires a notice prohibiting unauthorized parking, in letters not less than two inches high, light reflective, on a contrasting background, stating that the vehicle will be towed and held at the vehicle owner's expense and giving the name, address and telephone number of the facility where it will be held. The sign must be clearly visible to a driver approaching any individual marked or unmarked parking space, though a single notice at each entrance suffices where the entire lot consists of restricted spaces. Subsection (i) also carves two vehicles out of "vehicle parked without authorization": one whose owner prepaid and displayed a visible receipt, placard or permit, and one with visible written authorization from the property owner or occupant.

Notice and recovery run on fixed clocks. Under paragraph (b)(3) the towing company must identify the legal owner and last registered owner through the department of transportation or the county department of finance and notify them by registered or certified mail within a reasonable period not to exceed fifteen days after the tow, stating the maximum charges allowed by law, the telephone number of the consumer information service of the Department of Commerce and Consumer Affairs, and that the vehicle will be deemed abandoned if not recovered within thirty days of mailing. A mailed notice is deemed received five days after mailing absent contrary evidence. After the thirty days run, subsection (c) lets the company sell or junk the vehicle following one public advertisement in a newspaper of general circulation, and subsection (d) directs any surplus to the owner, or to the state unclaimed property program administered by the Department of Budget and Finance, claimable for one year.

Two further provisions matter at the counter. Paragraph (b)(5) requires the company to accept cash, credit card and debit card, and forbids directing a customer to an on-site automated teller machine instead of taking a card. Subsection (f) requires any towing company operating in a county with a population greater than five hundred thousand, which in Hawaii means the City and County of Honolulu, to offer towing services twenty-four hours a day every day of the week, including release of stored vehicles to an insurer, the owner, or a designated representative.

A different section governs tows ordered by county police. HRS section 291C-165.5 covers vehicles removed for traffic violations under a county ordinance and vehicles disabled in an accident, and it pegs the charge to the section 290-11(b) rates or the rates agreed with the county, whichever is lower, with a twenty-day notice deadline instead of fifteen.

HRS section 290-11(g) gives the statute real teeth by borrowing two other chapters. Any person who violates any provision of the section is deemed to have engaged in an unfair or deceptive act or practice in the conduct of trade or commerce within the meaning of HRS section 480-2, exposing the company to the penalties and remedies of chapter 480, and to have furnished services without a license within the meaning of HRS section 487-13, with the penalties and remedies of chapter 487. That means an overcharge on the $75 tow, a refused card payment, or a sign that was never posted is not a private billing dispute but a statutory unfair-practice claim.

The immediate self-help remedy is in paragraph (b)(3): if the towing company failed to mail the fifteen-day notice to the legal owner and last registered owner, the vehicle may be recovered without paying tow or storage fees at all. The receipt required by paragraph (b)(4) is the practical starting point for a complaint, because it must carry both the lawful maximum charges and the telephone number of the Department of Commerce and Consumer Affairs consumer information service.