Maine Towing Storage Cap: $1,500 per 30 Days, 14 Days Without Notice

Maine's towing rules for vehicles taken without the owner's consent live in Title 29-A, chapter 15, subchapter 3, which the statute books label Abandoned Vehicles even though most of the vehicles it governs are simply towed cars. Section 1851 sets the reach, and it is wide. The subchapter applies to a vehicle towed at the request of the owner or driver; towed under section 2068 or 2069 or at the direction of a law enforcement officer; towed after being left on property without permission; left on property without the permission of the property owner or person in charge of the premises; left at a place of business after repair under a written work order signed by the person requesting it; left on an individual's residential property for more than 6 months; or left at a storage facility where the owner failed to pay storage or rental fees. The third and fourth categories are the ordinary private-lot tow. One timing quirk is worth knowing: a vehicle towed for snow removal purposes is exempt from the subchapter for 48 hours immediately following completion of the tow.

Section 1857 carries the two numbers that matter. Daily storage charges must be reasonable, and total storage charges may not exceed $1,500 for a 30-day period. Separately, if the notification to the Secretary of State required by section 1854 is made more than 14 days after receipt of the vehicle, or if it is never submitted, the person holding the vehicle may not collect more than 14 days of storage fees. That second limit is the leverage an owner actually has, because it turns the facility's own paperwork failure into a hard cap on the bill. The figures in section 1857 were last set by PL 2021, c. 515.

Section 1854 is the notice the cap depends on. The owner of the premises where the vehicle sits, or that owner's agent, must notify the Secretary of State in writing on a form the Secretary provides, giving the make, model, year, body type, vehicle identification number, plates, the date the vehicle came into their possession, the circumstances, and whether it is salvage. For vehicles left after authorized repair or at a storage facility, section 1854(1-A) sets a 14-day clock running from the earliest date the owner is responsible for unpaid charges, and section 1854(1-B) requires the same 14-day notice to any lienholder shown on a title issued by the Secretary of State. The Secretary then writes to the owner and lienholder by regular mail stating the charges that must be paid to retrieve the vehicle and the date title would pass.

Section 1861 governs what the tow company may keep hold of. It may hold the vehicle and all its accessories, contents and equipment until reasonable towing and storage charges are paid, but not the personal effects of the registered owner. Maine defines that term: personal effects includes medications, medical equipment, clothing, mail, child restraint systems and similar items, and except for child restraint systems, items attached to the vehicle and business equipment, machinery and tools are not personal effects. A driver who needs prescriptions, a coat or a car seat out of an impounded vehicle is entitled to them without paying first; a contractor's tools are not covered. For commercial vehicles there is a further carve-out barring a holder from keeping perishable cargo that the carrier or driver does not own, on presentation of evidence of insurance under section 1551.

Two other provisions round out the picture. Section 1605-B requires every motor vehicle liability policy issued for a vehicle registered or principally garaged in Maine to provide coverage up to $500 per accident for the reasonable towing and storage charges of the insured vehicle when it is towed at the request of a law enforcement officer after an accident, though the requirement does not apply to a policy insuring more than 4 vehicles or covering a garage, sales agency, repair shop, service station or public parking place. Section 1863 requires a towing facility, before demanding payment for a commercial motor vehicle nonconsensual tow, to itemize the invoice in detail for all costs of recovery, towing, cleanup or storage, and provides that the customer is not liable for any charge not itemized.

What Maine does not give is as important as what it does. Subchapter 3 contains no maximum hookup, winching or per-mile charge, no requirement that a private lot post a sign warning that vehicles will be towed, no drop fee for an owner who arrives while the vehicle is still hooked up, and no required hours for retrieval. Where a police-ordered tow is involved, section 2069(4) states that the State, a political subdivision, the Maine Turnpike Authority, a law enforcement officer or a 3rd-party agent acting for them is not liable for damage caused by removal of a vehicle or for any towing or storage charges, and section 2069(5) sends the notification and payment questions back to chapter 15, subchapter 3.

The practical remedy in Maine runs through the charges, not through a penalty on the towing company. If the facility filed its section 1854 notification late or not at all, section 1857 bars it from collecting more than 14 days of storage no matter how long the car has sat, and an owner should ask for the filing date before paying. If the bill shows storage above $1,500 for a 30-day period, the excess is not collectible. Daily storage must also be reasonable, which is the ground for challenging an inflated per-day rate even where the 30-day total is under the ceiling.

Refusing to hand over personal effects is the other common dispute. Section 1861 does not let a holder keep the registered owner's medications, medical equipment, clothing, mail or child restraint systems as security for the bill, and a facility that conditions their release on payment is holding property the statute excludes from its lien. Items attached to the vehicle, and business equipment, machinery and tools, are on the other side of that line and may be held.

For a commercial motor vehicle nonconsensual tow, section 1863 makes an unitemized charge uncollectible: the invoice must be itemized in detail for recovery, towing, cleanup and storage before payment is demanded, and the customer is not liable for anything left off it. If the vehicle is not retrieved, section 1854(4) allows the premises owner, where the Secretary of State finds no record of the vehicle, to publish a single newspaper notice in the county, after which ownership passes if the owner or lienholder has not retrieved the vehicle and paid all reasonable towing, storage and repair charges within 14 days of publication. There is no state agency that adjudicates a Maine towing bill, so a disputed charge that the facility will not adjust is a civil matter, most often brought in Small Claims Court.