Maryland Private Lot Towing: Drop Fee, Rate Caps and Triple Damages

Start with scope, because Subtitle 10A does not govern every tow in Maryland. Section 21-10A-01(a) defines a parking lot as a privately owned facility consisting of 3 or more motor vehicle parking spaces that is accessible to the general public and intended by the owner to be used primarily by the owner's customers, clientele, residents, lessees, or guests, and § 21-10A-01(b)(1) says the subtitle applies only to towing or removal of vehicles from parking lots. A two-space private driveway is outside it. Police-ordered public safety impounds are a different animal, though they set the benchmark rates the subtitle borrows.

Signage is a precondition to towing at all. Under § 21-10A-02(b), the lot owner, operator, or agent may not have a vehicle towed unless conspicuous signs are posted that are at least 24 inches high and 30 inches wide, clearly visible to a driver entering or parking, and that state the location the vehicle will be taken and the name of the towing company, state that State law requires the vehicle to be available for reclamation at a minimum from 6 a.m. to midnight 7 days per week, state the maximum amount the owner may be charged for the tow, and give a telephone number to arrange reclaiming the vehicle. Section 21-10A-02(c) fixes density: at least one sign for every 7,500 square feet of parking space, except that in the lot of a regional mall, meaning a shopping mall with at least 400,000 square feet of gross leasable area excluding anchor stores and at least 2 anchor stores, signs go at every entrance.

The drop fee is the provision most Maryland drivers need. Section 21-10A-05(b) requires a tower who possesses the vehicle, before it is removed from the lot, to release it to the owner or the owner's agent if the owner or agent asks, if the vehicle can be driven under its own power, whether or not the vehicle has been lifted off the ground, and if the owner or agent pays a drop fee not exceeding 50 percent of the cost of a full tow. The lifted-off-the-ground language is deliberate and defeats the common argument that hooking the car ends the driver's chance to reclaim it.

Rates run through local law first. Section 21-10A-04(a)(1) caps charges at twice the total fees normally charged or authorized by the political subdivision for public safety impound towing, and at the daily storage fee normally charged or authorized by the subdivision from which the vehicle was towed, notwithstanding § 16-207(f)(1) of the Commercial Law Article. Only if the political subdivision sets no fee limit for public safety towing, recovery, or storage do the statutory defaults apply: $250 for towing and recovering a vehicle and $30 per day for storage. The actual cost of providing notice may also be charged, but § 21-10A-04(b) forbids charging it if the owner, the owner's agent, the insurer of record, or a secured party retakes possession within 48 hours after the vehicle arrived at the storage facility.

Maryland also polices the tow's mechanics. Under § 21-10A-04(a), the tower must notify the police department in the jurisdiction where the lot is located within 1 hour, giving the vehicle description, registration plate and VIN, date and time, reason, and the locations from and to which it was towed; must notify the owner, the insurer of record, and any secured party by certified mail, return receipt requested, and first-class mail within 7 days excluding days the business is closed, with electronic notice through the Motor Vehicle Administration permitted on the conditions in (a)(3)(ii); must have the lot owner's authorization before towing, including the name of the person authorizing it, a statement that it is at the lot owner's request, and photographic evidence of the violation or event that precipitated the tow; must carry commercial liability insurance in the amount federal law requires for transporting property in interstate or foreign commerce; may not employ or compensate spotters whose primary task is reporting unauthorized parked vehicles; may not pay remuneration to the lot owner, agent, or employee; and may not tow solely for failure to display a valid current registration under § 13-411 until 72 hours after a notice of violation is placed on the vehicle.

After the tow, § 21-10A-05(a) requires the vehicle to go immediately and directly to the storage facility named on the posted signs, bars moving it to another facility for at least 72 hours, and requires immediate and continuous opportunity to retake possession, at a minimum from 6 a.m. to midnight 7 days per week, from the time the vehicle was received. Section 21-10A-05(c) requires the storage facility to accept cash or at least two major nationally recognized credit cards; a cash-only facility must have an operable ATM on the premises, and if it can neither process a credit card nor offer a working ATM it must accept a personal check, unless the card was declined by the credit card company. The same subsection requires the facility to make the vehicle available, under its supervision, for inspection or for retrieval of personal property that is not attached to the vehicle. Distance is limited by § 21-10A-03: not more than 15 miles from the lot and never outside Maryland, though a local jurisdiction may set a different maximum distance.

Maryland gives the vehicle owner an unusually strong private remedy. Under § 21-10A-06, a person who tows or removes a vehicle from a parking lot in violation of any provision of the subtitle is liable for actual damages sustained by any person as a direct result of the violation, and is liable to the vehicle owner, a secured party, an insurer, or a successor in interest for triple the amount paid by the owner or the owner's agent to retake possession of the vehicle. Treble recovery attaches to any violation of the subtitle, including a missing or undersized sign, an overcharge, a refused drop fee, a late police notification, or a spotter-driven tow.

Section 21-10A-07 adds a criminal penalty: a person convicted of violating the subtitle is subject to imprisonment not exceeding 2 months or a fine not exceeding $500 or both. '