Michigan Private Lot Towing Signs, Release Fees and Storage Limits

Michigan's rules for towing a car without its owner's consent are split between the property owner who orders the tow and the police agency that authorizes one, and the two paths carry different protections.

A private lot tow starts with signage. MCL 257.252k requires the owner or lessor of the private real property to post notice before authorizing a tow, and the statute is specific about the sign. It must be prominently displayed at each point of entry for vehicular access; where the property has no curbs or access barriers, at least one notice per 100 feet of road frontage. The lettering must be at least 2 inches high on a contrasting background and must say unauthorized vehicles will be towed away at the owner's expense. The sign must carry the name and telephone number of the towing service responsible for that property, must be permanently installed with its bottom not less than 4 feet from the ground, and must have been continuously maintained on the property for not less than 24 hours before the tow. A lot that put its sign up the morning of the tow has not met the statute.

MCL 257.252l pulls three situations out of the signage rule. It does not apply to real property appurtenant to and obviously part of a single- or dual-family residence, so a homeowner clearing a car off a driveway needs no sign. It does not apply where notice was personally given to the person in control of the vehicle that the area is reserved or unavailable and that the vehicle is subject to towing. And it does not apply to a vehicle removed from private property under section 252d, which is the police-authorized route.

That second route is MCL 257.252d(1). A police agency, or a governmental agency the police designate, may order immediate removal to a place of safekeeping at the last titled owner's expense in eleven listed circumstances, including a vehicle parked in a posted tow away zone, one hampering the owner's use of private property or blocking another vehicle, one parked in a space designated for persons with disabilities or in the adjacent access aisle, one blocking a ramp or curb cut, one that must be seized to preserve evidence, one reasonably believed stolen, and one that cannot be safely driven from a crash scene.

MCL 257.252d(2) is Michigan's release provision. Unless the tow was ordered under subsection (1)(a), (d), (e) or (k), which are the immediate-hazard, suspected-stolen, evidence and crash categories, an owner or other person legally entitled to possess the vehicle who arrives before the actual towing or removal must have the vehicle disconnected from the tow truck and may take it without interference on payment of the reasonable service fee, for which a receipt must be provided. The statute does not fix a dollar figure for that fee, and it sits in section 252d rather than in the private-property signage section.

On money, Michigan is thin. MCL 257.252i(1) confirms a towing service or custodian may recover towing and storage fees from the last titled owner of a vehicle deemed abandoned under section 252a or 252b or removed under section 252d. The only cap in the section is narrow: where a vehicle is released for disposition under section 252b or 252g, collectable storage fees are limited to the least of the daily rate set by contract with the law enforcement agency or unit of government that authorized the tow, the daily rate the storage facility charges, or $1,000.00. That cap does not apply to a commercial vehicle or to a vehicle owned or leased by an entity other than an individual. There is no statewide hookup, mileage, after-hours or gate-fee schedule.

Impound timing matters because it converts an impound into an abandonment. Under MCL 257.252d(3), the police agency must check whether the vehicle was reported stolen before authorizing removal and must enter it in the law enforcement information network as impounded within 24 hours. If the vehicle is not redeemed within 7 days, the towing agency notifies the police agency, which deems the vehicle abandoned, enters it in the network within 24 hours, and follows section 252a. A vehicle impounded as stolen, as evidence, or from a crash must be released by the authorizing police agency first, and 20 to 30 days after that release an unredeemed vehicle is entered as abandoned. Sale follows MCL 257.252g: public auction under police control, held not less than 5 days after published notice, with proceeds applied first to accrued towing and storage charges, then agency expenses, then the $40.00 abandoned vehicle fee, with any surplus routed to the Department of Treasury unclaimed property division for the secured party and then the owner.

One gap is worth stating plainly. Nothing in sections 252d through 252m gives a vehicle owner a statutory right to retrieve personal belongings from an impounded vehicle before paying, sets business hours for a storage lot, or requires the lot to accept a credit card.

There is no state towing regulator to complain to in Michigan; the dispute goes to court. 252e(1) gives the district court and a municipal court jurisdiction to determine whether a police agency, a towing agency or custodian, or a private property owner acted properly in reporting or processing a vehicle under section 252a, section 252b(6) to (11), or section 252d. 8312. 252e(3) provides that if the owner then fails to pay the accrued fees, the bond is used to pay them. 252e(4) makes the remedies in sections 252 to 254 the exclusive remedies for disposition of abandoned vehicles.

252k requires, the failure is the property owner's statutory violation and is the point to raise in that proceeding, since the section conditions the authority to tow on the notice having been posted and maintained for 24 hours first.