South Carolina Towing: No Rate Cap, But Storage Fees Stop Until You Are Notified

The one-hour rule is South Carolina's sharpest consumer protection and the first thing to check. Section 56-5-2525(B) requires a towing company that tows and stores a person's vehicle without that person's knowledge to immediately notify the police department of the municipality where the vehicle was parked, or the county sheriff if it was parked outside a municipality, of the location it was towed from, the name of the company, and where the vehicle is stored. Section 56-5-2525(C) then provides that a company failing to give this notice within one hour of the time the vehicle was towed is not entitled to any compensation for the towing and storing operations. The same subsection requires the towing company to post these provisions in a conspicuous place in all public areas on its premises, and requires the law enforcement agency to draft a towing report and give the company the report's document number. Notification is not required when the tow was performed at the direction of a law enforcement officer. Your first call after finding an empty parking space should therefore be to the local police or sheriff, both to locate the car and to fix the time notice was or was not given.

Storage charges run on a separate clock. Section 29-15-10(B) allows a towing company, storage facility, garage or repair shop to charge the owner and lienholder for only the storage costs that accrue for a maximum period of seven business days before notice of the article's location is sent by registered or certified mail, return receipt requested, or certified mail with electronic tracking. No other storage costs may be charged for that pre-notice period. The notice must be sent within five business days after the company receives the owner's and lienholder's identities from the title search required by subsection (C), and it must include a description of the article and the amount of daily storage costs that will accrue after the notice is sent. In practice this means a South Carolina bill that shows two weeks of storage accrued before any letter went out is overstated by law, and the daily rate that applies after notice is the one the company disclosed in the letter.

The title search in Section 29-15-10(C) is mandatory before any sale. The company must apply to the appropriate titling facility for the owner's and lienholders' names and addresses, which may be the South Carolina Department of Motor Vehicles, a DMV-authorized vendor with real-time title access, the titling entity of the state where an out-of-state vehicle was last titled as found through the National Motor Vehicle Title Information System, an authorized vendor in that state, or the Department of Natural Resources. Where the vehicle is not titled here and carries no other state's registration, the company may ask the sheriff or chief of police where it is stored to run a records search, including the National Crime Information Center, and the agency must supply the titling state at no cost to the company.

Private lot towing has its own rules. Section 16-11-760(A) makes it unlawful to park on the private property of another without the owner's consent, and requires that if the property is for commercial use, the owner must post a notice in a conspicuous place on the borders of the property near each entrance prohibiting parking, with proof of posting treated as conclusive notice against the person entering. Subsection (B) allows a vehicle found parked on private property to be towed and stored at the registered owner's or lienholder's expense, subject to the storage limits of Section 29-15-10, and makes the towing, storage, preservation and notice charges a lien against the vehicle, but only provided that the towing company makes notification to the law enforcement agency under Section 56-5-2525. The lien is conditioned on the police call. Subsection (D) makes parking without consent a misdemeanor punishable by a fine of not less than twenty-five nor more than one hundred dollars, or up to thirty days in jail.

Getting your belongings out is addressed only for law enforcement tows. Section 56-5-5635(F) provides that after the vehicle is in the company's possession, the owner, on producing a certificate of registration, has one opportunity to remove personal property not attached to the vehicle, and the company must release personal property belonging to someone other than the vehicle owner to that person. Note the definitions work against you otherwise: Section 56-5-2525(A) and Section 29-15-10(G) both define the towed vehicle to include the contents in it and the personal property affixed to it, so the storage lien reaches your possessions. Section 29-15-10(E) also lets the company hold the license tag until all towing and storage costs allowed under the section are paid, or until the vehicle is declared abandoned and sold. Section 56-5-2525(D) relieves the company of any duty to return the vehicle after its normal business hours.

There is no rate regulation to appeal to. The South Carolina Code of Regulations contains no statewide towing tariff: a search for towing in the regulations returns only commercial driver classification rules and campus parking codes at institutions such as Clemson, the College of Charleston and The Citadel. Local governments may regulate rotation lists and rates within their jurisdictions, but the state sets no number.

The consequence for a towing company that misses the one-hour police notification is total: Section 56-5-2525(C) says it is not entitled to any compensation for the towing and storing operations. For a private-property tow, Section 16-11-760(B) conditions the company's lien on that same notification, so a missed call can defeat the lien as well as the fee.

If you do not pay, the vehicle goes to auction, and the timeline is fixed. Section 29-15-10(A)(3) requires thirty days to pass after written notice to the owner and every lienholder, sent by registered or certified mail with return receipt requested or certified mail with electronic tracking, before a sale. The article must then be sold at public auction by a magistrate of the county where it was stored or repaired. Section 29-15-10(D) requires the magistrate to confirm the owner and lienholders of record were notified of the pending sale and to advertise the article for at least fifteen days by posting notice in three public places in the township. Section 29-15-10(F) requires a minimum bid of one dollar, and if no higher bid comes in, the article is awarded to the towing company at no cost. Any surplus is held for the owner or lienholder for ninety days after a mailed notice, and if unclaimed it is deposited in the county or municipal general fund.

Where the vehicle is handled as abandoned, Section 56-5-5630(A)(2) requires the towing company and storage facility to notify the last known registered owner and all lienholders of record by registered or certified mail, giving the year, make, model and identification number, the location where the vehicle is held, and the right to reclaim it within thirty days beginning the day after the notice is mailed on payment of all towing, preservation, storage allowable under Section 29-15-10(B), notification, publication and court costs. Failure to reclaim within that window is treated as waiver of all right, title and interest and as consent to sale at public auction. The same subsection requires the company to accept the same manner of payment it would accept if the owner had ordered the tow, which is the provision to cite when a lot demands cash only.

Stolen-vehicle owners get a specific break. Under Section 56-5-5630(C), the owner of a vehicle that was stolen is liable only for actual recovery and towing charges and only for the storage costs allowable under Section 29-15-10(B), and the law enforcement agency must notify the owner within two business days after the tow that the vehicle has been recovered, provide its location, and explain that daily storage charges may begin to accrue.

There is no administrative complaint route that reverses a tow. Disputes are civil, and Section 22-3-10 gives magistrates concurrent jurisdiction in contract actions for money and in actions for a penalty, fine or forfeiture up to seven thousand five hundred dollars, which is where most South Carolina towing fee disputes belong.