Massachusetts Towing Laws: Your Rights, Fees, and Complaints

Under Massachusetts towing laws, a non-consensual tow is capped at $132 and storage at $35 per 24-hour period, and if the tow company or property owner skipped any required step—proper signage, written notice to police, records, or an itemized bill—you can demand your vehicle back without paying anything for removal or storage.¹² The Department of Public Utilities sets those maximums, and Chapter 266 Section 120D sets the procedural rules. Both matter, because a violation of either gives you leverage.

When a Tow Is Actually Lawful

Private Property

A property owner or manager can have your car removed from a lot, driveway, or private way only if you were on notice not to park there. That notice comes from the owner directly or from signage prominently displayed at each entrance, worded so a reasonable person would understand that unauthorized parking will result in a tow.² Before the truck touches your vehicle, the person controlling the property must give written notice to the local chief of police or a designee identifying the vehicle, the tow company, and the storage location. No written police notification, no lawful tow.

Public Roads

Police can order a tow from a state highway or public road for specific reasons: your vehicle blocks the roadway and doesn’t leave a clear 12-foot lane in each direction, it impedes snow plowing, or it has sat on a state highway more than 24 consecutive hours without written permission from the relevant department.³ Other common triggers include parking on a sidewalk or in an intersection and obstructing a fire hydrant or fire lane. The owner pays for both the tow and storage. A tow company acting on a direct police order stands on stronger legal footing than one acting for a private property owner, so a challenge to a police-ordered tow is typically aimed at the municipality rather than the towing company.

Snow Emergencies

Once a city or town declares a snow emergency, its parking ban is in force and any vehicle on a restricted road can be ticketed and towed. Bans are announced through local media, and the Department of Conservation and Recreation follows municipal bans on DCR roadways. These often activate overnight, which is how people wake up to a missing car.

What the Tow Company Must Do

For private-property tows, the operator cannot move a vehicle until the property controller has given the police written notification identifying the vehicle, the tow company and operator, the pickup address, and the storage facility’s address and phone number.² The company must keep records of every tow, including the vehicle description, tow location, and time, and those records must be available for inspection.

After the tow, the company has to tell the owner where the car is and how to get it back. For police-ordered tows, the first notice goes out by registered mail with return receipt within seven days, listing storage charges and the vehicle’s location.⁴ The statute is unforgiving on procedure: a company that fails to fully comply with Section 120D must release the vehicle to its owner without charging anything for removal or storage.²

What You Can Be Charged

The DPU caps a non-consensual tow at $132.¹ Storage is capped at $35 per 24-hour period at a lighted outdoor facility enclosed by a secure fence at least six feet high. Outdoor storage that doesn’t meet that standard can charge only half, or $17.50 per day.⁵ Additional labor charges are allowed only if the extra work was genuinely needed and authorized by the DPU.

You are entitled to an itemized invoice that breaks out removal and storage charges. Storage facilities must publicly post their hours so owners know when they can retrieve vehicles. A company that overcharges, refuses to itemize, or hides fees has violated the rules, and that failure is worth flagging in any complaint.

Your Rights When Retrieving the Vehicle

Catching the Tow in Progress

If you reach your car before the tow truck has finished removing it, the operator has discretion to release it on the spot and can charge up to half the normal tow fee for the “drop.”² On a standard involuntary tow, that maximum drop fee is $66.

Inspect Before You Pay

You have the right to inspect your vehicle before handing over any money. Pay first and discover a dent later, and the company will tell you the damage was pre-existing. Photograph the car’s condition before you settle up.

Demand Release for a Non-Compliant Tow

Ask the company to show its paperwork: the signage at the property, the written police notification, the tow record. If anything required by Section 120D is missing, the company must release the vehicle without charging you for removal or storage.² This is a hard rule.

Chapter 93A

Massachusetts General Laws Chapter 93A prohibits unfair or deceptive business practices, and towing companies are covered. Overcharging, refusing to provide an itemized invoice, or hiding fees all fit within 93A. A court can award up to triple your actual damages, plus attorney’s fees, if the company acted willfully or knowingly.⁶

If You Don’t Pick Up the Car

Storage charges keep running, and the company will eventually move to sell the vehicle to satisfy its lien. Massachusetts sets a specific multi-step timeline:

Within 7 days of the tow, the company must send a first registered-mail notice with return receipt, identifying the location and charges.
At least 60 days after the company took possession, a second registered-mail notice warns that the vehicle will be sold if not claimed within 21 days.
At least 21 days after the second notice, the company publishes a notice of sale in a local newspaper for three consecutive weeks.
At least 5 days before the sale, the company must notify the local chief of police.
The earliest a sale can occur is three weeks after the first newspaper publication and five days after police notification.

Total elapsed time before a legal sale is roughly three to four months from the tow.⁴ That’s not as much cushion as it sounds. At $35 per day, storage alone passes $1,000 in about a month, on top of the tow fee. Retrieve the car quickly if you can.

Grounds to Challenge a Tow

You have a defensible case if the property lacked proper signage at each entrance, if the property owner didn’t submit written authorization to police before the tow, if the tow company can’t produce required records, or if you were charged above the DPU-regulated maximum. When the paperwork is missing, the company is in a weak position and the burden is on it to show it followed the law.

How to File a Complaint

The DPU’s Transportation Oversight Division handles towing complaints. File online through Mass.gov with your information, the tow company’s name and address, the date and location of the tow, a description of your vehicle, and a copy of your invoice.⁷ Keep the invoice. If the company never gave you one, say so; the failure to itemize is itself a violation. The Transportation Oversight Division can also be reached at (617) 305-3559 or DPU.Transportation@mass.gov.

You can also sue. Small claims court handles disputes up to $7,000 without a lawyer. Bring photographs of the signage or the lack of it, the invoice, correspondence with the tow company, and your own written account. A Chapter 93A claim on top of the underlying dispute opens the door to treble damages and attorney’s fees where the conduct was willful.⁶

Active-Duty Military

Federal law adds protection on top of the state timeline. Under the Servicemembers Civil Relief Act, a towing company cannot sell a servicemember’s stored vehicle to satisfy a storage lien without a court order. Before judgment, the company must file an accurate affidavit stating whether the vehicle belongs to a servicemember; if it does, the court appoints an attorney who can request a postponement of at least 90 days. A knowing violation is a federal crime punishable by fine and up to a year of imprisonment, alongside civil liability for damages, restitution, attorney’s fees, and court costs.

1
Mass.gov. Involuntary Trespass Towing Rates and Regulations
2
General Court of Massachusetts. Massachusetts General Laws Part IV, Title I, Chapter 266, Section 120D
3
Cornell Law School. 720 CMR 9.04 – Tow Away Zones
4
Mass.gov. Involuntary Transfers
5
General Court of Massachusetts. Massachusetts General Laws Part I, Title XXII, Chapter 159B, Section 6B
6
Mass.gov. The Massachusetts Consumer Protection Law
7
Mass.gov. File a Complaint Against a Bus, Moving, or Towing Company