Tennessee Vehicle Storage Laws: Fee Caps, Notice, and Liens

Tennessee vehicle storage laws cap what a towing company can charge you, require prompt notice after a tow, and give the company a lien on your car only when both the tow and the required notifications were handled lawfully. The core rules sit in the garagekeeper’s lien statute at Tenn. Code Ann. 66-19-103 and in the 2024 Modernization of Towing, Immobilization, and Oversight Normalization (MOTION) Act, now codified at Title 55, Chapter 31.

Fee Caps You Can Hold a Company To

Storage and towing fees are not open-ended. Under Tenn. Code Ann. 55-31-404, a towing or storage business cannot charge more than the maximum rate approved by the Tennessee Highway Patrol district where it operates, and that cap applies whether towing is the company’s main business or a side operation.¹

Two hard limits sit on top of the district rate:

The release fee cannot exceed $100, regardless of the circumstances.
A company cannot charge a gate fee, access fee, or release fee during normal business hours on any day it is also charging daily storage.

After-hours access is where the release fee comes in. If you cannot make it to the lot during business hours, the company can charge you to open up, but $100 is the ceiling.¹

Notification Deadlines That Make or Break the Lien

Two clocks start ticking the moment your vehicle is hooked up, and missed deadlines carry real consequences for the towing company.

The 15-Minute Police Call

If you are not present when your car is towed, the towing company has fifteen minutes to notify local law enforcement. That call must include the VIN, registration information, license plate number, and a description of the vehicle. Skipping this step is a Class A misdemeanor, and it strips the company of any right to a lien on the vehicle.

Owner and Lienholder Notice

When a police department takes custody of an abandoned or unattended vehicle, it has three business days to verify ownership through the Tennessee Information Enforcement System (TIES), and another three business days after that to notify the last registered owner and every lienholder of record. Notice goes out by registered mail with return receipt requested, or by overnight delivery through a nationally recognized carrier with proof of delivery.

The notice must describe the year, make, model, and serial number of the vehicle, state where it is being held, and tell you that you have ten days to reclaim it by paying all towing and storage charges. It must also warn that failing to act within that window is treated as a waiver of your rights to the vehicle and consent to its sale at auction. If no one responds, the department publishes notice once in a newspaper of general circulation in the area where the vehicle was found.

A separate, faster rule applies to rental cars, vehicles displaying a U.S. Department of Transportation number, and vehicles with certain commercial plates. For those, the garagekeeper must notify the identified owner or rental company within three business days by nationally recognized overnight carrier (not the U.S. Postal Service) with proof of delivery.²

When the Garagekeeper’s Lien Is Valid

The garagekeeper’s lien is what lets a towing company keep your car until you pay. Under Tenn. Code Ann. 66-19-103, garagekeepers and towing firms have a lien on any vehicle that lawfully comes into their possession, and they can hold it until all reasonable charges are paid. No court order is needed for the lien to attach.²

“Lawfully” is the operative word. If the tow itself violated state law, meaning no police authorization and no owner consent, the lien is void from the start. A company also cannot collect storage or related fees for any period during which it was in violation of its notification duties. And the charges themselves have to be reasonable; a court can scrutinize whether the amounts line up with the approved district rate, and inflated fees can be reduced or the lien invalidated.

Getting Your Vehicle Back

To reclaim your car, you pay the towing charge and any accrued storage, subject to the caps above. Ask for an itemized invoice before you pay. Every line should match a specific service, and no rate should exceed the maximum approved by the local Tennessee Highway Patrol district.

One protection worth knowing: if a tow truck operator has hooked up your vehicle but has not yet left the parking area, and you show up, the operator must release the vehicle immediately. The company cannot demand a payment to unhook a car that has not left the lot yet.

What Happens if the Vehicle Is Not Claimed

If thirty days pass without the vehicle being claimed, the garagekeeper can begin enforcing the lien under Tennessee’s artisan’s lien process at Tenn. Code Ann. 66-14-102 through 66-14-106, with modifications for garagekeepers.²

The process starts with written notice to the owner and anyone else known to have a claim, delivered in person or by registered mail to the last known address. For motor vehicles, the “reasonable inquiry” requirement is satisfied by checking with the Tennessee Department of Revenue’s title and registration division or a county clerk to identify all title owners and lienholders.³

Garagekeepers get a modified advertising rule: instead of the usual two consecutive weekly newspaper ads followed by a fifteen-day wait, they only need to advertise the sale once in a local newspaper, and the advertisement must include the VIN when it can be determined. The sale itself must be conducted in a commercially reasonable manner, and a towing firm that fails that standard can be sued for damages by the true owner or a lienholder.⁴

When a Tow Is Allowed in the First Place

Whether the tow was authorized often decides whether you owe anything at all.

Law enforcement can take custody of any vehicle that is abandoned, immobile, or unattended on public or private property, and can order a tow when a vehicle is involved in a crime, poses a safety hazard, or blocks traffic.

On private property, the tow must be at the express direction of the property owner or the person in charge. A towing company cannot decide on its own to remove a car. Unless the vehicle is creating a hazard, blocking access, or parked illegally, it generally cannot be towed without the owner’s permission until at least twelve hours have passed since it was first observed as abandoned or unattended.

Commercial parking lots are more restricted. Under Tenn. Code Ann. 55-31-201, it is an offense for a commercial lot owner to tow a vehicle unless the vehicle is truly abandoned, immobile, or unattended. The exception is a lot inside a local jurisdiction that has passed an ordinance permitting towing from licensed parking lots, and even then the lot and its attendants must follow that ordinance.

Residential rental property has its own rule at Tenn. Code Ann. 66-28-518. For a vehicle that is simply unauthorized, the landlord must post written notice on the vehicle ten days before towing.⁵ Immediate towing without notice is allowed in two situations: when the landlord has a permit parking policy shown on posted signage and the owner fails to comply, and when the vehicle blocks a fire lane, fire hydrant, accessible parking space, trash receptacle, or violates other traffic and parking restrictions shown on posted signage.

Pushing Back on an Unlawful Tow or Inflated Fees

If the tow was unauthorized, meaning no police department ordered it and you did not consent, the company has no lien at all. Tenn. Code Ann. 66-19-103 denies lien rights to anyone who towed a vehicle in violation of state law, and the operator who skipped the 15-minute police notification commits a Class A misdemeanor on top of losing the lien.²

If the fees look inflated, compare the invoice against the district’s approved rate. A gate fee stacked on top of daily storage during normal business hours, or any release fee above $100, violates Tenn. Code Ann. 55-31-404 on its face.¹

When informal complaints don’t resolve the dispute, General Sessions Court handles most cases of this size. A court will look at whether fees align with approved rates, whether the towing company followed notification requirements, and whether the charges are proportional to the actual storage period. Judges can reduce the amount owed or order the vehicle’s release. The Tennessee Attorney General’s consumer protection division may investigate persistent predatory practices, which can lead to fines or license revocation.

Active-Duty Servicemember Protection

If the vehicle owner is on active duty, state lien enforcement does not apply the same way. Under the Servicemembers Civil Relief Act at 50 U.S.C. § 3958, a storage lien on a servicemember’s property cannot be foreclosed or enforced without a court order. The protection runs during the entire period of military service and for ninety days after it ends. Knowingly violating this requirement is a federal crime punishable by fine, up to one year in prison, or both.⁶

Towing companies can verify active-duty status through the Defense Manpower Data Center’s SCRA website, which checks the Defense Enrollment Eligibility Reporting System and supports single and batch record requests.⁷

1
Justia. Tennessee Code 55-31-404 – Towing and Storage Fees
2
Justia. Tennessee Code 66-19-103 – Garagekeepers or Towing Firms Lien
3
Justia. Tennessee Code 66-14-102 – Notice to Persons Interested
4
Justia. Tennessee Code 66-14-104 – Advertisement and Conduct of Sale
5
Justia. Tennessee Code 66-28-518 – Towing of Vehicles
6
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 50 USC 3958 – Enforcement of Storage Liens
7
Servicemembers Civil Relief Act (SCRA) Website. SCRA