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Parking-lot and apartment towing in Houston
Most tows from apartment complexes, stores and paid lots in Houston are private-property tows. State law sets the sign and notice rules; the City adds a lower price cap and its own storage-lot rules.
General information, not legal advice. The papers you got from the police, the tow company, the storage lot or a state agency control your dates. Agencies change phone numbers and steps, so check the agency's own page too.
The price cap
A private-property tow in Houston may cost no more than the lower of the state maximum and the City's nonconsent rate. For a car in 2026 that is $232 (the state maximum is $272). The City's notice applies the same 'lower of' rule to medium and heavy tows.
Sources: City rate notice for 2026 (ARA, Nov. 25, 2025); TDLR: towing consumer information
If you get there before it leaves
If you are present and do not want the car towed, there is no charge if it is not yet hooked up, and you may take it. If it has been lawfully hooked up but not yet towed away, it must be released to you for half the regular fee ($116 in 2026).
Reports that must be made
The wrecker driver must report a parking-lot tow to the police within one hour of picking up the car, with the plate, VIN, where it was towed from and where it went. The storage lot must also report it to police within two hours after it arrives (state law). That is why the police can often tell you which lot has your car.
The tow company must take the car straight to a storage lot inside the city limits; it may not unload it elsewhere except for safety reasons or a short transfer, and it may not charge for a transfer to another truck.
Sources: Houston Code ch. 8, art. III (Municode); Texas Occupations Code ch. 2308 (Texas Towing and Booting Act)
At the storage lot
You may look at the wrecker slip before paying anything. The lot must post its fees where you can see them before you pay, with HPD's phone number, and must give an itemized receipt showing each fee and the license number of the person who released the car.
The lot may not make you sign a release or waiver of your rights to get your car back. It may ask you to sign a receipt that you got the car.
Signs and fire lanes
State law decides where tow-away signs must be and what they say. For a fire-lane tow, Houston has its own marking rule: red-painted curbs with white 'FIRE LANE—NO PARKING' lettering at least 3 inches tall, no more than 50 feet apart, with some exceptions.
Sources: Texas Occupations Code ch. 2308 (Texas Towing and Booting Act); HFD LSB Standard No. 03, Rev. 07 (fire lanes)
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