This website and the documents it makes are not a substitute for the advice of an attorney.
What changed: towing updates in Houston
New laws, rules and rates that affect people whose cars were towed, newest first. Each item is our own short summary with a link to the official source.
HPD posted a new 2026 agreement for police storage lots
The Houston Police Department posted its 2026 Police Private Storage Lot Agreement, the contract a private storage lot signs to hold cars from police tows. Among its terms: a car towed without the owner's consent must be released within one hour, 24 hours a day; the lot may not demand a signed credit card authorization as a condition of release; and if the lot does not put an abandoned car on an auction list within 30 days after reporting it, storage fees are limited to 45 days.
Form dated September 29, 2026, posted on HPD's Auto Dealers Detail page.
Harris County voted to update its tow maximums, unchanged since 2011
Harris County sets the most a tow company may charge for nonconsent tows from unincorporated areas (outside city limits). The county budget office reported that those rates had not changed since 2011, when a police-ordered tow was capped at $145.50, while Houston's rate is now $232. On July 9, 2026, Commissioners Court passed a motion to update the county maximums and set a method for future reviews. We have not found the new amounts in an official order yet.
Motion passed July 9, 2026. New amounts not yet found.
HPD updated its Motorist Bill of Rights for the 2026 tow rate
HPD's one-page Motorist Bill of Rights now lists the 2026 city tow rate of $232 and $4.64 a mile after 20 miles. It also says tow operators must take cash or two of the four major credit cards, that you may ask to have the car towed to a place you choose, and that complaints go to HPD's Auto Dealers Detail. An older version (rev. January 31, 2025) with the 2025 amounts is still linked from HPD's towed-vehicles FAQ.
Houston's nonconsent tow rate became $232 on January 1, 2026
The City's yearly rate notice raised the maximum for a nonconsent tow that does not need a heavy-duty wrecker from $225.50 to $232, and the heavy-duty rate from $344 to $354 an hour with a two-hour minimum. The change follows a 2.95% rise in the City's blended cost index. A private-property tow may cost no more than the lower of the state maximum ($272 for a car) or the City rate, so $232.
Notice dated November 25, 2025. In effect since January 1, 2026.
For 2025 the City set the nonconsent tow maximum at $225.50 (up from $220) and the heavy-duty rate at $344 an hour with a two-hour minimum (up from $335.50), after a 2.56% rise in its cost index. These are the amounts to compare with a 2025 tow bill.
Notice dated November 22, 2024. In effect January 1 to December 31, 2025.
City Council rewrote Houston's rules for nonconsent storage lots
Ordinance No. 2022-151 replaced the storage-lot sections of City Code chapter 8 (sections 8-141 to 8-188). They include the rights to see the wrecker slip before paying and not to sign a waiver to get your car back, itemized receipts, weekly reports to police, and the rule that a canceled police auction stops storage charges. Where these rules and state law differ, the stricter one applies.
Passed February 23, 2022 (date from the Code's history notes).