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When a Texas storage lot can sell your car
A towed car that sits unclaimed can be sold. The law sets notices and waiting periods first. This guide walks through them.
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 first notice
A licensed storage lot must mail a certified notice to the registered owner and the main lienholder no later than the 5th day after it gets a Texas-registered car (the 14th day for a car registered elsewhere), and not sooner than 24 hours after. The notice lists the daily rate, all charges and the lot's hours.
Sources: Texas Occupations Code ch. 2303 (Vehicle Storage Facility Act)
Second notice and sale
If no one claims the car within 10 days of the first notice, the lot treats it as abandoned. Between the 15th and 20th day after the first notice it sends a second notice. If the car is still unclaimed 30 days after the first notice, and police have not taken it, the lot may sell it at a public sale and must pay any money left over after its charges to the person entitled to it.
Sources: Texas Occupations Code ch. 2303 (Vehicle Storage Facility Act)
When police run the sale
If police take custody of an abandoned car, the agency mails a certified notice within 10 days. The owner then has 20 days from the notice to claim it by paying the charges. After that the agency may auction it, and it holds leftover sale money for 90 days.
Sources: Texas Transportation Code ch. 683 (abandoned motor vehicles)
Fees while the car waits
Storage is charged per calendar day, midnight to midnight, up to the state maximum ($22.85 a day for a vehicle 25 feet or less since 2024). Storage before the first notice is mailed is limited, and a late notice moves every later deadline.
Sources: Texas Occupations Code ch. 2303 (Vehicle Storage Facility Act); TDLR news: new VSF storage fees start Jan. 1, 2024
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