Texas Impound and Storage Fees: What a Lot Can Legally Charge

A car sitting in a Texas storage lot costs money every day it stays there. Whether it was towed after a wreck, towed off a private lot or impounded by police, the bill starts the moment it arrives, and it keeps growing until someone pays it or the lot sells the car. The good news is that Texas caps what a lot can charge, spells out what you need to get the car back, and sets a timeline the lot has to follow before it can sell.

Every number on this page comes from the Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation (TDLR), which licenses storage lots, and from Texas Occupations Code Chapter 2303, checked in September 2026.

What a Texas Storage Lot Can Legally Charge

A licensed vehicle storage facility (VSF) can only charge the fees the law allows. As of the most recent adjustment, which TDLR labels the 2023 biennial adjustment, the maximums are:

• Daily storage: $22.85 a day for a vehicle 25 feet long or less, and $39.99 a day for anything longer. A day runs midnight to midnight, and a car that leaves within 12 hours can only be charged one day even if it spans two calendar days.
• Impound fee: up to $22.85, once. The lot can only charge it if it actually did the work, such as inventorying and securing loose property in the car or pulling the registration record, and the bill has to say what was done and on what date.
• Notification fee: $50, once, covering every notice it sends. If the lot has to publish a notice and publication costs more than $25, it can add the actual publication cost.
• Towing: for a private-property tow, the statewide maximum is $272 for a vehicle up to 10,000 lbs, $380 for 10,001 to 24,999 lbs, and $489 per unit (maximum $978) for 25,000 lbs or more. Cities and counties can set lower rates.
• A government fee in some places, which the lot collects for the law enforcement agency or government entity.

That is the complete list. TDLR says a lot may not charge environmental fees, notary fees, or a fee to let you get your personal property out of the car. It also has to accept cash, debit cards and credit cards, and post a sign saying so.

One more rule works in your favor. If the car is registered in Texas and the lot doesn't send the first notice to the owner and lienholder on time, it can only charge five days of storage. For a car registered in another state, the lot has five days to request the owner's record from that state, or the same five-day limit applies.

How Fast Impound Fees Add Up

Here is the worst case at the state maximums, for a standard car towed off private property:

• Tow, impound fee and notification fee: $272 + $22.85 + $50 = $344.85 before the first day of storage
• After 14 days of storage: $664.75
• After 30 days of storage: $1,030.35

Police-ordered tows and tows in cities with their own rate schedules can be lower or structured differently, so check the bill line by line against the list above. The point stands either way: storage has no ceiling except time. A $6,000 car can absorb a few weeks of fees and still be worth recovering. A $1,200 car with high mileage or damage is almost fully consumed in about a month: at the maximums, the bill reaches $1,030.35 on day 30.

How to Get Your Car Out of Impound in Texas (Even Without the Title)

According to TDLR's consumer guidance, the lot must release the car when you do three things:

1. Show photo ID. Any state-issued driver's license or ID card, any federal photo ID, or a photo ID issued by a foreign government, such as a Mexican driver's license or a matrícula consular.
2. Prove you own the car or have the owner's permission, with any one of these: a driver's license whose name matches the owner on the state registration record; an insurance card naming you as an insured for that car; the title in your name; a notarized power of attorney signed by the owner; a tax collector's receipt and registration renewal card with matching ID; a current lease or rental agreement; or TDLR's Personal Vehicle Owner Removal and Inspection form, which the lot has to make available to you.
3. Pay the towing and storage charges.

So the title is not required. If you've lost it, an insurance card, a matching license or the TDLR form will do. If the car is registered to someone else, such as a parent or a spouse, a notarized power of attorney from the owner is the cleanest route.

What Happens If Nobody Picks Up the Car

The lot can't sell a car the day after it arrives. Chapter 2303 sets a sequence:

1. First notice. For a Texas-registered car, the lot must send written notice to the registered owner and the primary lienholder no sooner than 24 hours and no later than the 5th day after it receives the car. For a car registered in another state, the deadline is the 14th day. If the owner can't be identified or has no address on record, the lot can publish the notice in a newspaper in the county where the car is stored or on a public website run by a TDLR-approved third party.
2. Abandoned status. If nobody claims the car before the 10th day after that first notice, the law treats it as abandoned. At that point the local law enforcement agency can choose to take over the disposal itself.
3. Second notice. Between the 15th and 20th day after the first notice, the lot sends a second notice. It must warn that failing to claim the car within 30 days waives your rights to it and counts as consent to a public sale.
4. Public sale. The lot can sell the car at a public sale 30 days after the second notice, and it doesn't need a lien release to do it.

Two details matter here. First, the sale money goes to the towing and storage bill, and TDLR says anything left over may be paid to the owner, so if the car is worth more than the bill, you are not simply out the difference. Second, there's a faster track for junk: for a car more than 10 years old that is only fit to be junked, crushed or dismantled, the lot doesn't have to send a second notice and can sell it 30 days after the first one.

When the Fees Are Worth More Than the Car

This is the question that matters most once the bill starts climbing. If the car is worth well over what's owed, pay and pick it up, or sell it and let the buyer settle the lot. If the bill is close to the car's value, or past it, you have three realistic options:

• Pay and recover it, if you need the car or it's worth fixing.
• Sell it where it sits. A buyer who handles impounded cars can price the car, account for the storage bill and stop the daily fee from growing. Whatever is left after the lot is paid is yours.
• Let the lot run its sale, and ask for any excess proceeds afterward. This costs you nothing up front, but you give up control of the timing and the price.

How CashMyCarTX handles impounded cars comes down to speed: the sooner we can buy the car, the less of its value the daily storage fee eats. We see this constantly in Dallas and Fort Worth, where storage lots fill up fast. Tell us where the car is sitting and roughly what's owed, and we'll factor that into a straightforward offer. The car doesn't need to run, be clean or even be in your possession for you to sell it to us. You just need to own it without an unresolved lien.

Before you call, have these ready: the storage facility's name and location, a rough total of what's owed (days on the lot times the daily rate is close enough), the car's condition and why it was towed, and your title status, including any lien still showing. None of it needs to be exact. The point is a real number fast, before another week of fees.

If the title itself is the problem, our guide to selling a car without a title in Texas covers the routes. If the car sat unclaimed so long that there's no clean title history at all, the abandoned-vehicle title recovery process may be the right path instead.

How to Dispute a Tow or a Storage Bill

Check the bill against the list. A lot can charge only the tow, daily storage, the impound fee, the notification fee and, in some places, a government fee. Ask the lot to itemize anything else and name the rule that allows it.

Request a tow hearing. If your car was towed or booted without your consent, you have the right to a hearing in justice court on whether the tow was justified. The towing company or lot must give you a notice explaining the right and naming the court. You must file the request before the 14th day after the car was placed in the lot or booted, not counting Saturdays, Sundays and national holidays.

File a complaint with TDLR. TDLR licenses storage facilities and handles complaints about overcharges and notice violations.

Get a Number Before the Next Week of Fees

Every day the car stays on the lot adds $22.85 or more to the bill. Knowing what the car is actually worth is what lets you decide whether to pay, sell or walk away, instead of guessing. Get a real cash offer with your VIN and the storage facility's name, or call us at (214) 617-0955 to talk through the numbers first.

Ready to get a real number for your car? Get an instant cash offer from CashMyCarTX, with free towing anywhere in Texas.