HOA Towing Rules Changed: What to Fix Before the Next Tow

For years, towing at a private community worked like a phone call. A manager or board member spotted a car that didn't belong, called the tow company on contract, and the vehicle was gone by morning. Nobody wrote much down because nobody needed to.

That version is getting harder to defend. Over the past two years, a large number of states have passed or tightened laws covering non-consensual towing from private property, and community associations are squarely inside the scope. New Jersey's Predatory Towing Prevention Act requires associations to hold a written contract with a towing company and post signs with specific details. Colorado's HB 22-1314 requires a 24-hour windshield notice before most tows. Texas gives owners a 10-day period to cure a first violation. The details differ by state, but the direction is consistent: before a vehicle leaves the lot, you need a record that the process was followed.

Most boards have not updated their process to match. The gap does not show up during the tow. It shows up two weeks later, when the owner's attorney asks for the notice log, the signage photos, and the towing authorization, and the association can produce none of them.

The process is now a paper trail, not a phone call

The common thread across the new laws is advance written notice. Many states now require a notice placed on the windshield somewhere between 24 and 72 hours before a non-emergency tow. The notice generally has to describe the specific violation, state that the vehicle will be removed if the violation continues, and identify who to contact. Alongside that, several states require a standing written contract with the tow operator and a signed authorization for every individual removal, not a blanket standing order.

If your current practice is a text message to a driver who patrols the property, that is the piece most likely to fail. The fix is not complicated, but it has to be deliberate. Every tow needs a dated notice, proof that the notice period elapsed, and a signed authorization tied to that specific vehicle and violation.

Signage is a technical spec, not a suggestion

The signage rules are where associations get caught most often, because the requirements are precise and easy to fall short of without noticing. States set minimum sign dimensions, minimum letter height, required language such as "authorized parking only," a required range of height off the ground, placement at every entrance to the property, and the tow company's name and phone number on the sign itself. Colorado, for example, wants the carrier's name and number on the sign, placed three to ten feet off the ground, at the entrance and facing outward. Florida sets a minimum sign size with tow company contact information included.

In several states, missing or undersized signage voids the tow outright. It does not matter that the vehicle was genuinely parked where it shouldn't be. If the sign was 12 by 18 inches and the statute says 18 by 24, the owner gets their tow fee back and the association absorbs it.

Walk the property with a camera. Photograph every sign with a visible date, measure them against your state's current requirement, and check that one exists at every entrance a driver could use. Replace anything that doesn't match before you rely on it for enforcement.

"Expired plates" and "looks abandoned" are off the table in more places

Colorado's law bars towing a vehicle solely because its registration is expired. Other states have added protections against retaliatory tows, meaning a vehicle removed shortly after its owner filed a complaint or spoke at a meeting invites a claim regardless of whether the parking violation was real.

If your enforcement leans on plate status alone, or on a board member's judgment that a car "looks like it's been sitting," you are exposed. Those calls need a documented rule and a documented pattern behind them, not an impression. The same applies to inoperable-vehicle claims, which need dated photos over time rather than a single frame of a dusty windshield.

Emergency exceptions still exist, and they're narrow

The new notice requirements almost always carve out true emergencies. Fire lanes, vehicles blocking a driveway or roadway, unauthorized use of an accessible space, and a car sitting in an assigned resident spot generally still allow immediate removal with no advance notice. In Colorado, a second tow for the same violation on the same vehicle after two prior notices also qualifies for no-notice removal.

The risk is treating the exception as the rule. An enforcer standing in the lot at 11 PM should not be deciding which category a violation falls into. Write down exactly which of your violations allow an immediate tow and which require the notice period, and put that list in the hands of whoever authorizes removals.

What a defensible tow file looks like

For every vehicle you remove, the file should contain the rule you're citing by section number, dated photos of the violation and of the nearest compliant sign, the windshield notice with a timestamp, proof that the notice window passed without the vehicle moving, the signed towing authorization, and the tow company's contact details. If you're relying on a prior-violation exception, add the two earlier notices for the same violation on the same plate.

Assemble that before the truck arrives. Boards lose these disputes by towing first and building the record afterward, in response to the complaint, which is exactly when the gaps are visible.

Build the process once so it runs the same every time

The reason associations fail these cases usually isn't bad intent. It's that the process lives in one person's memory and inbox. The board member who placed the notice is traveling. The new manager can't find the log from two months ago. Nobody is certain whether a vehicle already got its first notice or whether that was a conversation at the mailboxes.

A system that logs each plate scan with a photo and timestamp, tracks which vehicles have open notices and when those notices expire, and stores the signage record and tow authorization in one place turns a legal requirement into something that happens on its own. The notice period becomes a countdown the software tracks instead of a date someone has to remember. The authorization is generated from the same record that documented the violation.

If your towing process still runs on a phone call and a clipboard, the new laws have already moved past you. Tighten the notice, fix the signs, and document every step. Book a Park Entra demo and we'll show you how communities are building tow files that hold up when an owner pushes back.