Who pays the tow fee when an HOA tows your car?
Reviewed by the OurHOA team · Updated June 2026
When an HOA tows a car from private community property, the tow company bills the owner - not the HOA. How tow and storage fees work, signage law, and how to fight an improper tow.
The short answer: you pay the tow company, not the HOA
When a vehicle is towed from private community property, the bill almost never comes from the association. The HOA (or its towing contractor) authorizes the tow, but the towing company takes possession of the car and charges the registered owner directly for the tow itself plus a daily storage fee, and you generally have to pay that bill in full to get the car back. The HOA does not 'front' the cost and then add it to your account - the financial relationship is between you and the tow operator. That is an important distinction: because the charge is the tow company's, the limits on what they can charge come from state towing law, not from your governing documents.
Why the HOA can have your car towed at all
Most associations control private streets, guest lots, fire lanes, and reserved spaces, and the CC&Rs or parking rules let the board remove vehicles that violate them - an expired permit, a car blocking a fire lane, an unregistered or inoperable vehicle, or overnight parking where it isn't allowed. The authority to tow comes from the recorded covenants and the rules adopted under them, combined with state vehicle codes that let a private-property owner authorize removal. On a truly public street that runs through the community, the HOA usually cannot tow - only the city or police can - so where the car sat often decides whether the tow was even valid. For the broader picture of when a community can and can't remove a vehicle, see our guide on whether an HOA can tow your car.
Signage and notice: what the law requires before a tow
Most states heavily regulate towing from private property, and the rules center on warning drivers before the car is hooked. In California, Vehicle Code section 22658 requires the property owner or its agent to post signs at each entrance (or, for a single vehicle, give the owner notice) stating that unauthorized vehicles will be towed and listing who to call, and in many cases the property owner's agent must authorize the specific tow in writing. Texas's Towing and Booting Act, Occupations Code chapter 2308, similarly requires conspicuous signage at the property and gives the vehicle owner the right to request a tow hearing in justice court to challenge whether the tow was authorized. If the required signs weren't posted, the tow can be improper even if you technically parked where you shouldn't have.
If the tow was improper: how to challenge it and recover fees
Because the fees are set and collected by the tow company, your recourse runs partly against them and partly against the HOA. Pay to retrieve the car if you need it - storage fees grow daily - but keep every receipt and photograph the scene, including whether warning signs were posted and where the car was. State towing statutes typically give you a fast, low-cost path to a hearing (the Texas tow hearing under chapter 2308, for example) where a court can order the tow company to refund charges for a tow that wasn't authorized or properly signed. Separately, if the HOA ordered the tow in violation of its own rules or without the notice its documents require, that is a dispute with the association you can raise through its internal process. Many states also let you recover damages from a tow company that violated the signage or authorization rules - California Vehicle Code section 22658, for instance, exposes a careless operator to multiple-times-the-charges liability.
Avoiding the tow in the first place
Tows almost always trace back to a parking rule and a guest who didn't know it, so the cheapest fix is clear information: knowing where guests can park, how overnight or visitor permits work, and how much advance warning the community gives before towing. Our guide on whether an HOA can ban guest or overnight parking digs into how far those limits can go. OurHOA helps small self-managed communities publish their parking rules, issue and track guest permits, and keep a record of the notices sent before any vehicle is removed - so enforcement is predictable and an owner can see exactly what the rule was before a car ever gets hooked.
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These guides are general education for HOA boards and residents, not legal, tax, or financial advice. Rules vary by state and by your community's governing documents - check with a professional for your situation.