How Much Can a Tow Company Charge in California? Step by Step

Published 17 September 2026

Holding a bill from a private-lot tow and wondering whether it's legal? That's the question Santa Maria Tow Truck hears most: how much a tow company is allowed to charge in California. Step zero is spotting who ordered the tow. A tow you called for has no legal price at all. One a property owner or an officer ordered still has no dollar figure in the Vehicle Code, but it does come with a benchmark, a few limits and an invoice you're entitled to see before paying.

The steps follow in order: under CVC 22658, the benchmark, the half-fee rule, the single day of storage, the 10-mile limit, after-hours release and payment; under CVC 22651.07, the invoice and your 72-hour right. The last step flips it around, to the tow you hire yourself.

In California, the person who orders a tow determines which rules apply. When you set it up yourself - say your car dies on Betteravia and you phone us - the price is whatever we agree on, and no law touches it. When a property owner has a car removed from a private lot, CVC 22658 governs. And when an officer orders a tow under CVC 22651, whether to clear a wreck on the 101 or remove a car that sat 72 hours on a city street, the job goes to whatever company that agency calls.

On state highways near Santa Maria, that usually means a CHP rotation tow. Under the CHP's Tow Service Agreement, each operator's approved rates from the previous year serve as the starting point, the Area commander decides what's reasonable based on the average of submitted fees, and an operator who bills a CHP call above its submitted rates faces discipline. What you won't find in the agreement is an actual figure: rates are approved one Area at a time and never released, so we can't print a Santa Maria rotation rate.

For a private-lot tow, CVC 22658's price rule is a comparison rather than a dollar figure. Any towing or storage charge counts as excessive once it goes above what the same tow or storage would have cost if a law enforcement agency had requested it under its agreement with a towing company. Put simply, a Santa Maria lot can't charge you more than the local rotation rate - the same unpublished number mentioned above.

The section also spells out what happens if you reach your car in time. Until the car leaves the property, you can simply ask for it, and the tow company or its driver has to give it back on the spot with no conditions. If you show up after it's attached to the truck but before it leaves the lot, the company can charge you no more than half of its regular towing fee.

The lot has its own obligations: a sign at each entrance listing every towing company used there, plus a signed authorization from the owner or lessee, who has to be on the property when the car is taken - and you're entitled to a copy of that authorization before you pay. A lot that skips the sign or notice rules owes you double what it charged for towing and storage.

CVC 22658 sets four rules for storage after a private-lot tow, but no daily price. It limits how many days can be billed and caps the gate fee, and the benchmark caps the rate, yet nothing in the law says what a day of storage costs in Santa Maria.

Here they are - you can check each one against your invoice:

• Out in under a day, billed for a day. Pick up a car within 24 hours of its arrival at the storage yard and you owe one day of storage, even if the date changed.
• A yard within 10 miles. Storage can be billed only by a yard within a 10-mile radius of the lot, unless law enforcement signed off in writing ahead of time.
• Release outside business hours. The yard has to be open weekdays from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. and must also release cars after hours, charging no more per hour than half the hourly rate for the original tow.
• Cash or credit. Bring cash or a bank-issued credit card - the yard must accept either, and a posted sign has to tell you that.

No matter who ordered the tow, CVC 22651.07 requires the yard to give you an itemized invoice, with a standard notice of your rights printed on it, before you pay. The invoice has to show who ordered the tow and how it was towed; the dispatch, arrival and completion times; each charge broken out separately, including the daily storage rate, the number of days and any gate fee; your car's year, make, model, VIN and plate; and the company's business ID and carrier number.

That notice lists your rights. You can take your belongings from the car free of charge during business hours, weekdays 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. except state holidays. No lien fee is added if the car leaves the yard inside 72 hours. You can pay with cash, a check from your insurer or a bank-issued credit card. And as soon as you've paid and shown photo ID, proof of ownership and any required police release, the yard has to release the car.

Not sure which yard has your car? Our guide for when your car's been towed in Santa Maria starts with finding the agency that ordered the tow.

Most of the tows we're called for aren't touched by any of this. CVC 22658 applies to tows ordered by lot owners, CVC 22651 to tows ordered by officers, and the CHP's rate approval to its rotation calls. When you arrange the tow, there's no benchmark, no half-fee rule and no storage cap, because your car goes to your shop rather than a yard.

So get the whole price before anything moves, in plain numbers, on the phone. That's the rule at our Santa Maria towing service, where the total comes first: we ask for your location, the car and its drivetrain, the trouble and the destination, then give you one figure before a truck leaves. Our invoice carries the same line items CVC 22651.07 requires from a yard, so you can see the price didn't change at the scene.

Whatever towing prices you see posted online for California are limits on tows someone else ordered, not a price for yours. For your own tow, the pieces are laid out on our page about Santa Maria towing costs.