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Yes: 228 • No: 10
TennesseeSB 1068114th General Assembly (2025-2026)SenateWALLET
AN ACT to amend Tennessee Code Annotated, Title 4; Title 5; Title 6; Title 7; Title 39; Title 47; Title 48; Title 55; Title 56; Title 62; Title 66 and Title 67, relative to motor vehicles.
Sponsored By: Sponsor information unavailable
Signed by Governor
Motor Vehicles
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Bill Overview
Analyzed Economic Effects
22 provisions identified: 10 benefits, 2 costs, 10 mixed.
Owners get deadlines to contest custody
Vehicle notices must use plain language, identify the vehicle when possible, and explain its location or planned custody date. Owners and lienholders have 20 days after receiving notice to reclaim a held vehicle by paying towing, preservation, and storage charges. Failure to reclaim gives up their interests and consents to demolition or public sale. Owners and lienholders can appeal an abandoned or immobile finding; an appeal filed before custody blocks custody while pending. Without an appeal or removal within 20 days after notice, the agency can take custody without another notice.
Vehicle seizure powers include notice safeguard
Police can take abandoned or immobile vehicles into custody or arrange custody through a vehicle storage business. They can also take vehicles used in curbstoning, including selling more than five vehicles yearly without a dealer license or selling without properly endorsed titles. For curbstoning on residential property, police must post notice on the vehicle at least 48 hours before seizure. Vehicles used in curbstoning are also subject to forfeiture under Tennessee's existing forfeiture process. Owners can lose both possession and ownership.
Legal remedies protect against towing violations
Most chapter violations are unfair or deceptive acts enforceable by the state attorney general. Injured people can seek court orders, damages, and reasonable attorney's fees; these remedies exclude the portal section and the chapter's part 3. Separately, storage businesses must sell abandoned or immobile vehicles in a commercially reasonable manner. People harmed by violating that sale standard can seek court orders, actual and compensatory damages, punitive damages, and reasonable attorney's fees. Violations of the listed core booting, towing, and parking provisions are Class B misdemeanors for first offenses and Class A misdemeanors for later offenses.
Missed notices limit vehicle storage charges
A business holding an abandoned or immobile vehicle must verify ownership within three business days after taking possession. It must notify the last known registered owner and recorded lienholders within three business days after verification. These deadlines do not apply when the owner or agent is present as towing begins, but other notice duties remain. Missing either deadline limits recoverable storage-related expenses to six days. A court can award a winning claimant reasonable costs and attorney's fees when the business fails to release the vehicle after payment is offered.
Parking vendor licenses and damage claims
Local governments can license booting operators and parking enforcement vendors. Adopted rules must require annual licenses, complaint procedures, timely investigations, suspension or revocation for good cause, and a public registry. Licensed parking enforcement vendors must file a surety bond of at least $250,000. People injured by covered violations can claim actual damages against the required bond for unlawful or negligent enforcement on commercial lots or contracted property. The surety's payment duty cannot exceed the bond amount.
Unclaimed vehicles sold with proceeds safeguards
Unclaimed abandoned or immobile vehicles must be sold at public auction, ending prior liens and ownership claims. Revenue issues the buyer's title using the sale receipt, which also allows transfer to a demolisher without further titling. Sale proceeds first pay auction, towing, preservation, storage, notice, and publication costs. Owners or entitled lienholders have 60 days after sale to claim the remainder; unclaimed money funds costs for other vehicles. After required notice steps, a police chief can waive the agency's sale right in writing, allowing a storage business to enforce a repair lien or conduct the required sale.
Faster reports help owners locate vehicles
When an owner is absent, tow operators must report vehicle details and tow and storage locations within one hour. Until the portal has been available for 90 days, reports go to local police and remain open to public inspection. During that period, public agencies must check ownership through TIES within three business days, refer missing records to Revenue, and share ownership information with storage businesses. Agencies must send three-day-delivery notices to the last known owner and recorded lienholders within three business days after verification. After the 90-day period, custody details must enter the portal within one hour; private parties taking abandoned or immobile vehicles must report immediately, to Revenue before that period and through the portal afterward.
Firearms secured from stored vehicles
Vehicle storage businesses can remove firearms from stored vehicles when removal causes no vehicle damage. Removal is optional. A business that removes a firearm must tag it to the vehicle and store it securely. It must notify the vehicle owner how to retrieve the firearm.
Limits on drivers' vehicle storage bills
Vehicle storage businesses generally cannot charge beyond 21 days without owner or lienholder consent. An exception applies when that party was told the vehicle was ready for release and refused to collect it. Until the portal has been available for 90 days, extended charges require three-day-delivery notice at least 10 days beforehand. After that, extended charges require portal notice to all registered owners and recorded lienholders. Storage fees are barred on days the vehicle cannot be released to its owner, lienholder, or insurer, except for police holds.
Parking payment failures protect against penalties
Parking sites requiring on-site payment only by QR code or card machine must offer alternatives when that equipment fails. They must accept cash or check, allow phone payment, or let the customer leave without paying at that time. Penalties and late fees cannot begin until at least seven business days after the failure and departure. Without instructions for later payment, the customer owes no later payment. Temporarily or continuously unattended lots must prominently post the alternative payment methods they accept.
Parking penalties capped with clear notices
Commercial parking penalties require visible entrance and exit signs explaining the 72-hour payment period. A penalty is allowed only when fees remain unpaid more than 72 hours after the owner discovers nonpayment. Penalties are capped at $50 for fees unpaid 30 days or less, and $75 after more than 30 days. Before using a plate reader for enforcement, lots must post 'LICENSE PLATE READER IN USE' at each designated entrance and every parking level. Local governments cannot adopt or enforce parking rules conflicting with this section's state requirements.
Vehicle release rights and fee caps
A tow operator must release a vehicle still at its original parking location when the owner or operator pays the release fee. For towing or storage without the owner's written permission, charges cannot exceed the Tennessee Highway Patrol district's approved maximum. Release fees cannot exceed $100. During normal business hours, gate, access, and release fees cannot accompany daily storage charges. An insurer or lienholder showing custody rights can obtain release by paying reasonable charges without extra owner consent, but must protect the releasing party against wrongful-release claims involving its representative.
Written approval rules protect vehicle owners
Towing generally requires written permission from the vehicle owner or agent. Exceptions cover properly posted, authorized private-property tows, vehicles unattended more than 12 hours, hazards, blocked access, illegal parking, and police-requested tows. Police must provide the required authorization before asking another person to tow. Storage requires written approval from police, the vehicle owner or agent, or the source property's owner or agent; licensed dealers are exempt. Towing companies and property managers cannot offer, request, or accept payments or other financial rewards for towing referrals.
Local governments keep stricter vehicle-sale options
Local governments keep the ability to pursue stricter rules for curbstoned vehicle sales, meaning sales that violate dealer-license or title rules. The law does not itself set those local requirements or create a household payment.
Completed repairs exempt from storage limits
Repair shops are exempt from the 21-day storage-fee limits and related advance-notice rules for vehicles held for authorized repairs. The exception applies only after the owner has been told the repairs are complete. Owners can owe storage charges outside those limits; this provision sets no fee amount.
When vehicles count as abandoned
In Tennessee, a vehicle counts as abandoned after more than 10 days unattended on public property. The definition also covers more than 48 hours illegally on public property or without consent on private property. Vehicles left in storage or parking facilities for more than 30 consecutive days also qualify. Separate listed conditions cover hazardous vehicles and vehicles left without consent on private residential property. These categories determine when abandoned-vehicle procedures apply.
Drivers gain boot protections and caps
Booting is prohibited for commercial vehicles clearly identified by the specified transportation numbers or registration plates. Other booting requires a commercial lot or contracted property, self-releasing devices, authorized employees or licensed operators, required signs, and 24-hour phone support. Removal charges cannot exceed parking fees owed plus $75; paid customers improperly booted owe no removal fee. Removing a boot to tow the vehicle also carries no boot-removal fee, though lawful towing charges remain. Owners or operators can owe an additional fee up to $100 for intentionally damaging the device or failing to return it to a clearly marked on-site storage place.
Free vehicle searches through statewide portal
The Department of Revenue must begin portal procurement by July 1, 2025, and implement it by October 1, 2026. The portal provides free public searches for vehicle locations, towing, retrieval, fees, and owner and lienholder notices. It centralizes towing records, securely stores reports, and connects with vehicle ownership systems. Beginning 90 days after launch, non-law-enforcement users can face cost-recovery fees for entering information or sending notices. Fee revenue stays dedicated to the portal and does not return to the general fund.
Old vehicle disposal has limited safeguards
Vehicles more than 10 years old with no engine or otherwise totally inoperable can go to a demolisher without title or the specified notices. Qualifying properly licensed vehicles with engines, towed from public roads at police direction, must be held at least 10 days. They can be disposed of afterward if no claim arrives; this hold rule excludes counties with metropolitan government. For abandoned or immobile vehicles not reclaimed through the required process, police must issue an applicant a demolition sale certificate. Demolishers must accept that certificate instead of a title.
Vehicle demolishers get simpler titles, added duties
Businesses acquiring vehicles for wrecking, dismantling, or demolition do not need titles in their own names. Once a vehicle is no longer physically a motor vehicle, they must notify the National Motor Vehicle Title Information System. They must also turn in the title or auction sale receipt for cancellation. They must keep required transaction records for at least one year after the transaction. Those records must be available to law enforcement during normal business hours.
Vehicle sellers move sale notices online
Starting 90 days after the motor vehicle portal becomes available, covered public sale notices move from newspapers to the portal. This applies to vehicles and other goods requiring a title under Tennessee's motor vehicle laws. Notices must list the year, make, model, plate number, vehicle identification number when applicable, and sale date and time. Covered garagekeeper and rental vehicle company sales must also be advertised on the portal. Required notices under that sale procedure use “three-day delivery” instead of the previously specified overnight carrier service.
One state code provision is repealed
The law repeals Tennessee Code section 47-50-120. The supplied text does not explain what that section covered or who it affected. Its effects on household costs and rights cannot be determined from this text.
Sponsors & Cosponsors
Sponsors
There is no primary sponsor on record.
Cosponsors
Ed Jackson
Republican • Senate
Powers
Affiliation unavailable
Reeves
Affiliation unavailable
Roll Call Votes
Senate vote • 4/22/2025
FLOOR VOTE: Motion to Concur House Amendment # 5 4/22/2025
Yes: 31 • No: 1
Senate vote • 4/22/2025
FLOOR VOTE: Motion to Concur House Amendment # 4 4/22/2025
Yes: 30 • No: 1
Senate vote • 4/22/2025
FLOOR VOTE: Motion to Concur House Amendment # 3 4/22/2025
Yes: 29 • No: 1
House vote • 4/22/2025
FLOOR VOTE: REGULAR CALENDAR 2 AS AMENDED PASSAGE ON THIRD CONSIDERATION 4/22/2025
Yes: 88 • No: 7
Senate vote • 3/24/2025
FLOOR VOTE: as Amended Third Consideration 3/24/2025
Yes: 31 • No: 0
Senate vote • 3/11/2025
SENATE FINANCE, WAYS AND MEANS COMMITTEE
Yes: 11 • No: 0
Senate vote • 2/25/2025
SENATE COMMERCE AND LABOR COMMITTEE
Yes: 8 • No: 0
Bill Text
HA0530
4/22/2025
HA0531
4/22/2025
HA0532
4/22/2025
Enrolled / Public Chapter
Fiscal Note
HA0132
HA0133
Introduced
SA0030
SA0082
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