A tow is the highest-severity enforcement action your patrol vendor can take. It removes a vehicle from your property and, more often than any other action, generates questions from residents, guests, and your team. This article walks the full operational flow end to end: how a tow is authorized, what gets recorded, what the resident experiences, what you should do in the hours and days that follow, and how to handle a tow that's disputed.
For the dispute workflow itself — including timelines and decision criteria — see Citation Disputes: A Complete Workflow Guide. For Colorado-specific authorization, see Colorado Real-Time Tow Authorization.
Where Tows Fit in the Enforcement Ladder
ParkingPass supports four enforcement action types:
Warning — Lowest severity. Notice that a rule was broken; no further action.
Citation — A formal violation, typically with a fee.
Boot — The vehicle is immobilized in place until the resident contacts the patrol vendor.
Tow — The vehicle is removed from the property.
Your patrol vendor decides which action to take based on the violation type, the vehicle's history, your property's parking policy, and any escalation rules your vendor follows. A tow is usually the result of a vehicle that's been warned or cited before, a vehicle that's blocking a fire lane or accessibility space, or an unregistered vehicle on a property with strict enforcement.
How a Tow Is Authorized
The authorization path depends on where your property is located.
Standard properties (most states)
Your patrol vendor, working within the parking policy you've approved, makes the call to tow when a violation meets your property's tow criteria. ParkingPass logs the action; you don't need to approve it in real time.
Colorado properties
Colorado law requires real-time authorization before a tow occurs. The patrol vendor submits a request through ParkingPass, an authorized representative at your property approves or denies in real time, and the tow only proceeds on approval. See Colorado Real-Time Tow Authorization for the full workflow.
Assigned Parking Tow Requests
If your property uses Assigned Parking and a resident finds an unauthorized vehicle in their spot, they can request a tow directly from their resident portal. The vendor still confirms the request before the tow occurs. See Assigned Parking Tow Requests.
What Gets Recorded
When a tow occurs, the patrol vendor creates a violation record in ParkingPass with:
Ticket # — a unique identifier for the violation.
License plate and vehicle details (year, make, model, color).
Violation reason — the rule that was broken (e.g., "Expired Guest Vehicle", "Non-Resident/Unregistered Vehicle", "Backing into Parking Space" if your property prohibits it, "Inoperable Vehicle (Flat tire, etc.)").
Final Action — flagged as Tow.
Date and time of the action.
Patroller — the individual or team member who took the action.
Photos, where the vendor captured them.
Status — typically Active when the record is created.
You can find this record in the Violations Report (Reports → Patrol → Violations) by filtering Violation Type to Tow.
What the Resident or Guest Experiences
Knowing what the towed party sees helps you answer the call you're about to receive.
An empty parking space. The vehicle is gone. This is usually how the affected party first realizes a tow happened.
Signage at the property. Your tow signage should include the patrol vendor's name and phone number. This is what the resident or guest calls to locate their vehicle.
A call to the tow vendor. Recovery, including fees, is handled directly between the vehicle owner and the tow vendor. ParkingPass is not involved in the payment for recovery.
Possibly a notification if the vehicle was associated with a registered resident or active guest pass and your property's notification rules apply.
The vehicle owner pays the tow vendor's recovery fees directly. Those fees are set by the tow vendor and are not controlled or collected by ParkingPass.
What You Should Do When a Tow Happens
In the first hour
Confirm the tow in ParkingPass. Open Reports → Patrol → Violations and filter to Tows. Find the record and verify the violation reason, plate, and time.
Check whether the vehicle was authorized. Cross-reference the plate against your resident permits, active guest passes, and the Do-Not-Tow list. If the vehicle should have been authorized but wasn't (expired DNT, lapsed guest pass, missed registration), note it — you may have a process gap to fix.
Pull up the photos, if your patrol vendor captured them. Photos answer most "but my car was fine where it was" questions.
Identify who to contact (or who will contact you). If the plate matches a registered resident, expect a call. Have the violation record open when they do.
When the call comes in
Confirm the tow occurred and direct them to the tow vendor. Vehicle recovery is handled by the vendor, not by you. Your tow signage has the vendor's phone number; share it again if needed.
Explain why the tow happened. Reference the violation reason from the record. "Your vehicle was towed for [reason]" is more useful than "I'd have to check."
Acknowledge feelings without committing to a refund or reversal. Most callers are upset. You can be empathetic without promising outcomes the dispute process governs.
Explain the dispute path. If they believe the tow was wrong, point them to your property's dispute process and the resident portal where they can submit it. See Citation Disputes: A Complete Workflow Guide.
Within 24 hours
Document the conversation in the resident's profile if they were a resident or guest of a resident. This becomes important if the same person disputes other future actions.
Add photos to the record if your vendor's didn't capture, or if there are additional details you noticed during the recovery process. Use the Add Photos option in the Action menu on the violation record.
If you've found a process gap — an expired DNT entry, a missed guest pass — fix it now. The same situation will recur if the underlying issue isn't addressed.
When a Tow Is Disputed
Disputes are residents' or guests' right under most parking policies, and the dispute path is the same as for any other violation. The full workflow is in Citation Disputes: A Complete Workflow Guide — this section covers what's specific to tow disputes.
Common tow dispute claims
"My vehicle was authorized." Cross-reference the plate against permits, guest passes, and DNT. If the vehicle was authorized at the time of the tow, you likely have a wrongful-tow situation and the dispute should be approved.
"The signage isn't clear." This is a property-side issue. Walk the area and confirm signage is visible, legible, and in compliance with your local jurisdiction's requirements.
"I just stepped away for five minutes." Your patrol vendor's records will show whether the vehicle was observed and for how long. The violation reason and timestamp are usually decisive.
"I wasn't told about this rule." Refer to your property's parking policy and how it was communicated. Lack of notice isn't generally a basis for reversal if signage and policy distribution were standard, but it may surface a communication gap worth fixing.
"My DNT entry was supposed to still be active." Check the entry's expiration date. If it expired before the tow because nobody renewed it, that's a process failure — and it's a strong basis for approving the dispute if the relationship was clearly still active.
What "approving a tow dispute" actually means
ParkingPass can mark the violation record as overturned and reverse any associated fees that flow through the platform. It does not refund the tow vendor's recovery fees — those are paid directly to the vendor and would need to be addressed with the vendor directly, or by your property reimbursing the resident.
If you decide an approved dispute should also cover the vendor's recovery fee, document the decision and the reimbursement plan in the resident's profile.
Patterns That Suggest a Process Problem
One bad tow is a normal day. Repeating patterns are a process issue. Watch for:
Multiple tows of the same vehicle — usually means the resident isn't getting the message, or there's an authorization issue (expired permit, lapsed guest pass) that should have been caught earlier.
Multiple tows at the same location — signage or zoning may need attention. See Using Patrol Analytics to Improve Your Parking Program for how to spot hotspots.
Tows on residents who registered correctly — a configuration issue between your resident records and how patrol sees authorization. Worth a call to ParkingPass support.
Tows happening right after DNT expirations — your DNT review cadence is too long. See Permit Types Explained for review guidance.
A sudden spike in tows — check whether the patrol vendor changed something on their end (a new patroller, a new escalation rule), or whether your property had a recent event (move-in season, weather event, new amenity opening).
Working With Your Tow / Patrol Vendor
Your patrol vendor is the operational owner of every tow at your property. A healthy working relationship makes everything in this article easier.
Know who to call after hours. Tows happen at every hour. Confirm your vendor's after-hours contact and keep it accessible.
Establish a regular review cadence. Monthly or quarterly, sit down with your vendor and walk through the most-significant enforcement actions. The Patrol Analytics report makes this easy.
Share your dispute outcomes with your vendor. If a tow is overturned because of a vendor judgment call, your vendor needs to know so the same mistake doesn't happen again.
Confirm tow signage compliance. Most jurisdictions have specific signage requirements (size, visibility, language, contact info). Your vendor or your local counsel can confirm what your property needs.
Common Questions
Does ParkingPass tow the vehicle?
No. ParkingPass logs the enforcement action; the actual towing is performed by the patrol vendor or their contracted tow operator. Recovery and recovery fees are handled by the tow vendor directly.
Can I cancel a tow once it's been authorized?
If the tow truck hasn't arrived yet, contact your patrol vendor immediately. Once the vehicle is hooked, cancellation depends on the vendor's policies and your state's laws. ParkingPass can mark the violation as overturned later, but it can't physically stop a tow in progress.
The resident says they were never notified. Was a notification sent?
ParkingPass sends notifications based on your property's configuration and whether the vehicle was tied to a registered resident or active guest pass. Unregistered vehicles don't have anyone to notify. Confirm the configuration with support if you're unsure.
How long do tow records stay in the system?
Tow records remain in the Violations Report indefinitely. They may be archived from the default view but can be re-included using the "Exclude Archived" filter.
Can I see how many tows my property has had this month?
Yes. Open Reports → Patrol → Violations, filter Violation Type to Tow, and set the date range. The Patrol Analytics report also includes tows in its enforcement trends.
What if the tow was clearly wrongful?
Approve the dispute through the standard dispute workflow. For recovery-fee reimbursement, coordinate directly with the tow vendor or, if necessary, reimburse the resident through your property and recover from the vendor.
The resident is threatening legal action. What do I do?
Document the situation in detail, stop discussing the matter informally, and route the issue to your property's legal contact or insurance. The dispute process exists to resolve these matters within ParkingPass; legal threats should be handled outside the platform.
Important Notes
Tows are the most visible enforcement action your property takes. They generate strong reactions, so handling them calmly and consistently is what makes the program defensible.
Recovery of the vehicle is between the vehicle owner and the tow vendor. ParkingPass is not part of that transaction.
Approving a dispute reverses the ParkingPass-side record. It does not reverse the tow itself or refund the vendor's recovery fees.
The Citation Disputes workflow applies to tow disputes the same way it applies to citations and warnings — there's no separate dispute process for tows.
Patterns of repeated tows usually point to a fixable underlying cause (signage, expired DNT, communication gap). Patrol Analytics is the fastest way to spot those patterns.