Can a landlord or apartment complex tow my car in Texas?

Almost every towing dispute turns on where the car was sitting. A private parking facility the property owns or controls (an apartment lot, a leased single-family driveway, an HOA's common parking) is governed by the Texas Towing and Booting Act, Chapter 2308 of the Texas Occupations Code. The property can have a vehicle towed, but only inside that statute's rules. A vehicle parked on a public street is a different world entirely: that is the city's and law enforcement's jurisdiction, not the property's. A lot of 'they towed me off the street' complaints were never the apartment's or landlord's tow to make in the first place. Figure out which one you are dealing with before anything else, because the rules and who you fight do not overlap.

Texas does not let a private lot tow an unauthorized vehicle on a whim. Before an unconsented tow, the law requires a conspicuous tow-away sign facing each driveway or entrance where a vehicle can enter, stating that unauthorized vehicles will be towed at the owner's expense, and listing the towing company's name and a 24-hour phone number. Texas even regulates the sign's size, lettering, and placement. Critically, those signs must have been posted for at least the 24 hours before the tow. No compliant signs, no lawful unconsented tow. The exception is when the property specifically authorizes the removal of one identified vehicle (for example, one blocking a fire lane or a dumpster), which follows its own procedure.

Apartment parking is where this comes up most. Chapter 2308 carries specific provisions for unattended and unauthorized vehicles in apartment-complex parking facilities, and a complex generally cannot just tow a resident's or guest's car the moment it dislikes where it is parked. Many situations require notice on the vehicle first. The complex also cannot profit from the tow: the statute prohibits a parking-facility owner from accepting anything of value from the towing company for the referral. If your lease assigns you a spot or sets visitor-parking rules, those rules still have to live inside the statute. A complex that tows aggressively without compliant signage and notice is exposed, not protected.

Texas gives the vehicle owner a real remedy. You can request a tow hearing in the justice court (or municipal court) for the precinct where the tow happened, and you generally have 14 days from the date of the tow to ask for it. At the hearing, the judge decides whether the tow and any storage charges were authorized. If they were not, you can be reimbursed for the towing and storage costs you paid, and improper tows can expose the tow company or the property to additional liability. Keep everything: photos of the signage (or the missing signage) where you parked, the tow ticket, your storage receipts, and your lease or parking permit. The hearing is low-cost and built for exactly this.

Flip it around, because this is a landlord problem too. Parking is one of the most common fights between residents, guests, and owners, and it turns ugly fast when nobody wrote the rules down. A real management process heads it off: compliant signage that actually meets the statute, a written parking policy in the lease (assigned spots, visitor rules, what gets towed and when), and a single licensed tow vendor who follows notice requirements to the letter. Towing a resident's car the wrong way does not just lose the dispute, it can cost the owner money and a tenant. The goal is never to tow more, it is to make the rules clear enough that you rarely have to. That is the kind of thing that is handled before it becomes a fight, not after the tow truck leaves.