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. Tow operations are covered across three articles — this page is the map to them.
Where Tows Fit in the Enforcement Ladder
ParkingPass supports four enforcement action types, in ascending severity:
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.
Start Here
How Tows Are Authorized and Recorded — Read this first, before a tow ever happens. Covers the authorization path for standard properties, Colorado real-time authorization, and Assigned Parking tow requests; exactly what ends up on the violation record; the history patterns that point to a fixable process problem; and how to work with your patrol vendor.
Handling a Tow: The First Hour, the Call, and Follow-Up — Use this when a tow has just happened. Covers what the towed resident or guest is experiencing, what to verify in the first hour, how to handle the call when it comes in, and what to document within 24 hours.
Tow Disputes and Wrongful Tows — Use this when a resident or guest challenges a tow. Covers the common dispute claims and how to weigh them, and what approving a tow dispute actually does — including why it does not refund the tow vendor's recovery fee.
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.
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.