Colorado Private Parking Enforcement Laws: Towing Bill of Rights, Booting, and Citations

Colorado regulates the tow and the boot in detail and says almost nothing about the private parking ticket itself. Towing from private property is governed by C.R.S. 40-10.1-405 as amended by HB22-1314, the "Towing Bill of Rights," effective August 10, 2022, which requires 24-hour windshield notice before most tows from residential parking areas. Booting companies need a Public Utilities Commission permit and, since HB25-1117 was signed on June 3, 2025, are subject to parallel notice, sign, and release rules. We found no Colorado statute that authorizes or regulates private parking invoices as such.

Summary

We found no Colorado statute on private parking bills, which rest on posted terms and contract law; the state's detailed rules cover the enforcement tools behind them. Under C.R.S. 40-10.1-405, every nonconsensual tow requires fresh permission from the property owner, photos, and specific signs, and most residential tows require a notice on the windshield a day ahead. HB25-1117 applies nearly the same pattern to booting. Fees are capped by the PUC.

Private parking citations and invoices

Colorado has no counterpart to Florida's statute on private parking charges, and we found no statute that bans them. A private invoice in Colorado rests on the general theory covered in can private companies issue parking tickets: under that theory, the posted terms form the agreement, the driver accepts them by parking, and the operator bills for breaking them.

What changes in Colorado is the pressure behind the bill. Since 2022 the statute has barred a tow company from towing from private property just because the rear plate shows expired registration, unless a peace officer orders it. The same rule now applies to boots. The statute requires the property owner's permission for each tow within the prior 24 hours, and HB25-1117 bars a boot company from patrolling a lot looking for violations. With those limits, an unpaid private invoice is largely a collections matter; the other routes that exist are a tow or boot that meets the statute, a ban from the property, or a civil claim. Our guide to parking violation notices covers how operators word notices.

What signs must say

C.R.S. 40-10.1-405(4)(f) bars a nonconsensual tow from private property normally used for parking unless the driver was given notice of the parking rules, and notice that violators may be towed at the owner's expense, when the vehicle entered and parked. The statute requires a tow company that contracts with a property owner to post signs that:

• are at least one square foot, with contrasting letters at least one inch high, printed in English;
• state "Authorized Parking Only" and give the tow company's name and phone number;
• stand at the entrance facing the street, visible before and upon entering, and inside the lot facing the spaces;
• at a non-residential lot with more than ten freestanding lampposts, appear on or near each lamppost; and
• sit between 3 and 8 feet off the ground and are not blocked.

Tows from a resident's assigned space or a residents-only lot require an additional sign at each entryway, facing the driver, stating that the spaces are reserved for specified residents and that unauthorized vehicles may be towed, with the international towing symbol at least 4 by 4 inches, permanently mounted 5 to 8 feet high. The statute also requires landlords to give each tenant the parking rules in writing before adopting or changing them. More on placement is in parking lot signage for enforcement.

Towing from private property

Section 40-10.1-405 lists the grounds for a nonconsensual tow from private property. Outside repossession, court or police orders, and vehicles blocking a driveway or roadway, the statute requires the tow company to have permission for that tow within the 24 hours immediately before it, from the property owner or leaseholder, a common interest community, or their agent, and bars the tow company from acting as the agent. The Colorado PUC publishes a standard Property Owner Tow Authorization Form that it says must be used for all nonconsensual tows from private property, both residential and commercial.

The 24-hour notice rule is the headline of HB22-1314. Under 40-10.1-405(3)(b), a tow from "a parking space or common parking area" requires a written notice on the windshield at least 24 hours before the tow. The definitions in 40-10.1-101 tie "common parking area" to condominiums, cooperatives, apartment complexes, and mobile home parks, and the Colorado State Library's explainer describes the law's notice rule as applying to residential property. The statute requires the notice to say the vehicle will be towed if it stays, describe the problem, give the time of the tow, and warn that repeating the same violation may lead to a tow without notice.

The statute does not require advance notice when:

• the vehicle already received two notices for parking the same way;
• it is being repossessed, or a court, agency, or peace officer ordered the tow;
• it blocks a driveway or roadway;
• it is in a disabled space without a valid placard or plate;
• it is in or blocking a marked fire zone; or
• it is in a resident's assigned, rented, or purchased space, or in a residents-only lot without authorization.

Before hooking up, the statute requires the tow company to take at least four photos of the vehicle, one from each side at 2,000 by 2,000 pixels or better, plus a photo showing the reason for the tow, including any sign. If it cannot produce the photos, the law presumes it caused any damage or lacked authority. If the owner shows up before the vehicle leaves the property, the statute requires the tow to stop, with no drop charge. Tow companies keep evidence of signs and notices for three years.

Booting

Colorado requires vehicle booting companies to hold a PUC permit. HB25-1117, signed June 3, 2025, rewrote the operating rules to track the towing law closely. According to the bill summary, a company may not boot a vehicle on private property unless a court, agency, or peace officer authorized it, or the company received permission for that specific boot within the prior 24 hours, and it must keep that permission for three years. It may not patrol or monitor property on an owner's behalf, and may not boot for expired registration unless a peace officer orders it.

In a parking space or common parking area, the bill requires the company or owner to give 24 hours' written notice before booting, with exceptions similar to towing; even then, a notice with the company's phone numbers and hours goes on the booted vehicle. Under the bill, signs state the restriction, the days and times it applies (or "Authorized Parking Only" for a 24/7 rule), that violators will be immobilized at the owner's expense, and the boot company's name and phone number. The bill requires the company to photograph the vehicle first, mark its vehicles with its name, permit number, and phone number, and have staff wear visible identification, and bars it from paying property owners for the right to boot.

For release, the bill requires the company to remove the boot within 90 minutes of contact during business hours or 120 minutes outside them, take cash or a major credit card, and charge only once if it used more than one boot. It provides for immediate removal when the driver pays $60 and signs a form acknowledging the remaining fees. How operators weigh booting against towing is covered in booting vs. towing.

Fees, caps, and driver remedies

The PUC sets maximum rates for nonconsensual tows, and the rules require tow companies to post those maximums at their place of business and on their website, along with the PUC consumer hotline. They must accept cash and major credit cards, give an itemized bill on request, and print a notice of the right to complain to the PUC on the invoice. They may not charge storage for days they did not store the vehicle, or any fee the PUC rules do not list.

The statute provides for release of a towed vehicle when the driver pays 15 percent of the fees, up to $60, and signing the state's "Towed Vehicle Release Notice" acknowledging the balance. Personal contents must be returned on request within 30 days of the notice, whether or not the fees are paid. The HB22-1314 bill summary adds that a carrier that violates the act may not charge or keep fees for the tow, and that the violation is a defense when the carrier sues to collect. The PUC reports that from 2022 through 2024 it secured 469 refunds totaling $280,289 for towing customers, and that it investigates more than a thousand towing complaints a year, most involving nonconsensual tows.

For boots, the $60 release with a signed acknowledgment works the same way, and the bill summary says HB25-1117 violations are generally deceptive trade practices enforceable by the Attorney General or a district attorney.

Local ordinances to check

Because towing and booting are regulated by the state through the PUC, local codes play a smaller role in Colorado than in states like Georgia or Florida. City and county rules can still cover:

• sign permitting or zoning rules for posts and placement;
• rules for HOAs and common interest communities, which can authorize tows under the statute;
• parking rules in leases and HOA documents, which set what counts as parking inappropriately; and
• any city rules on paid private lots and pay stations.

Questions to raise with your attorney

Colorado's rules sit mostly in C.R.S. 40-10.1-405 and HB25-1117, with PUC rules alongside. An attorney licensed in Colorado can work through questions like these for a specific lot:

• Do our signs meet 40-10.1-405's size, wording, height, and placement rules at the entrance and inside each lot?
• Which of our lots count as a "parking space or common parking area" under 40-10.1-101, so the 24-hour windshield notice applies?
• Have tenants received the parking rules in writing, as the statute requires before rules are adopted or changed?
• How should owner permission for each tow be documented on the PUC authorization form within the 24-hour window?
• How do the two-notice exception and the other exceptions in 40-10.1-405(3)(b) apply to vehicles that have already received warnings?
• How do the statute's limits on towing and booting for expired registration affect our parking rules?
• If we use booting, does our boot company hold a PUC permit and follow HB25-1117's notice, sign, and release rules?

In Lotably, warnings and citations carry photos and timestamps, and a plate's history shows up at the next scan, which records how many notices a vehicle has received. Booting and towing records start switched off in Lotably and are turned on when the operator asks. Lotably does not check whether booting or towing is allowed where an operator enforces; the operator is responsible for following the law and assumes all risk of using them. For apartment-specific practice, see parking enforcement for apartments, and for other states, the private parking enforcement laws by state hub.