(a) Persons engaged in the business of towing motor vehicles by wrecker or otherwise or the storing of these motor vehicles for any type of remuneration, whether as the principal business of those persons or as an incidence to the persons’ principal business, shall not charge the owner or lienholder of any stored motor vehicle a storage fee for a period exceeding twenty-one (21) days without the consent of the owner or lienholder, except as provided in § 55-23-104.

Terms Used In Tennessee Code 55-23-103

  • Highway: means the entire width between the boundary lines of every way when any part thereto is open to the use of the public for purposes of vehicular travel. See Tennessee Code 55-8-101
  • Motor vehicle: means any self-propelled vehicle that is designed for use upon the highway, including trailers and semitrailers designed for use with the vehicle, and every vehicle that is propelled by electric power obtained from overhead wires but not operated upon rails, except traction engines, road rollers and farm tractors. See Tennessee Code 55-23-102
  • Owner: means a person who holds the legal title of a vehicle, or in the event a vehicle is the subject of an agreement for the conditional sale or lease thereof, with the right of purchase upon performance of the conditions stated in the agreement and with an immediate right of possession vested in the conditional vendee or lessee, or in the event a mortgagor of a vehicle is entitled to possession, then the conditional vendee or lessee or mortgagor shall be deemed the owner for the purpose of this chapter and chapter 10, parts 1-5 of this title. See Tennessee Code 55-8-101
  • Person: includes any natural person, firm, association, corporation or partnership. See Tennessee Code 55-23-102
  • Representative: when applied to those who represent a decedent, includes executors and administrators, unless the context implies heirs and distributees. See Tennessee Code 1-3-105
  • Vehicle: means every device in, upon or by which any person or property is or may be transported or drawn upon a highway, excepting devices used exclusively upon stationary rails or tracks. See Tennessee Code 55-8-101
(b) Persons engaged in the businesses described in subsection (a) shall not charge a storage fee for any day on which the vehicle is not available for release to the owner, lienholder, or insurer, unless such failure to release is based on a hold placed on the vehicle by law enforcement.
(c) Upon provision of documentation from an insurer or lienholder showing its right to take custody of the vehicle, persons engaged in the businesses described in subsection (a) shall release the vehicle to the insurer or lienholder, or an authorized agent or representative for such insurer or lienholder, upon the insurer’s or lienholder’s payment of reasonable charges due, without requiring additional consent from the owner of the vehicle. The insurer or lienholder shall indemnify and hold harmless the releasing person or entity from any action, cause of action, claim, judgment, loss, liability, damage, or cost that it may incur due to wrongful release of the vehicle to an authorized agent or representative of the insurer or lienholder.
(d) For purposes of subsection (c), “reasonable charges” do not include the following:

(1) A fee charged at a higher rate than the maximum fee that has been approved by the Tennessee highway patrol district to be charged for the same service by persons engaged in the businesses described in subsection (a) that serve on the Tennessee highway patrol dispatch towing list; and
(2) A gate, access, or release fee during normal business hours for any day during which daily storage is also being charged.
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