By: Estes S.B. No. 298

A BILL TO BE ENTITLED

AN ACT

relating to the licensing and regulation of the towing of a vehicle by its owner.

BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:

SECTION 1. Section 2308.002, Occupations Code, is amended to read as follows:

Sec. 2308.002. DEFINITIONS. In this chapter:

(1) "Advisory board" means the Towing, Storage, and Booting Advisory Board.

(1-a) "Boot" means a lockable road wheel clamp or similar vehicle immobilization device that is designed to immobilize a parked vehicle and prevent its movement until the device is unlocked or removed.

(1-b) "Booting company" means a person that controls, installs, or directs the installation and removal of one or more boots.

(1-c) "Boot operator" means an individual who installs or removes a boot on or from a vehicle.

(2) "Commission" means the Texas Commission of Licensing and Regulation.

(3) "Consent tow" means any tow of a motor vehicle in which the tow truck is summoned by the owner or operator of the vehicle or by a person who has possession, custody, or control of the vehicle. The term does not include an incident management tow or a private property tow.

(4) "Department" means the Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation.

(5) "Driver's license" has the meaning assigned by Section 521.001, Transportation Code.

(5-a) "Incident management tow" means any tow of a vehicle in which the tow truck is summoned to the scene of a traffic accident or to an incident, including the removal of a vehicle, commercial cargo, and commercial debris from an accident or incident scene.

(6) "Nonconsent tow" means any tow of a motor vehicle that is not a consent tow, including:

(A) an incident management tow; and

(B) a private property tow.

(7) "Parking facility" means public or private property used, wholly or partly, for restricted or paid vehicle parking. The term includes:

(A) a restricted space on a portion of an otherwise unrestricted parking facility; and

(B) a commercial parking lot, a parking garage, and a parking area serving or adjacent to a business, church, school, home that charges a fee for parking, apartment complex, property governed by a property owners' association, or government-owned property leased to a private person, including:

(i) a portion of the right-of-way of a public roadway that is leased by a governmental entity to the parking facility owner; and

(ii) the area between the facility's property line abutting a county or municipal public roadway and the center line of the roadway's drainage way or the curb of the roadway, whichever is farther from the facility's property line.

(7-a) "Parking facility authorized agent" means an employee or agent of a parking facility owner with the authority to:

(A) authorize the removal of a vehicle from the parking facility on behalf of the parking facility owner; and

(B) accept service on behalf of the parking facility owner of a notice of hearing requested under this chapter.

(8) "Parking facility owner" means:

(A) an individual, corporation, partnership, limited partnership, limited liability company, association, trust, or other legal entity owning or operating a parking facility;

(B) a property owners' association having control under a dedicatory instrument, as that term is defined in Section 202.001, Property Code, over assigned or unassigned parking areas; or

(C) a property owner having an exclusive right under a dedicatory instrument, as that term is defined in Section 202.001, Property Code, to use a parking space.

(8-a) "Private property tow" means any tow of a vehicle authorized by a parking facility owner without the consent of the owner or operator of the vehicle.

(9) "Property owners' association" has the meaning assigned by Section 202.001, Property Code.

(10) "Public roadway" means a public street, alley, road, right-of-way, or other public way, including paved and unpaved portions of the right-of-way.

(11) "Tow truck" means a motor vehicle, including a wrecker, equipped with a mechanical device used to tow, winch, or otherwise move another motor vehicle. The term does not include:

(A) a motor vehicle owned and operated by a governmental entity, including a public school district;

(B) a motor vehicle towing:

(i) a race car;

(ii) a motor vehicle for exhibition; or

(iii) an antique motor vehicle;

(C) a recreational vehicle towing another vehicle;

(D) a motor vehicle used in combination with a tow bar, tow dolly, or other mechanical device if the vehicle is not operated in the furtherance of a commercial enterprise;

(E) a motor vehicle that is controlled or operated by a farmer or rancher and used for towing a farm vehicle; [or]

(F) a motor vehicle that:

(i) is owned or operated by an entity the primary business of which is the rental of motor vehicles; and

(ii) only tows vehicles rented by the entity; or

(G) a motor vehicle used to tow a vehicle belonging to the owner of the motor vehicle.

(12) "Towing company" means an individual, association, corporation, or other legal entity that controls, operates, or directs the operation of one or more tow trucks over a public roadway in this state but does not include a political subdivision of the state.

(13) "Unauthorized vehicle" means a vehicle parked, stored, or located on a parking facility without the consent of the parking facility owner.

(14) "Vehicle" means a device in, on, or by which a person or property may be transported on a public roadway. The term includes an operable or inoperable automobile, truck, motorcycle, recreational vehicle, or trailer but does not include a device moved by human power or used exclusively on a stationary rail or track.

(15) "Vehicle owner" means a person:

(A) named as the purchaser or transferee in the certificate of title issued for the vehicle under Chapter 501, Transportation Code;

(B) in whose name the vehicle is registered under Chapter 502, Transportation Code, or a member of the person's immediate family;

(C) who holds the vehicle through a lease agreement;

(D) who is an unrecorded lienholder entitled to possess the vehicle under the terms of a chattel mortgage; or

(E) who is a lienholder holding an affidavit of repossession and entitled to repossess the vehicle.

(16) "Vehicle storage facility" means a vehicle storage facility, as defined by Section 2303.002, that is operated by a person who holds a license issued under Chapter 2303 to operate the facility.

SECTION 2. Section 2301.151, Occupations Code, is amended to read as follows:

Sec. 2308.151. LICENSE REQUIRED. Unless the person holds an appropriate license under this subchapter, a person may not:

(1) perform towing operations;

(2) operate a towing company;

(3) perform booting operations; or

(4) operate a booting company. Nothing in this subchapter shall require a person towing a vehicle belonging to the person to obtain a license.

SECTION 3. This Act takes effect September 1, 2013.