Broken Regulations: How Texas Towing Rules Contain Grammatically Impossible Requirements

When government agencies write regulations, precision matters. A single misplaced word can render an entire rule meaningless—or worse, unenforceable. Unfortunately, that's exactly what happened with key provisions in Texas's towing regulations, creating confusion for industry professionals and raising serious questions about regulatory oversight.

The Problem: Regulations That Don't Make Sense

The Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation (TDLR) oversees the state's towing industry through Chapter 86 of the Texas Administrative Code. But buried within these regulations are provisions so poorly drafted that they're literally impossible to understand or follow.

Consider 16 TAC Section 86.458(a), which attempts to regulate towing fees. The regulation states:

"A license or permit holder may not charge a fee for a nonconsent tow that is greater than a nonconsent tow established under Texas Occupations Code, §2308.2065."

What's wrong with this sentence? It tries to compare a fee (a dollar amount) to a tow (a service). That's like saying "you cannot charge more money than a hamburger"—the comparison simply doesn't work because you're comparing incompatible concepts.

The regulation should compare "a fee" to "the fee for a nonconsent tow," but the critical phrase "the fee for" is missing, rendering the entire sentence meaningless.

The Cascade of Cross-Reference Failures

Even more troubling is the systematic breakdown of cross-references throughout Chapter 86. Section 86.458(b) provides a perfect example of how these errors create a cascade of regulatory failures.

This regulation prohibits charging fees for services "not included in the list of fees established under Texas Occupations Code, §2308.2065."

But here's where everything falls apart:

Step 1: 16 TAC Section 86.458(b) references Section 2308.2065 as establishing a "list of fees"

Step 2: 16 TAC Section 2308.2065 establishes no fees whatsoever—it only creates prohibitions and references fees established elsewhere

Step 3: 16 TAC Section 2308.2065 actually points to Section 2308.0575 as the source of established fees

Step 4: 16 TAC Section 2308.0575 establishes fees only for private property tows, not incident management tows

Step 5: Result: No fee list exists for incident management tows, making the regulation reference a non-existent list

This cascade of failures appears throughout Chapter 86. Multiple sections incorrectly cite Section 2308.2065 as establishing or authorizing fees:

• Section 86.705(j) and (k) reference fees "authorized by Texas Occupations Code, §2308.2065"

• Section 86.715(a) and (b) reference fees "approved by Texas Occupations Code, §2308.2065"

The pattern is clear: TDLR systematically misidentified the source of fee authority, creating regulations that reference non-existent standards.

Why This Matters

These aren't just academic concerns. Broken regulations create real-world problems:

For Towing Companies: How can you comply with rules that reference non-existent standards? Due process requires that regulations provide fair notice of what conduct is prohibited.

For Vehicle Owners: Unclear fee regulations make it difficult to know whether charges are legitimate or excessive when the regulatory framework itself is incoherent.

For Attorneys: Defending or prosecuting towing disputes becomes complicated when the underlying regulations contain systematic cross-reference errors and impossible requirements.

For Courts: Judges cannot enforce rules that don't make grammatical sense or reference non-existent standards.

What Should Be Done?

TDLR should immediately undertake comprehensive revision to:

1. Fix the grammatical errors in Section 86.458(a);

2. Correct the systematic cross-reference errors throughout Chapter 86;

3. Ensure consistency between the Occupations Code and Administrative Code

For industry professionals, understanding these regulatory gaps and errors is crucial for compliance and dispute resolution.

For vehicle owners, knowing that state fee regulations contain significant structural problems can be important when challenging excessive charges.

The Bottom Line

Government regulations should be clear, enforceable, and legally sound. When agencies publish rules containing basic grammatical errors, systematic cross-reference failures, and requirements that exceed statutory authority, it undermines the entire regulatory framework and creates unnecessary confusion for everyone involved.

The problems in Chapter 86 aren't minor technical issues—they're fundamental flaws that make portions of the regulatory scheme impossible to understand or enforce. This level of regulatory dysfunction demands immediate attention and comprehensive reform.