Nashville to temporarily suspend car booting amid conflicts with new state law

Kelly Puente, Nashville Tennessean
·2 min read
An employee of Admiral Parking Enforcement prepares to boot a vehicle in a paid parking lot on Monday, Feb. 19, 2024, in Nashville, Tenn. Local and officials are working on stronger regulations for the companies that boot cars. Unlike some companies that provide no grace period, Admiral Parking gives drivers 30 minutes to move their vehicles before attaching a boot to the back driver’s side wheel.

Regulated car booting in Nashville will be temporarily suspended starting on Monday due to a new state law that prohibits commercial parking lot owners from using third party companies to boot vehicles.

The law that goes into effect on July 1 added several new restrictions to car booting, including requiring licenses for businesses and capping the fee at $75 to remove a boot. But it also added a provision that prohibits third party companies and only allows the parking lot owners and their employees to boot cars on commercial property.

The law has caused confusion and thrown a wrench into Metro Nashville's local ordinance, which did the opposite and prohibited parking lot owners from booting cars on their property.

The Metro Council will now have to come up with a new ordinance that follows state law and offers some type of solution, said Theresa Costonis, an assistant attorney with Metro’s legal department, in a Transportation Licensing Commission meeting on June 20.

The city currently has eight licensed third party booting companies that will be affected.

“I feel like basically there’s no booting in Davidson County after July 1, until Council adopts an ordinance in accordance with the state statute,” she told commissioners. “All of our booting licenses will effectively become invalid.”

Nashville has seen growing controversy over the practice of car booting with residents complaining of predatory practices, unclear signage and glitches in the payment systems.

An employee of Admiral Parking Enforcement prepares a boot in a paid parking lot on Monday, Feb. 19, 2024, in Nashville, Tenn. Local and officials are working on stronger regulations for the companies that boot cars. Unlike some companies that provide no grace period, Admiral Parking gives drivers 30 minutes to move their vehicles before attaching a boot to the back driver’s side wheel.

The situation was especially bad this year at the U.S. Post Office in Inglewood, where a company waited to boot unsuspecting drivers who parked in the wrong lot.

In recent months, two companies were forced to refund hundreds of drivers after operating on expired city permits, while one of the largest companies, Nashville Booting LLC, setted a class action lawsuit for allegedly leaving people waiting for hours to remove a boot.

Chris Lawson, owner of the New Orleans-based Admiral Enforcement, said his booting operations in Nashville have already been cut by about 75% as lot owners try to avoid the negative publicity.

He said he plans to suspend operations on July 1 until he gets more clarification from the city.

The state law says local governments “may permit a licensed parking lot, or a licensed parking attendant on the licensed parking lot's behalf, to boot or tow on the licensed parking lot” provided they follow provisions including licensing and signage.

Costonis said businesses will have to get new permits under the state statute, once the city council adopts a new ordinance. Until then, drivers may have some relief from car booting.

“It does seem to me to be very disruptive of their business model,” Constonis said.

This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: Nashville to end car booting by July 1 thanks to new state law