2025 · Regular session · House bill
HB3928
HB3928 gives vehicle storage facilities an online alternative when the law permits notice by publication to a towed vehicle's registered owner and primary lienholder.
Official caption: Relating to providing notice of a vehicle towed to a vehicle storage facility by publication on a third-party Internet website.
Official report lists House author(s): Thompson. This does not identify sponsors or amendment drafters.
Bill explanation published · Version and amendment review scope is stated below · Individual amendment records may not be separately annotated.
Bill highlights
Selected points from the published explanation. Follow each point to its source-linked context; conditions and limits may matter.
- HB3928 gives vehicle storage facilities an online alternative when the law permits notice by publication to a towed vehicle's registered owner and primary lienholder.
- This is not permission to replace every owner's mailed notice with a post on the towing company's own site or social media.
- The law leaves the general written-notice rules, notice contents and later notice/sale procedures unchanged.
What does it do?
HB3928 gives vehicle storage facilities an online alternative when the law permits notice by publication to a towed vehicle’s registered owner and primary lienholder. Instead of using a newspaper of general circulation in the county where the vehicle is stored, a facility may use a publicly available website maintained by a third party approved by the Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation. TDLR must link to each approved notice website from its own website. The newspaper option remains available. Enacted text
This is not permission to replace every owner’s mailed notice with a post on the towing company’s own site or social media. The bill leaves the existing eligibility conditions for notice by publication in place. Those provisions address out-of-state registration and requests for registration records, missing owner or lienholder information, and vehicles lacking a plate or inspection certificate identifying the registration state. The third-party site must be department-approved and publicly accessible. Occupations Code 2303.152
The law leaves the general written-notice rules, notice contents and later notice/sale procedures unchanged. A publication notice still must identify the vehicle, total charges, facility name/address/telephone and department registration number. An online posting is not by itself permission to sell the vehicle immediately. The governor signed the bill June 20, 2025; it took effect September 1, 2025. General notice rule · Notice contents · Second notice provisions · Official history
What changed along the way?
The introduced bill already contained the online alternative and TDLR-link requirement. The House committee, House-passed, Senate committee and enrolled texts preserve the same operative language. Both committees reported the bill without amendments, and the amendment index lists none. The existing circumstances allowing publication were carried forward, not newly created by this bill. Introduced · House report · House-passed · Senate report · Amendment index
For the full amendment record, open the official amendment index.
Official bill versions
Compare the published text versions in the official text index. A change is not attributed to a specific amendment here without a verified record.
Who could benefit—and who could bear the costs?
Storage facilities gain another way to publish qualifying notices. Owners and lenders may find online notices easier to locate, especially through the department’s links, but people who do not check the approved sites may still miss a notice. Website providers gain a potential service market. These are possible effects; the act does not establish a posting price, guarantee that owners will see a notice, or prove that online posting is cheaper than newspaper publication.
The latest posted fiscal note anticipated no significant state or local-government impact and assumed state implementation costs could be handled with existing resources. It did not quantify private posting costs or owner savings. May 22 fiscal note
Review boundary: This explains the enacted change, not approval of a particular website or a determination that a specific tow, notice, fee or sale is lawful. Check the applicable conditions and current department approvals before relying on online publication.
Official sources
- Bill history and latest recorded action
- Bill versions, analyses and fiscal notes
- Action history and votes
- Amendment index
Catalog report retrieved 2026-10-25. Check the official record for corrections or later changes.
