Towing, removal and clamping

Who can remove or clamp your car

• The council, on the road or in its own car parks, where it enforces parking itself. It can remove a car that is parked in contravention and has been given a penalty charge notice.
• The police, anywhere a vehicle is causing an obstruction or danger, is parked in breach of a prohibition, or appears to have been abandoned.
• The DVLA, if the vehicle is untaxed — however well it is parked.
• Bailiffs, who have their own powers to clamp and take vehicles for debts. That is a different subject and this page does not cover it.

Who is not on that list: a private landowner, a supermarket, a retail park or a parking company acting for them, in England and Wales.

Explanatory Notes to the Protection of Freedoms Act 2012, paragraphs 211 to 213

Council removal: what it costs to get the car back

Councils do not set their own removal charges. The levels are fixed by regulations — one set for England outside London, one for Wales — and London has its own, higher levels. On top of the release charge you pay the penalty charge itself.

England: The Civil Enforcement of Road Traffic Contraventions (Approved Devices, Charging Guidelines and General Provisions) (England) Regulations 2022 (S.I. 2022/71), Schedule 3, Part 2, paragraphs 3 and 4
Wales: The Civil Enforcement of Road Traffic Contraventions (Guidelines on Levels of Charges) (Wales) Order 2013 (S.I. 2013/1969 (W. 191)), Schedule, paragraphs 2 and 3
London: London Councils: Parking and traffic charges in London, «Additional parking fees»
Scotland: The Removal, Storage and Disposal of Vehicles (Prescribed Sums and Charges etc.) (Scotland) Regulations 2019 (S.S.I. 2019/230), regulation 3 and Schedule 1

Read in the version as made (in force 2 November 2013). legislation.gov.uk did not show us a revised version, so check the council's own page before relying on it.

Scotland has a single national scale that covers removals by Police Scotland and by councils alike. It does not set a clamp-release charge, so we leave that cell empty rather than borrow a figure from a council page. The first 24-hour period begins at noon on the first day the vehicle is retained, and part of a period is charged as a whole one.

London boroughs. London Councils publishes the levels; the page does not state the date from which they apply.

What four councils actually charge

The national levels show up on council pages exactly as you would expect. What differs is the paperwork and the practical detail.

London (Hounslow)

Release £280, plus £55 a day in storage, plus the original penalty charge. Bring proof of ownership (registration document or full insurance certificate), proof of address (two utility bills from within the past three months) and photo ID. Every London council has to register a vehicle it removes with London Councils' TRACE service, at trace.london.

London Borough of Hounslow: Towed vehicle tracing · Parking in London →

Birmingham

Release £105, plus £12 a day in storage, plus the penalty charge notice. Bring the V5C showing your name and address, and two forms of identification, one of them photographic. Storage runs from midnight on the day after the removal.

Birmingham City Council: Getting back your removed vehicle · Parking in Birmingham →

Leeds

Release £105, plus £12 a day in storage, plus the penalty charge. Bring proof of ownership or insurance and proof of address.

Leeds City Council: Vehicle clamping and removal · Parking in Leeds →

Edinburgh

Release £190, plus £25 a day in storage, plus the parking ticket. If the car is clamped rather than removed, the release fee is £40. Bring proof of ID such as a driving licence, and proof of address dated within the last three months. The council clamps a vehicle with 10 or more unpaid parking tickets. You pay first and challenge afterwards, within 28 days.

City of Edinburgh Council: Clamping and vehicle removals · Parking in Edinburgh →

Police removal costs more

These charges apply in England and Wales (regulation 1(2)) when a vehicle is removed under the regulations made under section 99 of the Road Traffic Regulation Act 1984 — typically the police removing a vehicle that is obstructive, dangerous, parked in contravention of a restriction or abandoned. These are not the council levels. For a vehicle up to 3.5 tonnes that is on the road, upright and not substantially damaged, the removal charge is £192, storage £26 for each 24 hours, and disposal £96. A heavier vehicle, or one that is off the road, on its side or badly damaged, costs more.

Each 24-hour period is reckoned from noon, and part of a period counts as a whole one.

The Removal, Storage and Disposal of Vehicles (Prescribed Sums and Charges) Regulations 2008 (S.I. 2008/2095), regulations 4 to 6 and Tables 1 to 3, as substituted from 6 April 2023 by S.I. 2023/331

Finding the car and getting it back

1. Check whether it was removed or stolen. In London, every council registers the vehicles it removes with TRACE (trace.london). Elsewhere, the council's parking pages give the pound's number; if the council has no record, ask the police — a car that is simply gone may have been taken by either.
2. Collect it quickly. Storage is charged for every day or part of a day, so a car left over a weekend costs several days more than one collected on the day.
3. Bring the documents. Councils ask for proof that the car is yours (the V5C, or an insurance certificate) and proof of who you are and where you live. The examples above show how much the lists vary — check the pound's own page before you travel.
4. Pay, then challenge. You will not get the car back without paying, and paying does not mean you accept the removal was right.
5. Do not leave it. An uncollected vehicle can be disposed of, and the disposal charge is then added to what you owe.

Challenging a council removal

Paying to get the car back does not end your right to challenge the removal. The council must tell you in writing, when you pay, that you can make representations against it.

The grounds:

1. The vehicle was not parked in circumstances in which a penalty charge was payable.
2. No penalty charge notice was fixed to the vehicle or handed to the driver before it was removed.
3. The power to remove the vehicle was not exercisable at the time.
4. The vehicle had been taken without the owner's consent by the person in control of it.
5. The place where it was parked was not in a civil enforcement area for parking.
6. The amount you paid was more than the amount that applied.
7. There was a procedural impropriety on the part of the council.

You can also argue that there are compelling reasons for the money to be refunded even if none of the grounds applies. Send the representations within 28 days of being notified: the council can disregard anything later. Once it has accepted them for consideration it has 56 days to decide.

If the council does not answer within 56 days, it is treated as having accepted your representations and must refund the charges.

If it rejects them, you have 28 days from the decision notice to appeal to the adjudicator. Where a ground is made out, the adjudicator must direct a refund; where there are only compelling reasons, it can recommend one.

The Civil Enforcement of Road Traffic Contraventions (Representations and Appeals) (England) Regulations 2022 (S.I. 2022/576), regulations 11 to 13. These are the rules for England; Wales, London and Scotland run their own versions, and we have not set their deadlines out here.

Which tribunal hears your appeal →

Private land in England and Wales: clamping and towing are banned

In England and Wales it is a criminal offence to clamp a vehicle, tow it away or block it in without lawful authority, intending to stop the person entitled to remove it from doing so. A sign saying that you agree to be clamped changes nothing: the Act says consent is not lawful authority.

The one exception is a fixed barrier that was already there when you parked. A car park that keeps its barrier down until you pay is not committing the offence.

The offence does not touch bodies with statutory powers: councils enforcing on the road or in their own car parks, the police, councils and the police removing abandoned vehicles, and the DVLA clamping untaxed vehicles. Bailiffs also keep their powers.

What a private operator can still do is send you a parking charge notice — a contractual claim, not a fine, and one with its own appeal route.

Protection of Freedoms Act 2012, section 54 (in force 1 October 2012)
Explanatory Notes to the Protection of Freedoms Act 2012, paragraphs 211 to 213

How private parking charges work →

Scotland: clamping was outlawed by the courts, twenty years earlier

Section 54 does not extend to Scotland. Clamping on private land in Scotland was already unlawful: on 12 June 1992 the High Court of Justiciary held, in Black and Penrice v Procurator Fiscal, Hamilton, that it amounted to extortion and theft.

We have not found an official statement on towing from private land in Scotland, and we do not state one. Nor does Schedule 4 of the 2012 Act — keeper liability for private parking charges — apply in Scotland.

House of Commons Library, Standard Note SN01490, Parking: wheel clamping (6 August 2012), page 5

Untaxed vehicles: the DVLA clamps too

The DVLA can clamp or remove a vehicle that is untaxed. This is enforcement of vehicle tax, not of parking, so it can happen to a car parked perfectly legally.

• Release £100 if paid within the first 24 hours of the clamping or removal.
• Release £200 once the vehicle has gone to the pound, plus £21 a day in storage.
• A surety of £160 for a car if it is still untaxed when it is released, refunded if you show proof of tax within 14 days.

The vehicle is kept for a statutory period of between 7 and 14 days. After that it may be auctioned, broken up or crushed.

GOV.UK: DVLA enforcement of vehicle tax, registration and insurance offences

Abandoned vehicles

Abandoning a motor vehicle on land in the open air or on a road is an offence under section 2 of the Refuse Disposal (Amenity) Act 1978, which extends to England, Wales and Scotland. In England and Wales an authorised council officer can offer a fixed penalty notice instead of prosecution under section 2A.

The police can remove a vehicle that appears to have been abandoned without lawful authority, under regulation 4 of the Removal and Disposal of Vehicles Regulations 1986.

Where it appears to a council that a vehicle in its area has been abandoned without lawful authority, on land in the open air or on a road, section 3 of the same Act makes it the council's duty to remove it. So a car you think has been dumped is reported to the council for the area, not to the DVLA.

Refuse Disposal (Amenity) Act 1978, sections 2, 2A and 3

Where people go wrong

• Assuming a private clamp is legitimate because there was a sign. In England and Wales the sign does not give the clamper lawful authority — the Act says so in terms.
• Assuming every clamp is illegal. The ban is on clamping without lawful authority. A council, the police or the DVLA clamping your car is acting lawfully.
• Leaving the car in the pound while you argue. Storage runs every day, and the challenge works just as well after you have paid.
• Paying and treating it as settled. The 28-day window for representations starts when you are notified, which is usually when you pay.
• Confusing the price lists. A police removal, a council removal and a DVLA clamp each have their own charges. Check which one you are being asked to pay.