Can a tow truck pick up a car without license plates?

Are cars without license plates towed away?

Detaining cars and moving them to a specialized impound lot is one of the measures to combat traffic rule violators.

In order to return movable property from the impound lot, the driver must not only obtain permission from the relevant department of the traffic police, but also pay the cost of evacuation and storage services, which quite often amounts to large sums of money.

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To avoid evacuation, many drivers leave their vehicles without license plates. Is it possible to evacuate a vehicle without signs? Read on.

Reasons for drivers removing license plates

License plates are assigned to a vehicle after it is registered with the traffic police. By these distinctive signs you can determine the owner of the car, since the traffic police has a single reference network that takes into account all registered vehicles.

Vehicle owners hide/remove registration plates for several reasons:

to avoid imposing an administrative fine for traffic violations. Most often, offenses are recorded using photo or video cameras located on the roadway. It is by the numbers that the owner of the car who receives the fine is identified;

License plates can be hidden by owners with special protective films or improvised means, for example, using hairspray.

If a vehicle does not have registration numbers, then the traffic police inspector cannot determine the owner of the car, and, consequently, detain the vehicle.

so as not to pay for paid parking services. In most cases, special reading devices are installed in paid parking lots - parking sensors, which identify the owner of the car precisely by the registration plate installed on the car.

It should be noted that deliberate concealment of car license plates is illegal and is punishable under Article 12.2 of the Code of Administrative Offenses with a fine of 5,000 rubles or deprivation of a driver’s license for a period of 1 to 3 months.

Do they take

Is it true that a vehicle without registration numbers cannot be towed? Let's consider several standard situations.

If a car without license plates is parked in the area covered by the “Stopping and Parking Prohibited” sign, and an additional sign indicates that a tow truck is operating in the area, then traffic police officers have the right to:

wait for the car owner (driver) to arrive to find out the owner of the vehicle;
evacuate the car in the presence of the owner (driver).

Recently, especially in large cities of the Russian Federation, vehicles without license plates are towed on a general basis.

The reason for this phenomenon was the fight against terrorists. Within the framework of the adopted legislation, every unidentified object, including a car, is considered potentially dangerous and is subject to seizure to clarify all the circumstances.

If the reason for the detention was alcohol intoxication, the vehicle will be detained and moved to a special parking lot regardless of the presence/absence of registration plates, and the fine imposed on the driver will accordingly increase by 5,000 rubles .

A similar situation arises with violations provided for in the following articles of the current Administrative Code:

12.3 (the driver does not have the package of documents required by the traffic rules);
12.5 (driving a vehicle with a faulty brake system, clutch or steering);
12.26 (driver’s refusal to undergo a medical examination prescribed by a traffic police officer);
12.27 (use of illegal drugs, including alcohol, after a traffic accident, but before undergoing examination);
12.21.1 (violation of the rules established by law for the transportation of large or heavy cargo);
12.21.2 (violation of the rules for transporting dangerous goods).

From paid parking

Can vehicles without license plates be towed from a paid parking lot? In accordance with current legislation, it is impossible to evacuate a vehicle without license plates from a paid parking lot.

It is these rules that guide drivers, who not only completely avoid the detention of vehicles, but also do not pay for the services provided by the parking organization.

However, unlike traffic police inspectors, parking employees have the right to independently remove items that cover one or more digits in the registration number, which leads to the need to pay for the services provided by the parking lot.

That is, in this situation, it is possible to avoid the detention of vehicles, but it is impossible to avoid paying for the services provided.

Traffic inspectors also have the right to evacuate a vehicle from the yard in the absence of license plates. However, there are emergency situations in which the law establishes the right to detain vehicles without license plates.

These include parking lots:

on gas pipelines;
on city sewer systems;
on water supply networks;
on electrification systems;
at any place that prevents the access of special services to eliminate the accident.

Employees of the relevant special services can call the traffic police and have the vehicle evacuated if an emergency occurs while the car is parked (cable break, pipeline system break, etc.).

In this situation, the car owner will have to pay for the services of a towing service, car storage and a fine for the lack of registration plates.

Read about the fine for towing a car in 2019 in St. Petersburg here.

Legality of towing a car without license plates

So, is it legal to tow a car without license plates? In accordance with Article 27.13 Part 1 of the Code of Administrative Offenses, the detention of a vehicle is provided only in the listed cases.

There is no evacuation for the absence of license plates in this law, as well as a fine for parking a vehicle without license plates.

This means that, in accordance with the Administrative Code, the evacuation of vehicles without registration plates is not legal.

However, due to the increasing incidence of terrorist attacks in each region of the Russian Federation, a decision was made by the anti-terrorism commission, which allows vehicles without license plates to be evacuated as an unidentified object.

Due to differences in current legislation, each situation must be considered separately.

If the owner of the vehicle believes that the vehicle was towed illegally, then it is necessary to file a complaint about the unlawful actions of the traffic police inspectors with the prosecutor's office.

The complaint shall indicate all aspects related to the situation under investigation:

date, time and place of evacuation;
the reason for the decision indicated in the protocol;
Full name of the law enforcement officer who made the decision to detain;
testimony from cameras or video recorders confirming the owner’s innocence, and so on.

30 days are allotted for consideration of the complaint. As a rule, decisions by law enforcement agencies are made fairly quickly. If the decision made does not suit the car owner, then you can go to court to assert your rights.

Judicial practice in such cases is twofold, since there are significant differences in existing laws.

In order to be more likely to succeed, it is necessary to involve a qualified motor vehicle lawyer in the consideration of the issue.

What threat can such vehicles pose?

After purchasing a vehicle, the owner is given 10 days to complete registration actions, that is, within the specified period of time, the car must be registered with the traffic police.

According to law enforcement agencies, vehicles that are not registered in the prescribed manner and within the established time limits, as well as vehicles that do not have registration plates or are equipped with unreadable license plates, can be a means of carrying out a terrorist act.

It is for this reason that in large cities, especially near crowded places (cinemas, theaters, subways, etc.), unidentified vehicles are evacuated.

Is there an administrative penalty for leaving a car without registration plates?

In accordance with Article 12.2 of the Code of Administrative Offences, a fine may be imposed in the following situations:

Thus, there are no penalties for parking a vehicle without state registration plates.

The question of the legality of towing a vehicle without license plates at the present time remains without a clear answer, since the current legislation is ambiguous, and the adopted regulations contradict each other.

See the page for reasons for evacuating a car from the yard.

Find out about the evacuation of a car to a parking lot for illegal parking in 2019 in Moscow from this information.

Video: In Moscow they began to evacuate cars without license plates

Due to frequent changes in legislation, information sometimes becomes outdated faster than we can update it on the website.
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Do they have the right to tow a car without license plates?

A vehicle can be towed to an impound lot for a huge number of reasons . But for several years now, traffic violations such as unpaid or incorrect parking have been steadily taking the lead in this area.

Those motorists who have already experienced all the hardships of evacuation (the main disadvantage is a large fine) strive with all their might to avoid it, which is why they resort to a wide variety of tricks. One of them is hiding or removing license plates.

A natural question arises: can a car without license plates be towed? Discussion of this topic is quite popular on specialized forums and websites, so in this article it will be discussed in as much detail as possible.

Why rent rooms?

Such a simple way to prevent the evacuation of a car seems innocent and simple. But is this really so?

It’s interesting that they started hiding license plates since digital locks appeared . Hairdryers, a device that records the speed of a moving car, have caused some drivers to remove their identification plates.

One of the first means in the fight against them was hairspray and women's tights. Such means blocked the reflection of light, so they did not allow the number to be recorded. However, such ancient means are absolutely powerless in the fight against evacuation .

If due to this the radar could simply not record the data, then the inspector may well notice and then identify a violation of the law, manifested in the form of falsification or concealment of the license plate.

It is worth admitting that even removing the plate with numbers and taking it with you or leaving it in the trunk is not so easy. To do this, the driver must always have with him a tool that allows him not only to dismantle, but also to mount the license plates back.

At the same time, it is important to learn how to perform such actions without unnecessary noise and as quickly as possible, since otherwise passers-by may suspect a crime and call a traffic police inspector.

But why do some motorists still resort to these tricks? Where did the tradition of removing numbers or hiding them using a special film, a layer of dirt and other “screens” come from?

There are several possible answers to this question:

Many paid parking lots are equipped with special mechanisms, parking signs, that read the number. Thanks to this information, the car owner is obliged to pay for parking. If the device cannot determine absolutely all the digits of the numbers, you can really save money;
similar equipment is also installed in the coverage area of most prohibition signs. As in the case of paid parking, its purpose is to read license plates and transmit information to charge fines to negligent drivers;
and finally, current legislation prohibits the towing of a vehicle without license plates. Drivers who hide their license plate count on traffic police inspectors to strictly comply with this rule.

However, unfortunately for car owners, traffic police officers are well aware of such tricks . That is why they have developed a number of measures that allow them to counteract dishonest drivers.

Is it legal to tow a car without license plates?

Have you noticed cars without license plates in impound lots? Do they have the right to tow a car without license plates? It is necessary to proceed from the circumstances of each specific case.

Let us remind you that the current law does not provide for the evacuation of a car without license plates, but despite this, the capital’s services have increased security during the period of international events, so more than a dozen cars with disguised license plates went to the impound lot.

Can a car without license plates be towed from a paid parking lot? It is prohibited to evacuate cars without license plates from paid parking lots, since this area is private property.

So, a tow truck has no right to drive there without the permission of the owner of the parking lot, much less take away the vehicle. This rule makes it possible for offenders to escape from justice.

It is interesting that a walking traffic police inspector cannot give the right to evacuate, but he classifies the lack of license plates as an offense, so the owner of an unregistered car will have to bear responsibility.

It should be noted that at present the Moscow authorities are seriously addressing this issue in order to reduce the crime rate in the city. There are even proposals to tighten or improve the law for resourceful drivers.

"Fair" evacuation

If a car owner parks his “iron horse” without license plates under a “Parking is prohibited” or “Stopping is prohibited” sign, MADI inspectors will not waste precious time on further clarification of the circumstances of this act.

They have the legal right to tow a car to a parking lot for illegal parking. In this case, the inspector will not figure out who owns the car.

Since he does not have the right to clean the dirt from the license plate or rip off the special film (by law, such actions can be classified as property damage or violation of the inviolability of private property), he will rewrite the visible numbers and then send the car to the impound lot.

If a cunning driver has completely removed the license plates, then only he will have problems, since he will not know what to do next, where to look for the car, or to which parking lot it was evacuated. This may well waste a lot of mental energy and precious time.

Recently, you can see the evacuation of cars without license plates under the pretext of fighting terrorism.

The vehicle is removed from a 400-meter zone from the MCC, surface vestibules of stations, metro structures, ground transport stops, transport hubs, parks, as well as other public places where a large number of people accumulate.

According to the new regulations, such cars are moved to specialized parking lots, where they are checked by law enforcement officers.

Thanks to this, they can determine whether the car poses a terrorist threat or whether it is wanted. After this check, the evacuated cars are returned to the owner or his legal representative.

Towing a properly parked car

Is it legal to tow a car without license plates that is parked without violations?

As we have already noted, special services can evacuate a car without identification marks only in extreme cases.

For example, if the vehicle is in the area covered by a prohibitory sign . However, if the car was parked in a yard where there are no parking restrictions, then traffic police inspectors usually do not touch it.

However, this rule also has a number of nuances. For example, if a driver left a car on a section of the road under which there are underground communications (water pipes, gas pipes or a sewer network), then it may be evacuated to a penalty area.

The fact is that in an emergency, certain services must have quick access to all communication facilities . If there is a car above them, access to them remains blocked.

Responsibility for car owners

So, according to the above, despite the fact that in most cases the evacuation of a car without license plates is prohibited, the legislation provides for a number of exceptions that do not allow you to be completely sure of this.

Therefore, removing or hiding a license plate often makes little sense.

It is worth admitting that license plates are not something to joke about, since here you can easily either lose your license or run into a hefty fine, there are several options.

Here is the punishment for cunning drivers in 2019:

They will take away your license. You run a high risk of losing your license for six months or even a year if you travel with deliberately false license plates: from another car or simply fake ones.
They will issue you a fine or, again, deprive you of your license. If you cover your license plates while driving: with a rag, a net, an accidentally stuck sheet of wood, a plastic bag, paper, special inclined frames, filters, films - this is punishable by law in the form of a fine of 5,000 rubles or deprivation of rights (for 1-3 months).
They will be fined. If you attach false license plates to a parked car, you face a fine of 2,500 rubles.
They scold you and let you go. If the license plates are simply dirty, the inspector can issue a fine of 500 rubles or issue a warning, although the numbers must be read at night from 20 meters. In this case, it is important not to be rude to the inspector, but simply wipe the number with a rag. If the sign is wrinkled or its paint has worn off over time, promise to make a duplicate.

According to the above, the fine for parking a car without a license plate is small . But still it is several times more than paying for parking.

In order not to expose yourself to unnecessary expenses, it is better to always pay for parking. In addition, paid parking protects your car from theft and other troubles.

It also makes absolutely no sense to remove or hide identification marks so that the car is not towed as a result of violating traffic rules.

After all, the car will be taken away anyway, but, in addition to a fine of 2,500 rubles, you will also have to pay for her stay in the impound lot.

It is much more economical and practical to try not to break the rules and park the car only in the designated place.

Video: In Moscow they began to evacuate cars without license plates

Debunking myths about evacuation: are cars without license plates taken away?

MADI inspectors sent 4.5 thousand cars without license plates or with closed signs to impound lots in 2016. The pace of evacuation is going to be increased by increasing the number of inspectors who work on the streets. However, according to the law, hiding the license plate number of a parked car is not a violation; you just cannot drive such a car. Also, MADI inspectors cannot evacuate cars with removed license plates from paid parking lots. TV channel “360” found out from MADI and an independent auto lawyer what scheme the tow trucks use, what they do with camouflaged vehicles, and whether inspectors have the right to remove “fig leaves” from license plates?

Myth No. 1: Cars without license plates are not towed

Automotive expert Sergei Radko assures that drivers have every right to remove license plates while parked: “If the license plates are unreadable or, moreover, missing, then there can be no evacuation for this; the Supreme Court made the corresponding decision back in 2014 year. If we consider a reason such as the fight against terrorism, then this is also not within the jurisdiction of the Department of Transport.”

Indeed, MADI and traffic police inspectors themselves do not have the right to evacuate a car from a paid parking lot if it does not have license plates.

According to the law, inspectors have a different work scheme.

“If there is no license plate on the car, the inspector transmits the information to law enforcement agencies for further inspection of the vehicle,” said Anna Pivovarova, a specialist in the press service of the AMPP State Public Institution.

A police squad examines the car and makes a decision: to evacuate the suspicious object or inspect it on the spot, and issues an appropriate order. After which, in the best case, the tow truck still takes away the car with all that it entails in the form of “tolls” and a fine when the owner does show up.

How to find a towed car without license plates

No laws prohibit inspectors from towing a car without a license plate if it is stopped outside the permitted parking zone - under a prohibitory sign or in a pedestrian zone. This makes drawing up a protocol somewhat difficult, but such cars are taken away without hesitation and with legal justification.

“If a car is under a prohibitory sign, a MADI inspector draws up a protocol and calls a tow truck, even if the car does not have a license plate. Owners of such cars receive additional inconvenience when they try to return their cars from specialized parking lots,” the AMPP press service says.

In such cases, the car is searched only by make and color, so the search takes much more time and you will have to do a lot of running around. The owner must describe the car to the MADI call center and indicate where it was parked. They will try to identify it by model and color.

Then, most likely, they will name several addresses of impound lots where you need to find the car. The misadventures will not end there - you will have to prove that the car belongs to you by checking the VIN numbers. Then payment for evacuation and a fine for violation; for twisted license plates of a parked car, the Code of Administrative Offenses does not provide for punishment.

Myth No. 2: The inspector has no right to remove items from license plates

Inspectors have every right to free the car number from foreign objects: paper, disks, stickers. Of course, if no act of vandalism is committed, that is, nothing will have to be broken. If it is impossible to open the room without breaking into the room, evacuation is carried out according to the rules of the first point.

Fines for driving without license plates

A parked car can do a lot, but once it has started driving, unreadable or altered license plates mean a fine of up to five thousand rubles (depending on what you did with the plate). Or deprivation of rights for up to a year if you changed letters and numbers or attached someone else’s numbers on top. But in general, MADI notes that this year 30% fewer motorists began to disguise or change their license plates.

The capital has approved regulations for the evacuation of cars without license plates

In the capital, control over cars without license plates or with unreadable license plates will be strengthened. From May this year, such cars will be moved to impound lots in accordance with special regulations.

“The regulations for the movement of cars with removed or unreadable license plates were approved at a meeting of the Anti-Terrorism Commission of the city of Moscow. First of all, potentially dangerous cars will move from a 400-meter zone from the ground vestibules of metro and monorail stations and structures, transport hubs, stops, as well as from parks and other public places with large crowds of people,” said the Deputy Mayor of Moscow, Head of the Moscow Department of Transport Maxim Liksutov.

According to him, after the car is towed, law enforcement officers will check whether the car poses a threat and whether it is wanted after it was stolen.

“First of all, this is a question of anti-terrorist protection of citizens,” the deputy mayor emphasized.

Police officers will be on duty at two special parking lots: on Yuzhnoportovaya Street, property 37a and in Entuziastov Passage, property 3. This is where cars without license plates will be taken. The car will be returned to the owner upon presentation of the necessary documents.

The head of the Department of Regional Security and Anti-Corruption of the City of Moscow, Vladimir Chernikov, noted that any unidentified car could turn out to be a potential threat and be used for criminal purposes. “Every car owner who leaves his car on the street without license plates must understand that in this way he is causing concern to residents of the area and passers-by. We urge Muscovites to immediately report such vehicles to the relevant authorities,” he said.

You can find out where the evacuated car is located by calling 02 or 112, as well as in the single contact center “Moscow Transport” by calling: +7 (495) 539-54-54 (3210 - from a mobile phone). Remote vehicle identification will be carried out based on external features - color and make. This will help the owner understand which of the two parking lots to go to.

At the impound lot, the owner must present the driver's license and vehicle registration to the police officer. By the way, if the license plates were not removed on purpose, but were stolen or lost, the driver will not be able to drive away in his car. He will have to pick it up with a tow truck, since operating a car without registration plates is prohibited. The numbers will need to be restored. You can find out how to do this here.

A car without license plates in a paid parking lot - is it worth doing this?

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Today, in parking lots you can regularly see vehicles with their identification marks removed. The traffic police service is desperately fighting this, but so far to no avail. The larger the metropolis, the more such drivers you can meet. Those who don’t like to pay still strive to leave their cars without license plates in paid parking.

Will they take it or not?

The question arises, is it really legal to take away a vehicle? Based on current legislation, it is prohibited to take the car. However, it can be evacuated “on a general basis.” Especially from places where a large number of people are constantly present. This is being done because of the fight against terrorism. The unidentified car, like another unidentified object, is evacuated. So why do drivers remove their identification signs in parking lots? Main reasons:

desire to avoid payment;
evasion of payment of a fine for violating traffic rules;
to avoid evacuation of the vehicle.

Still, it should be noted that it is illegal to hide the identification mark of your car. Article 12.2 of the Code of Administrative Offenses is violated. You can pay up to 5,000 rubles or even lose your rights.

Paid parking

Whether parking is paid or not is monitored by parking sensors - these are devices that can read the identification mark and identify the owner of the vehicle. Drivers have learned to hide them in order to avoid paying for parking. The numbers are covered with film and other stickers. Some people purchase magnetic frames that allow them to be quickly removed and put on. Workers can remove foreign objects that will cover the numbers and interfere with vehicle identification. Thus, you can avoid penalties from traffic police inspectors, but not payment for parking your car. Parking lot workers can also call the state traffic inspector and insist on evacuation if the car is involved in an emergency.