Yes, a car with a handicap placard can be towed. The placard gives you the right to use accessible parking spaces; it does not exempt the vehicle from any other parking, safety, or registration law. Fire lanes, expired tags, private-property rules, and misuse of the placard itself will all put a placarded car on a tow truck as fast as any other vehicle.
Violations That Get Any Vehicle Towed
Some tows are safety-driven and apply universally. A placard changes nothing about them.
- Parking in a fire lane or too close to a hydrant. Towing is typically immediate, without warning.
- Blocking a driveway or a crosswalk. If your car keeps someone from reaching their property or pushes pedestrians into traffic, it can be removed on the spot.
- No-parking zones, bus stops, and loading zones. A placard does not convert any of these into an accessible space.
- Expired registration. A vehicle with lapsed tags can be cited and towed from any public street.
- Abandonment. Most jurisdictions treat a vehicle as abandoned after it sits unmoved on public property for a set period, commonly 48 to 72 hours, and impound it whether or not it has disability credentials.
The placard addresses where you may park in relation to accessible spaces. It does not override general traffic, safety, or vehicle-registration laws.
Placard-Related Problems That Still Lead to a Tow
Even drivers who have a placard can lose the protection it provides. The common triggers:
- The placard has expired. A placard past its expiration date is treated the same as no placard at all, and the vehicle can be ticketed and towed from an accessible space.
- Wrong space type. Van-accessible spaces have a separate sign and wider dimensions for side-mounted lifts. Some jurisdictions restrict them to vehicles that actually need the extra clearance, and parking a standard car there when other accessible spaces are open can draw a citation or tow.1ADA.gov. Accessible Parking Spaces
- Blocking the access aisle. The striped area next to an accessible space is not a parking spot. It exists so wheelchair users can deploy ramps and lifts, and parking on or across it is illegal everywhere, placard or no placard.
- Driver isn’t the placard holder. In nearly every state, the disabled person must be either driving or being transported when the placard is in use. Hanging a family member’s placard on the mirror while you run errands alone is misuse, and the vehicle loses its parking protection.
Enforcement varies. Some cities have officers who check placard numbers against DMV databases in real time; others rely on complaints. Either way, a car without valid, current credentials in an accessible space is at high risk of being hauled off.
Towing From Private Property
Shopping centers, medical offices, and apartment complexes operate under different towing rules than public streets. Property owners generally have the right to tow any vehicle that violates their posted parking rules, provided signage is displayed at the entrances and typically identifies the towing company, the storage facility, and the fees.
Placard holders should know two things here. First, private properties open to the public are still required to provide ADA-compliant accessible parking. The ADA Standards for Accessible Design set minimum numbers of accessible spaces based on total lot size, and at least one in every six of those must be van-accessible.1ADA.gov. Accessible Parking Spaces A property owner cannot eliminate accessible spaces and then tow drivers who park in what should have been one.
Second, a private lot can still tow a placarded vehicle if the placard is invalid or if the car breaks other posted rules. On the other hand, if the accessible spaces on the lot are not marked with compliant signage, that gap can actually help a vehicle owner challenge the tow, because enforcement depends on the space being properly designated in the first place.
Placard Misuse Strips the Protection Entirely
Fraudulent use of a disability placard is where the consequences turn serious. Misuse includes borrowing someone else’s placard, using a placard after the person it was issued to has died, displaying a counterfeit or altered placard, and parking with a valid placard when the disabled person is not actually being transported. In every one of those situations, the vehicle loses any parking protection it would otherwise have and becomes subject to immediate towing.
Penalties are set by state law and vary widely. Fines in some states start around $100 for a first offense; others impose $500 to $1,000 or more. A number of states treat repeated or egregious misuse as a misdemeanor, which can bring community service, probation, or short jail sentences. Some jurisdictions revoke the placard and bar the offender from getting a new one for a set period.
Enforcement has grown more sophisticated. Some cities cross-reference placard numbers with DMV databases during routine parking checks, and several states run hotlines for the public to report suspected misuse.
What to Do If Your Placarded Car Has Been Towed
First, find it. Call the local police department’s non-emergency line; law enforcement usually has records of all tows in the jurisdiction, whether initiated by police or by a private towing company. Many cities also offer online lookup tools that search by license plate.
To get the vehicle released, bring your driver’s license, current registration, and proof of insurance. If the car is registered to someone else, you may need a notarized authorization from the owner.
Then there are the fees. Towing charges around the country range roughly from $100 to over $400, depending on the state, the vehicle’s weight, and whether the tow happened during business hours or overnight. Storage fees typically run $20 to $50 per day and start almost immediately. Some states cap these amounts; others let the market decide. The bill climbs fast, so retrieving the vehicle quickly saves real money.
Before you drive off the lot, walk around the vehicle and check for damage. Photograph every side, the bumpers, and the undercarriage if you can see it. Filing a complaint later without pictures from the lot makes recovery much harder.
Challenging a Tow You Believe Was Wrongful
If your placard was current, properly displayed, and the car was parked legally in a correctly designated accessible space, you may have grounds to fight the tow. This happens more often than people expect, especially with private-property tows where the lot operator never verified the placard before calling for a truck.
The process depends on where you live. Many jurisdictions offer a formal impound hearing before a hearing officer or judge. Some states require you to file a petition within a set window, often 20 to 30 days after the tow, so acting quickly matters. Others route disputes through the local consumer affairs office, particularly for tows from private property.
Gather evidence before the hearing. The strongest items are photos showing the placard was displayed, your current placard registration from the DMV, and photos of the space itself, including its signage. If the space lacked proper ADA-compliant signage, that can be a strong argument. Dashcam or security-camera footage of the tow is worth obtaining if it exists.
If a hearing is not available or does not go your way, small claims court is usually the next option. Pay the fees to get the vehicle back first, then sue the towing company or property owner for reimbursement. Keep every receipt. Courts look at whether the tow followed the applicable procedures: proper signage, proper verification of the violation, and proper notice to the owner.
Don’t Wait to Retrieve the Vehicle
Impound lots do not hold cars indefinitely. Every state has laws letting them dispose of unclaimed vehicles after a set period, and the timelines are shorter than most people realize. Depending on the jurisdiction, a vehicle can be classified as abandoned and sold at auction anywhere from 10 to 90 days after impound. Some states use accrued storage costs rather than time as the trigger.
Storage fees accumulate the whole time. A vehicle towed Monday can already carry $200 or more in storage charges by Friday, on top of the tow fee itself. If you plan to challenge the tow, you can generally pay under protest and pursue reimbursement afterward. Waiting to resolve the dispute before paying is a gamble that can cost you the vehicle.