Defeat tow trucks, or How trees helped fight off a fine

In what cases should you file a complaint?

It makes sense to appeal a decision to tow a car only if there is a violation of the established procedure for transporting a vehicle to a impound lot, as well as other regulations.

At the moment, the process of car evacuation is regulated by the following regulatory documents:

• Federal Law No. 195-FZ of December 30, 2001;
• By order of the Department of Economic Policy of the City of Moscow No. 35-R dated 09.09.13;
• Code of Administrative Offences.

In some regions, within the framework of federal legislation, authorities have the right to adopt various amendments to evacuation rules. But at the same time they should not violate the rights of drivers or other persons.

Only on the basis of the validity of these legislative acts is it possible to carry out evacuation. At the moment, a complete list of situations when it is allowed to evacuate a vehicle is reflected in Art. No. 27.13 Code of Administrative Offences.

This regulatory document includes the following sections:

• if for some reason the vehicle manager does not have the documents necessary to carry out this action (Part 1, Article No. 12.3 of the Administrative Code);
• the brakes on the vehicle are not working properly (part 2 of article No. 12.5 of the Administrative Code);
• if the license to drive a specific vehicle is missing or it was confiscated by a court decision (Part 1 of Article No. 12.7 of the Administrative Code);
• a car is being driven by a drunk driver (Article No. 12.8 of the Administrative Code);
• signs and special road markings prohibiting stopping a vehicle in any specific place were ignored (Article No. 12.6 of the Administrative Code);
• parking was carried out at a pedestrian crossing or closer than 5 meters from its beginning (Article No. 12.19 of the Administrative Code);
• the rules for the transportation of heavy and large-size transportation are not followed (Article No. 12.21 of the Administrative Code);
• it was established that there were violations of the rules for the transportation of dangerous, flammable goods (Article No. 12.21 of the Administrative Code);
• there is a refusal to conduct a medical examination if a traffic police officer suspects intoxication (Article No. 12.26 of the Administrative Code);
• It has been established that the driver drives the vehicle while drunk - regardless of the type of intoxication (Article No. 12.26 of the Administrative Code).

The above list of reasons for evacuating a vehicle is closed. This means that if an evacuation is carried out for some other reason, then performing this action is completely illegal. In this case, it makes sense to challenge the very fact of evacuation.

There are certain regulations for evacuation. The following conditions must be met:

• Before evacuation is carried out, a detention protocol must be drawn up - 2 copies are required;
• The protocol must necessarily reflect some mandatory data: date;
• place;
• time;
• basis with reference to a legislative act.

If the above rules were violated for some reason, then it will be necessary to appeal the evacuation of the car in court. This procedure has its own nuances and features. You should definitely familiarize yourself with all of them in advance.

Reasons for evacuation

Detention of a car by evacuation is regulated by Art. 27.13 Code of Administrative Offenses of the Russian Federation. This section is regularly updated, in 2021 it includes the following reasons why a vehicle may be detained (clause 1 of article 27.13):

1. If the driver driving the car does not currently have a vehicle registration certificate.
2. Known malfunction of the brake system (except for the handbrake), coupling system, steering.
3. If the car is driven by a person who does not have a driver’s license or has been deprived of one.
4. Driving while intoxicated (this includes alcohol and drug intoxication), as well as the driver’s refusal to undergo a medical examination.
5. Leaving a car in a place where it is prohibited (signs prohibiting stopping or parking must be accompanied by a “Tow Truck Operating” sign).
6. Parking at the pedestrian crossing and at a distance closer than 5 meters in front of the crossing.
7. Parking on the sidewalk.
8. Stop or park at public transport stops and closer than 15 meters from the stop. The exception is cases when the stop is forced or for the purpose of boarding and disembarking passengers.
9. Leaving a car on the roadway, where it is an obstacle to the passage of other cars, or in a tunnel.
10. Failure to comply with the rules for transporting large and dangerous goods.
11. Drinking alcoholic beverages after an accident, or when stopped by a traffic police inspector, before deciding on the issue of undergoing an examination.

The following are not grounds:

• the driver does not have a license(s),
• lack of compulsory motor liability insurance policy.

How to write an application to appeal a decision to tow a car

To appeal against illegal evacuation, it will be necessary to draw up a special application and submit it to the court. If possible, you should familiarize yourself with a correctly compiled sample in advance. This way you can avoid making the most common mistakes.

If possible, you should seek advice on this matter from a qualified lawyer.

Applications to appeal illegal evacuation must contain the following information:

• name of the authority where the specific application will be submitted;
• FULL NAME. the official in whose name the statement of claim is drawn up;
• FULL NAME. the individual or legal entity submitting the application of the type in question;
• the address of the applicant’s permanent location to which the response to the previously submitted application will be sent;
• all the circumstances of the case in relation to which a certain type of agreement is being assigned are indicated;
• a complete list of other information directly related to the situation under consideration;
• Full name, as well as the position of the employee who, for some reason, made an unlawful decision regarding the evacuation of the vehicle;
• a complete list of all attached documents;
• signature with transcript from the applicant;
• date of drawing up the application itself.

Sample application to appeal illegal evacuation.

There are special requirements established by law for writing an application of the type in question. It is important to comply with all of them.

It should be remembered that violation of the basic rules will lead to the return of the application and all documents for revision. It is especially important to correctly date the application. It must coincide with the date of submission of documents.

In case of discrepancies, the court office simply will not accept the document. It will be returned for revision.

Who should I call if my car has been towed?

As soon as you discover that there is no car in the parking lot, the first thing you need to do is find out where exactly it is. For this, each city has its own departments, but the best thing to do is call the traffic police propaganda department, or you can also dial the police phone number 02 or 112.

In this case, you will know for sure that the car has been towed and not stolen. But keep in mind that police information about evacuated cars does not appear immediately. And within two hours. In Moscow there is also a State institution for the movement of vehicles.

Such institutions are present in almost all large cities; their addresses and telephone numbers can be found on the official websites of the traffic police.

What documents to attach to the application

In the case under consideration, it will be necessary to attach to the application the maximum number of documents that disclose the case. First of all, this applies specifically to evidence of the illegality of the evacuation.

The full list of documents attached to statements of claim when filing them in court includes the following:

• notification of delivery or other confirmation of sending all necessary documents directly to the defendant party (State Traffic Safety Inspectorate);
• confirmation of payment of the state fee for consideration of this case - for certain categories of citizens payment of the fee is not required;
• documents confirming the illegality of the evacuation: photographs;
• video recordings;
• written testimony of witnesses.

It should be remembered that the documents themselves can be presented in several ways:

• independently in person - to the court office;
• through a representative - only possible with a properly executed power of attorney;
• in electronic form via the Internet.

It is important to know that some documents must be properly notarized. It is also important to familiarize yourself with the evidence requirements in advance.

For example, if there is photo and video footage from the scene of an incident, the files must be of a certain quality. All requirements for confirmations are reflected in the legislation in force in the Russian Federation.

To court

Situations that are controversial are best resolved in court. The complaint is filed with the district court at the place of the offense - that is, where the evacuation took place.

Please note: appealing an administrative decision is not subject to state duty (Clause 5, Article 30.2 of the Code of Administrative Offenses of the Russian Federation).

The statement of claim is not regulated by the Code and is drawn up in free form:

• name of the judicial authority,
• applicant details (full name, address, contact phone number),
• title: complaint in a case of an administrative offense,
• descriptive part (details of the resolution, full name of the official, brief description of what happened),
• the plaintiff’s arguments about the unreasonableness of actions with references to laws,
• operative part (I ask the court to cancel... and collect...),
• date, signature, list of attachments.

An example of applying to court can be downloaded here.

An application to law enforcement agencies or the court can be submitted in person, immediately receiving the number of the incoming document, or sent by mail. To prevent the document from getting lost, the complaint is sent by letter with a list of attachments and a notification of delivery.

Where to contact

To appeal an illegal evacuation, the following actions must be taken:

• visit MADI, the impound lot - the place where the car was delivered;
• the responsible person must be required to suspend the administrative case, demand a refusal based on the evidence you have provided;
• The fact of visiting the impound lot must be recorded in the protocol;
• it is necessary to form a complaint and send it to the MADI electronic reception desk.

If there are no results when performing all the above actions, you must immediately go to court. This greatly simplifies the resolution of the issue of refunding funds and declaring the evacuation illegal.

In this case, you should contact the court located in the municipality in whose territory the traffic police department responsible for bringing to administrative responsibility is located.

Appealing the evacuation of a vehicle has a large number of different features and nuances. You should definitely familiarize yourself with all of them in advance.

Fines for evacuation and cost of storage at the impound lot

How much will you have to pay to have your car towed to the impound lot? In this case, the costs consist of several items:

1. A fine for a violation for which the car was towed.
2. Tow truck services depend on the mileage from the location of the violation to the impound lot.
3. A idle car in the impound lot. The first day is free, if the car is not picked up on the first day, then a daily fee is charged. It is worth noting that not all regions are free for the first day.

Prices for tow truck services depend on the time of day and the city. Impound parking prices also depend on the region. Also, prices for impound parking depend on the category and power of the car.

As an example, here are some prices by region of the country:

• Moscow. Evacuation costs about 5,000 rubles, impound lot - 1,000 rubles per day.
• Saint Petersburg. Evacuation – 2700 rubles, impound lot about 30 rubles per hour.
• Omsk Evacuation costs about 50 rubles per kilometer.

We prove our innocence

However, authorities do not always take private vehicles to the impound lot lawfully. Sometimes there are blatant, but unfortunately, very common cases of neglect of the right of private ownership of a vehicle. Is it possible to actually challenge such an evacuation?

The most common reason for the actually illegal seizure of a vehicle and its placement in a paid special parking lot is the need to free up parking space in order to clear the street of snow.

These reasons are not spelled out in the law, and the authorities here are simply abusing their formalized capabilities. At the same time, drivers are most often accused of violations related to the allegedly incorrect organization of parking for their vehicles. How to challenge the towing of a car for such “wrong” parking? Let's figure it out, but first it seems reasonable to list some cases from practice, thanks to which car owners managed to get back the money spent on paying both the fine and the cost of the tow truck:

• The “No Stopping (Parking)” sign is installed so that it is not visible due to trees or any other obstacles.

In this case, it is necessary to photograph this sign from all possible angles in order to later attach these photographs to the application-complaint for unlawful evacuation.

• The evacuation must be stopped if the owner of the vehicle managed to approach it before the tow truck with the car loaded on it starts moving. And it doesn’t matter at what stage: before the vehicle seizure protocol is filled out or after.
• Obvious forgery of signatures of witnesses on the protocol. The traffic police management has a bad attitude towards open forgery of any signatures, so if a traffic police officer, when filling out a protocol, signs for witnesses, then this is grounds for declaring the entire procedure illegal, even if the tow truck has already started moving. The complaint statement will need to clearly indicate the sequence of actions, but it is best to attach a video recording (to do this, communicate with the traffic police officer using a smartphone camera).
• In general, if the presence of a violation or the driver’s guilt is not proven.
• The driver parked incorrectly if there was a threat to someone’s life or health and his (the driver’s) help was required.
• If there was a disabled person in the car at the time of parking, then such a car is allowed to park in the area for the disabled.

In all of the above cases, there is a high probability that either the higher management of the traffic police department or the court (if the driver demands a refund of the fine and the cost of evacuation by filing a lawsuit) will side with him, and his application-complaint will be considered positively.

Appeal procedure

Let's start with the fact that the evacuation procedure must be stopped as soon as the owner of the vehicle goes out to his car and presents the documents for this vehicle and his driver's license to the traffic police officer accompanying this procedure. In this case, loading must be stopped, the traffic police officer must hand the driver of the car a receipt for payment of the fine, and the driver himself must move his car to another, designated place. (The fine can be paid within 60 days).

But what if the illegal towing of the car could not be stopped in time? You should remember the main rule: nothing can be done on the spot, “from the wheels”, before or during the collection of your vehicle from the special parking lot. The administrative procedure for evacuation and subsequent return of the vehicle does not provide for any derogations.

You need to appeal an evacuation carried out with violations only after you take your vehicle back.

How to correctly draw up an application to appeal a decision on illegal detention of a car

We are talking about an administrative offense committed by traffic police officers and the evacuation service. In this case, the complaint-statement is drawn up in four copies and must contain the following points:

1. The exact name of the structural body of the traffic police where the application is submitted and full name. official who must review it.
2. FULL NAME. the applicant and his registered address.
3. Indication of the number and date of the evacuation protocol, the full name of the traffic police officer who issued this document, the name of the company that carried out the evacuation, the name of the special parking lot where the car was kept, as well as the data of the district traffic police department to which this parking lot administratively belongs.
4. Details of the owner of the vehicle, as well as the car itself (make, year of manufacture, engine power, etc.).
5. The content should include a list of circumstances due to which evacuation can be considered illegal. However, these facts must correspond to the reason stated in the protocol. For example, if the protocol mentions that the car was parked with violations, namely, 1 wheel of the vehicle was standing on the curb, then it is this fact that needs to be refuted, and not the entire seizure procedure in general.

It is permissible to attach photographic materials (if any) or even video recordings from third-party CCTV cameras that prove the incorrectness of the evacuation to the application.

At the end, you should state your request, namely, to return the funds spent to return the vehicle due to its illegal evacuation, as well as the amount of the fine.

Challenging the legality of evacuation is permissible no later than 10 days from the moment the protocol on the seizure of the car was drawn up. If the specified period is missed, a petition is written for its restoration as part of the consideration of the decision on an administrative offense.

What documents will need to be attached?

The application must be accompanied by:

• The original of the drawn up vehicle evacuation protocol.
• General passport of the car owner (copy).
• Documents certifying ownership of the vehicle (copy).
• Driver's license of the car owner (copy).
• Receipt for payment of the fine, as well as procedures for evacuation and storage of the vehicle (original).
• Photo and/or video materials confirming the legality of challenging the evacuation of the vehicle. However, it is important that they are published on social networks - so, firstly, it will be clear when the picture was taken, and secondly, the question of possible falsification of photographic materials will immediately be removed.

MADI

In Moscow, all evacuation procedures are formally under the jurisdiction of MADI (Moscow Administrative Road Inspectorate). Therefore, if we are talking about challenging a decision of this body (based on an incorrect protocol), then this can be done on the mos.ru resource through:

• section "Services";
• portal "Autocode";
• portal "Moscow Transport".

Or you can contact MADI in person or by mail.

Appeal through court

Refusal to refund due to wrongful evacuation based on a complaint is, in fact, quite common. The reason for this is the rare availability of evidence of sufficient quality that would clearly indicate a violation in the protocol, which states that there was no violation in reality. In this case, the car owner should go to court.

It should be noted that the judicial authorities are loyal to drivers. In particular, the following arguments are taken into account:

• testimony of independent third parties about the actual absence of a parking violation (but only written);
• recordings from third-party CCTV cameras indicating the mass evacuation of vehicles from the street where parking is not prohibited.

However, if the evacuation was carried out in order to clear snow from the street, then the courts in this case clearly side with the utilities. The car owner should not count on success here.

All the same documents that accompany the application-complaint to the traffic police (plus a copy of the application itself) must be attached to the lawsuit.

Refund

An application for a refund submitted to the traffic police or a claim filed in court, in addition to demands to return funds for illegal seizure of a vehicle, must contain details where these funds should be transferred if the application or claim is satisfied.

The money can also be returned in cash, but to receive it you will have to separately find out which cash desk of this traffic police department it was transferred to, which is not very convenient.

Payment of compensation to persons whose cars were illegally towed, based on satisfied applications or legal claims, is carried out within 10 days from the date of the court decision or resolution on the application to the traffic police.