Towed or Booted Over NYC Tickets: Fees, the 10-Day Auction Clock, Your Options

A regular tow in New York City costs $185 to get the car back, a heavy-duty tow runs $370, and every night it sits in the pound adds another $20. That's enough to pass a low-value car's worth before the week is even out. A boot instead of a tow costs $185 just to have removed. None of these fees disappear if you decide to sell the car instead of reclaiming it; they just stop being your problem the moment you do.

The current fee breakdown

New York City's Department of Finance fee schedule breaks down like this:

These are the current figures. An older $100 tow-fee number still circulates online, but it's outdated. The city's own FAQ page is the one to trust. A boot works differently from a tow: the car stays exactly where it was parked, immobilized, until the $185 removal fee and whatever tickets sit behind it get paid.

The 10-day auction clock

If the Department of Finance towed the car, as opposed to NYPD, and it sits unredeemed for 10 business days, the city sells it at auction. That clock starts the moment the tow happens, not when you get around to checking on it. A car that sits unredeemed long enough starts to resemble the situations we cover in abandoned car on a NYC street: 311 vs NYPD, even though a towed car and a street-parked abandoned car move through different city processes. Business days means weekends and holidays don't count toward the ten, which can stretch the real-world deadline out closer to two full weeks depending on when the tow happens. Once the car is sold at auction, retrieving it is no longer an option.

What if NYPD towed it instead?

A slightly different rule applies if NYPD did the towing rather than the Department of Finance: if there's a judgment ticket balance of $101 or more, the vehicle is held until that balance is resolved, separate from the 10-day clock that applies to Department of Finance tows. Either way, valid insurance is required to retrieve any impounded vehicle. Showing up with cash or a card and no current insurance won't get the car released. That catches people off guard more often than the fees do: a policy that lapsed around the same time as the tow means the car stays put even after every dollar owed is paid. If the car carries TLC plates rather than a standard registration, junking a TLC-plated rideshare vehicle in NYC covers the extra rules that come with that status.

Doing the math on a low-value car

Here's how fast this adds up on a car that isn't worth much to begin with. Say a car worth around $800 gets towed from a block in the Bronx and sits for four nights before you can get to it: that's a $185 regular tow fee plus $80 in storage (four nights at $20), or $265 before you've paid down a single ticket or the 5% poundage fee on top of it. On an $800 car, that's already a third of its value gone to fees alone, and the tickets that caused the tow are still due. Work out what your junk car is actually worth before deciding whether redemption still makes sense.

What are your options at this point?

There are really three paths from here. Pay the fees and tickets, retrieve the car, and keep it. Worth doing when the car's value clearly covers what you owe plus what it's worth to you going forward, and when you actually plan to keep driving it. Retrieve it and sell it right after. Often the better move on a marginal car, since every extra night adds another $20 in storage on top of what you already owe; retrieving it first stops that clock, and selling right away turns a car that was costing you money into cash instead. Or let the 10-business-day clock run out and lose it to auction. Not a strategy so much as what happens by default if nobody acts, and it means losing whatever equity was in the car along with the tickets that got it towed in the first place.

If you go the retrieve-then-sell route, you'll need the title in hand at pickup. If it's lost, that's still fixable — see our guide on selling a car with a lost title in NY before pickup day.

If the fees don't make sense, sell instead

If the math on retrieving a low-value car doesn't work, selling it is the other way out. Towing here is free: no $185, no $370, no nightly storage, folded into your offer and never billed back to you. Get an instant offer in about 60 seconds, no-haggle, and if the car matches what you described, that price doesn't change once we show up. Pickup is often same-day if your offer is accepted and scheduled by early afternoon, and payment happens right there. See how the pickup process works if you want the full picture first.

Quick answers about towed cars

Do I need proof of insurance to get a towed car out of the pound? Yes. Valid insurance is required to retrieve any impounded vehicle in New York City, regardless of which agency towed it.

Are impound fees different in Brooklyn than the rest of the city? No. The Department of Finance's fee schedule is the same everywhere: $185 regular tow, $370 heavy-duty, $185 boot, 5% poundage, $20 nightly storage, including the area covered by our Brooklyn page.

What's a "judgment ticket" and why does $101 matter? It's the balance NYPD checks before releasing a towed vehicle. If judgment tickets add up to $101 or more, the car is held until that balance is resolved, separate from the 10-business-day auction clock that applies to Department of Finance tows.

How long do I have before an unredeemed car gets auctioned? 10 business days from a Department of Finance tow. After that, the city sells the car and retrieving it is no longer possible.

The short version

A regular NYC tow costs $185, a heavy-duty tow $370, a boot removal $185, plus 5% poundage and $20 a night in storage. Those fees can pass a low-value car's worth fast. Department of Finance tows go to auction after 10 business days unredeemed; NYPD tows with $101 or more in judgment tickets are held until that balance is resolved. From there you're choosing between paying to keep the car, retrieving it and selling it right away, or losing it to auction by default. Do the math on what the car's actually worth before deciding which one makes sense.