Blocked Driveway: Who Can Legally Have a Car Towed?
Someone parked across your driveway and you want it gone. What you can do yourself is narrower than most people assume, and the order matters.
A car sitting across the mouth of your driveway is one of the more infuriating things this city produces, and the reason it persists is that the remedy is less direct than it should be. Philadelphia Towing handles authorized removals and can tell you whether yours qualifies at (445) 275-3339.
The distinction that governs everything
Public street versus private property decides who has authority. A vehicle parked at the curb, even directly across your driveway, is on a public street. You do not own that curb and you cannot direct a tow company to remove a car from it.
A vehicle on land you own or control is a different matter. A driveway itself, a private lot, a parking pad behind a row house, an apartment complex space: on those, the property owner or their authorized agent can arrange removal, subject to the rules that apply to private property towing.
That distinction explains the frustrating part. The car blocking your driveway is usually on the street, which means it is a parking enforcement matter rather than something you can solve by calling a tow company directly.
What to do about a blocked driveway
Photograph it first, from an angle that shows the driveway, the vehicle and the relationship between them. Include the plate and a timestamp. This takes thirty seconds and it is the difference between a report that gets acted on and one that becomes an argument.
Then report it to parking enforcement or the police non-emergency line, depending on the situation. Blocking a driveway is an enforcement issue and the vehicle can be ticketed and removed, but the direction has to come from the authority rather than from you. Waiting is genuinely the hardest part, and it is still the correct sequence.
Do not take matters into your own hands. Moving the vehicle yourself, blocking it in further, or damaging it converts you from the wronged party into the one with a problem. It happens more often than you would think, and it never ends well for the person who did it.
If you own the property the car is on
Here you have real options, and there are conditions attached to them. Private property towing in Pennsylvania is regulated, and Philadelphia adds its own requirements. In broad terms a property owner is expected to have posted signage that puts drivers on notice, and the towing company is expected to be properly licensed and to keep records of what it removed and where it went.
Rules change and they differ between jurisdictions in the region, so confirm the current requirements before you rely on them rather than after. A tow performed without the required signage or notice can be reversed, and the cost of getting it wrong lands on the person who authorized it.
What signage is actually for
The purpose is notice. A driver should be able to see, on entering, that the lot is private, that unauthorized vehicles are subject to removal, and who to contact if their vehicle is taken. Signs at every entrance, legible from a vehicle, in reasonable condition.
Property owners who tow from an unsigned lot are exposed. Drivers who were towed from one have a legitimate complaint. This is the single most common failure point in private property towing disputes, and it is also the easiest one to fix in advance.
Apartment buildings and assigned spaces
If somebody is in your assigned space, the authority usually rests with the property manager rather than with you individually, even though the space is nominally yours. Most leases and most towing contracts are written that way, and calling a company directly as a tenant will typically be declined.
Contact the management office or whoever holds the contract. It is slower than you want it to be, and it is the route that actually results in the car being moved.
If your own car was towed from private property
The company that removed it is expected to be identified on signage at the property. Start there, note what the signs did and did not say, and photograph them before anything changes.
Pay the release and dispute afterward rather than arguing at the gate while storage accrues. If the signage was absent, obscured or contradictory, that is worth pursuing, and the evidence you need is at the property rather than at the lot. Go back and photograph it the same day.