A metal clamp on the wheel is not an impound lot. A booted car in Los Angeles is still on the street. The City boots for unpaid parking debt, then gives you a short clock before a tow. PayLock, LADOT, and the Official Police Garage are three different steps. Do not drive to a yard for a boot that is still on the tire.
Five citations, a $150 boot, and who to call
Inside the City of Los Angeles, the boot and tow threshold is five or more delinquent parking citations. That is California Vehicle Code 22651.7 and LAMC 80.77.2. Source: LADOT’s adjudication FAQ.
The boot fee is $150.00 under LAMC 80.77.2. Self-release is through the PayLock 24-hour line, (855) 288-2642. You pay all fines plus the $150 boot fee and show current registration. Assisted boot-removal hours are 6:00 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. Source: LADOT’s Booted and Towed page at ladotparking.org.
After booting you typically have 72 hours before tow. Fines due within 48 hours or the car is subject to tow, per that same LADOT page. That 72-hour boot clock is not the same as the street-storage 72-hour rule on a car that was never booted. We keep street storage on its own page, the 72-hour rule.
A boot is not a private-lot problem and it is not a CHP freeway tow. If the car is already gone, it may have been towed after the boot clock, or it may never have been booted. Search opglaviic.com by plate or VIN, or start with find your towed car.
Quick Tow LA does not remove City boots. We do not hold a PayLock contract. We connect callers with licensed operators for private recoveries. A City boot stays a City process until it is paid or the car is later towed to an Official Police Garage.
What a boot is not
It is not a private HOA boot. California private-lot towing sits under CVC 22658. A community that wants to clamp cars is in a different legal fight than LADOT’s five-citation boot. If a private lot already towed the car, read the entrance sign, not a PayLock sticker.
It is not a Sacramento or Santa Cruz campus rule. Those SERP results are other cities. Los Angeles uses PayLock and LADOT for the City boot.
It is not a license to drive. Do not roll the car with the boot on. Do not try to cut it. PayLock and LADOT handle release.
Surrounding cities are not this program. Long Beach, Burbank, and Pasadena run their own impound systems. A Burbank boot or a Pasadena process, if those cities use one, is not the $150 LAMC 80.77.2 fee. We will not invent a Long Beach boot fee. If the car was taken in those cities, use that city’s lot, not the LA OPG board.
If the clock runs and the car is towed
Once the City tows a booted car, it enters the Official Police Garage system. There are 17 designated OPGs. Release is in person. OPG business hours are 7:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m. You generally get the police release from the impounding LAPD Area station, then pay the garage.
As of January 1, 2026, the OPG standard-vehicle tow is $220.00 for the first hour at the credit-card rate, and $215.00 otherwise. Daily storage is $68.00 a day on a credit card, $66.00 otherwise. The Vehicle Release Fee is $115.00 per vehicle under LAMC 80.77.1. Those figures reset every January 1. They stack on top of the citations and the $150 boot fee you already owed. Confirm the current lines with the garage before you pay.
For the full City math, use cost to get a car out of impound and how to get your car back.
A published “boot-plus-tow” package price from Quick Tow LA does not exist. We do not publish a brand price.
What we could not confirm
A list of which streets LADOT boots most often is not in our claims file. A dollar figure for citations themselves varies by ticket and is not a single number we can quote as “the boot total.” Pay the amount PayLock and LADOT show for that plate.
Glendale’s release-fee dollar amount is not verified. LASD’s release-admin fee is not verified. Santa Monica’s tow schedule is not verified. Do not treat the City of LA $150 boot fee as those cities’ number.
If the car is yours, operable, and you need a licensed operator after the boot is off, that is a private hire. If it will not start once the clamp is gone, roadside assistance is the path.
When to call us
Call PayLock first while the boot is on the wheel. Call us when the car is free of the City clamp and still needs a licensed operator to move, or when you are hiring a private recovery that is not a City boot. Call (213) 410-1414 for dispatch on that private job.