2023 Laws of Puerto Rico › TITLE NINE - Highways and Traffic (§§ 1-8 — 5725) › Chapter 27 - Vehicle and Traffic Law (2000) › Subchapter V - Provisions on Vehicular Traffic (§§ 5151 — 5179) › § 5178 - Procedure for removing illegally parked vehicles

Whenever a vehicle is parked in violation of the provisions of this chapter and its regulations the Police or the Municipal Police, as the case may be, shall follow the procedures set forth below for its removal:
(a) Take reasonable steps in the immediate area to locate the driver of the vehicle in question and ensure that he/she removes the same. If said driver cannot be located, or if after having been located he/she is unable for any reason to drive the vehicle or refuses to do so, the Police may remove said vehicle by means of a crane or other mechanical device, or by any other adequate means, including the cranes authorized by the Commission, as provided in this section.
(b) The vehicle shall be removed taking all precautions to avoid damage thereto and taken to a place within the municipality where it was removed devoted by said municipality for such a purpose, or to a Police lot, should the municipality lack the proper facilities or when, due to its service schedule or bylaws, vehicles removed by the Police are not admitted therein. The vehicle shall remain under the custody of the municipality or the Police until its owner, caretaker, or certified driver is permitted to take it away after proper identification and payment to the municipality or to the Police, as the case may be, of fifty dollars ($50) for storage and custody and fifty additional dollars ($50) to the Police for towing services. This provision shall not preclude charging the driver, or certified driver, or owner of the vehicle for violating the parking provisions of this chapter and the regulations thereof.
(c) For each day after the first forty-eight (48) hours that the owner, caretaker, or certified driver of the vehicle delays in claiming the return of the vehicle from the municipality or the Police, a surcharge of ten dollars ($10), or up to a maximum of four hundred dollars ($400), shall be collected. The Secretary may reach an agreement with the owner, caretaker, or certified driver of the vehicle concerning a payment plan, as provided through regulations. Stolen motor vehicles abandoned by thieves shall be exempt from said fifty dollar ($50)-payment for storage and custody, as well as any surcharge and towing service charges, if any, for a period of ten (10) days after due notice to the owner, certified driver, or the person who appears in the Department’s Motor Vehicle and Trailer Registry as owner of said vehicle.
(d) Payments made to [the] Police for storage and custody, surcharge and towing services shall be retained by the latter to cover the cost of said towing, storage and custody services. Likewise, the municipalities shall retain for identical purposes the payments made for the same reason.
(e) The owner of any vehicle thus removed shall be notified within twenty-four (24) hours of the removal of said vehicle by the Police. Said notice shall be sent to the address of the owner, as it appears in the Department records, advising the latter that should he/she fail to claim the return of the vehicle from the corresponding municipal authority or from the Police within the not deferrable term of six (6) months as of the date of the notice, the vehicle may be sold by the municipality or the Police at public auction so as to pay, from the amount collected, all expenses, including towing, surcharges, storage and custody, as well as the expenses incurred in the auction. Stored vehicles that due to their condition cannot be sold at public auction may be confiscated and any part thereof disposed of as deemed convenient by the municipality or the Police.
(f) If at the expiration of the six (6) month term as of the date of the notice certifying the removal of the vehicle, the same has not been claimed by its owner, the municipality or the Police shall proceed to sell the same at public auction. The call for bids shall be published in a daily newspaper of general circulation in Puerto Rico sixty (60) days prior to the auction. Said call for bids shall indicate the make and year of the vehicle, the license plate number, if any, and the name of the owner of the vehicle as it appears in the records of the Department.
(g) Removal, storage and custody, surcharge and auction expenses shall be paid from the proceeds of the sale. The sum remaining from the proceeds of the sale, if any, shall be delivered to the owner of the vehicle after said expenses have been deducted.
(h) Should the owner of the vehicle fail to claim the surplus amount within thirty (30) days after the auction, the municipality or the Police, as the case may be, shall notify the amount thereof to the person to whom the surplus corresponds by certified mail to the address registered in the Department.
(i) Should the owner of the vehicle fail to claim the surplus amount within thirty (30) days after the notice has been sent by certified mail, said surplus shall be covered into the regular fund of the municipality concerned or in the General Fund of the Government of Puerto Rico, in the case of auctions held by the Police.
(j) The municipalities and the Superintendent of Police are hereby directed to adopt those rules and regulations that may be necessary to enforce the provisions set forth in the preceding subsections that correspond to the particular competence of each.
(k) The police force is hereby authorized to contract cranes, tow trucks or other mechanical devices for the removal of said vehicles.
(l) Any person who drives a vehicle and any owner of a vehicle authorized to travel on the public roads shall be deemed to have given his/her consent for the Police to remove his/her vehicle in the cases and as provided in this section.
History —Jan. 7, 2000, No. 22, § 6.28, eff. 1 year after Jan. 7, 2000; Sept. 15, 2012, No. 253, § 3.