Let’s set the scene. It’s been a long day at the office. You’re tired, you’re grumpy, and when you finally roll up to your house, you find an unfamiliar car sitting right in front of your driveway — lights off, no driver in sight. Now, you know you can’t trebuchet the offending car into the middle distance, but that doesn’t mean you can’t get justice. It’s illegal to block someone else’s driveway, which means you can get the cops involved. The best part is, since the person treating your driveway like a personal parking lot is breaking the law, you won’t be on the hook for the cost of the tow.

However, before you get all due-process and start ranting about how it’s “the principle of the thing,” maybe try leaving a note explaining that their car is blocking your driveway. The driver might not have realized the car was even in front of a driveway, and might be embarrassed and move immediately upon their return. If there’s someone still in the illegally-parked car, absent-mindedly texting or scrolling through social media, just knock on the window and ask politely to move. 

There’s no need to go nuclear as a first resort, especially if you’re not in a time crunch. Also, the car may not even be parked, so don’t call a tow truck on some poor occupied car sitting innocently in the middle of busy traffic – but what do you do when things go beyond that point?

Let’s say you’ve tried the peaceful approach. Maybe the driver rebuffed your gentle reproof. In that case, you have two options to get rid of the car blocking your driveway. Option one is to call a tow truck to come and get the vehicle out of your sight, although you may need to wait 24 hours if you don’t have a No Parking sign. Then, you can contact your local cops or county sheriff’s office, depending on what jurisdiction you live in, and give them a description of the car along with any other evidence they require. After that, just sit back with a sly grin and watch the car get towed to the impound lot. 

Option two is to call your local law enforcement first and let them contact the tow company. Make sure you call main phone number and not 911 unless the driveway blockage is an actual emergency. Your internal rage and righteous fury are, unfortunately, not an emergency in the eyes of the police. If you live in an area that has 311, call that. 

Once law enforcement arrives, they’ll assess the poor park job and call a tow company to come get the car. This is sometimes your only option because some tow companies won’t tow a car unless it’s been ticketed first. It’s not like local law enforcement won’t come and ticket a car — some U.S. cities make more money from parking tickets than anywhere else.

Of course, this article is titled “Is it legal to tow a car that’s blocking your driveway?” implying that you, the reader, might want to handle the tow job yourself. I was curious about this, so I called my local police department in Pensacola, Florida. When I asked the officer on the other end of the line if someone could just hook up a winch to the offending car’s bumper and pull it out of the way, she paused for a second, then said, “It’s kind of a gray area.” 

The gist of her full explanation is that you, the average person, don’t have the kind of liability insurance that tow companies do. If you damage the car in the process of moving it, you could be on the hook for a criminal mischief charge. It’s best to let law enforcement do its thing. However, if you want to take the chance, we’ve written before about how you can get serious heavy-duty hauling power from a used ambulance.

Seriously, though, if cars keep blocking your driveway, try putting up a No Parking sign. You can also try setting up orange cones or asking your HOA, city, county, building owner, or property manager if you can paint some yellow lines to make the driveway more noticeable. Most people aren’t looking to park in front of someone’s driveway — they’re just oblivious. Maybe just get one of those noodley, inflatable dancing tube men you see at car dealers and hire a teenager to spin an arrow-shaped sign.