New Law Makes It Easier For Police To Ticket & Tow Your Vehicle
A new law that will make it easier for the police to issue a traffic ticket and impound (the fancy legal term for legally restraining) your vehicle will take effect on Sunday, July 22, 2007.
Although the Legislature previously allowed the police to impound a vehicle for alleged criminal law violations and other circumstances (for example, the vehicle was reported stolen, or the vehicle is occupying a restricted zone), this new law allows the police to seize a vehicle if the vehicle is on a public street AND the vehicle has an expired registration of more than 45 days.
BEWARE: This law change means that a police officer who pulls you over while you are driving, presumably so that your vehicle becomes parked on a public roadway, could ticket you and impound your vehicle if the registration is expired long enough. It could mean that if your vehicle is parked on the street outside your home, and you've not updated your tabs, your vehicle would be subject to impoundment if your tabs are expired for more than 45 days.
Avoid the costly expenses of obtaining a traffic ticket and paying impound fees. Keep your registration up to date and if for some reason you cannot keep your registration up to date, move your vehicle onto private property.
Can you be cited for expired tabs while driving on private property?
This is a good question. Drivers can be cited for certain offenses on private property, but not all offenses that drivers could be cited for on public property. Without being informed of the precise code section that sammymac is referencing, generally tabs offenses are for driving a vehicle on public property, not on private property.