Baltimore City Parking Tickets: Fines, Boots, and MVA Flags

Baltimore City parking tickets range from $30 for an expired meter to $500 for parking in a disabled space, with fixed amounts set by city ordinance for every category in between.¹ You can pay online, by phone, by mail, or in person, and you have 45 days to request a trial if you believe the ticket was issued in error.² Letting a citation sit unpaid is where real money starts stacking up.

What You Owe by Violation

The fine printed on your ticket should match the schedule in Baltimore City Code Article 31, Subtitle 36. Officers don’t choose the amount.

$500 — parking in a space reserved for people with disabilities or their helpers, whether on a public street or in a public lot.¹
$300 — abandoning a vehicle on a public street or parking a vehicle with no plates or an obscured VIN.¹
$250 — parking or standing in a bus lane or bus stop.¹
$75 — blocking a fire hydrant (within 15 feet), parking on a declared snow emergency route, obstructing pedestrian movement, stopping in front of a fire engine house, or parking in a transit stop.¹
$50 — parking, stopping, or standing where prohibited on an impounding street, or an expired meter on an impounding street during impounding hours.¹
$30 — an expired meter during normal metered hours, blocking a driveway, parking at the entrance to a public lot or garage, and any other parking violation not listed in a higher tier.¹

Residential permit zones work on a sliding scale within any 12-month window: $50 for the first violation, $70 for the second, $100 for the third, and $150 for each one after that.¹ New residents can pick up a 60-day temporary permit while they update their Maryland license and registration.³

How to Pay

You can look up a citation at the city’s online payment portal using either your license plate or your citation number. A handwritten ticket may take a few business days to appear in the system, so check again the next day if nothing shows up.⁴

Online at pay.baltimorecity.gov/parkingfines, with a credit or debit card. Older 8-digit citation numbers need a leading zero added when you search.⁴
By phone at 866-377-0765, by card.⁵
By mail with a check or money order payable to the Director of Finance, sent with your citation number to City of Baltimore, Attn: Parking Fines, P.O. Box 13327, Baltimore, MD 21203-3327. Don’t use this address if your account has been referred to Penn Credit.⁶
In person at the Abel Wolman Municipal Building, 200 Holliday Street, Monday through Friday, 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Payments are also accepted at Walmart and at any business that takes MoneyGram.⁶

Baltimore City does not offer payment plans. Each citation has to be paid in full.⁵

Fighting a Ticket

If you think a citation was wrongly issued, you can request a trial. The online trial request portal accepts petitions on citations up to 45 days old.² You can also request a hearing by filling out the box on the back of the physical ticket (name, address, signature) and mailing it to the Department of Finance.

Once your request is processed, the District Court of Maryland will mail a notice with the hearing date, time, and courthouse.⁵ You have to appear in person. Bring whatever supports your case: photos of unclear or missing signage, a receipt showing the meter was paid, documentation that you no longer owned the vehicle, or proof of a medical emergency that kept you from moving it.

Miss the 45-day window or skip the court date, and the ticket plus any accumulated penalties becomes final.

What Happens If You Don’t Pay

The consequences escalate on a schedule, and every step costs you more.

MVA Flag at 52 Days

If a citation is still unpaid 52 days after the issue date, the city asks the Maryland MVA to flag your vehicle registration. The MVA adds a $30 flag fee to what you already owe.⁵ With the flag in place, you can’t renew registration or transfer title until every outstanding citation is paid off and the flag is released.⁷ Partial payments won’t clear it.⁴

Boot or Tow at Three Tickets

Three or more unpaid citations that are each at least 30 days old makes your car eligible for a boot or a tow.⁴ Towing alone runs $130 east of Charles Street or $140 west of Charles Street, plus a $50 initial storage charge and a $40 administrative fee. After the first two days, storage adds $15 per day.⁸

Collections

Citations left unpaid long enough get referred to Penn Credit, the city’s third-party collection agent. At that point, the normal payment channels close. Don’t mail payment to the P.O. box or try the city online portal once an account has moved to collections.⁶

Getting a Booted or Towed Vehicle Back

Booted

Call PayLock at 877-590-3757. The line is open 24/7, and you can pay by card over the phone to get the boot released without waiting.⁸ You can also pay in person at the Abel Wolman Municipal Building during business hours.

One important warning: if your car has been booted, do not pay citations through the city’s online portal. Online payment can delay the release, and the car may be towed while the system processes the transaction.⁴

Towed

Baltimore operates two impound facilities:

Pulaski Highway Facility, 6700 Pulaski Highway, Baltimore, MD 21237. Monday through Friday 8:30 a.m. to 5:00 p.m., Saturday 8:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. Closed Sunday and holidays. 410-396-9958.
Fallsway Facility, 410 Fallsway, Baltimore, MD 21202. Monday through Friday 6:00 a.m. to 10:00 p.m. Closed weekends and holidays. 410-396-4613.⁸

Bring proof of ownership (current registration card, title, or registration receipt) along with a valid driver’s license, state ID, or passport. If you lack a current primary ID, the city will accept two alternative documents such as a notarized birth certificate, signed Social Security card, government photo ID, or voter registration card.⁸

Pay your outstanding citations at the impound facility when you pick up the car. All remaining tickets get bundled into the towing release payment, and paying them online or by phone instead can create processing conflicts that delay release. The impound lots take only credit and debit cards — no cash, no checks.⁸

If your vehicle has an MVA flag, you’ll need to present a flag release from the MVA before the lot will hand it over. Vehicles impounded in connection with criminal activity won’t be released until you contact the Baltimore Police Department.⁸

Credit and Tax Notes

A parking ticket itself won’t appear on your credit report; the three major bureaus no longer include most public records aside from bankruptcy. If an unpaid citation gets sent to a collection agency, though, that collection account can show up and stay for seven years. Paying it off before it reaches collections is the clean fix.

Federal tax law blocks the deduction of fines or penalties paid to a government for breaking the law, and parking tickets count. That holds true even if the vehicle is used entirely for business. You cannot write a parking fine off as a business expense.⁹

1
Baltimore City Law Library. Baltimore City Code Article 31 – Subtitle 36 Parking Fines, Penalties, and Procedures
2
City of Baltimore. Parking Fine Trial Request
3
Baltimore City. Residential Parking Permits
4
City of Baltimore. Vehicle Citations
5
Baltimore City. Vehicle Fines and Citations
6
City of Baltimore. Online Payments and Account Lookup
7
MDOT Motor Vehicle Administration. Remove Vehicle Flags
8
Baltimore City. Towing in Baltimore City
9
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 26 USC 162 – Trade or Business Expenses