Vancouver parking tickets: fines, paying, disputing and towing

How much is a parking ticket?

A City of Vancouver parking ticket is a “by-law notice”. The amounts are set in Schedule A of the By-law Notice Enforcement By-law (No. 10201). Each offence has three prices: the full fine, a lower amount if you pay within 14 days, and a higher amount if you pay late.

Amounts from By-law 10201, Schedule A, in force since January 1, 2026. “Within 14 days” is the full fine minus the early-payment discount; “Paid late” adds the late surcharge. Sections are from the Street and Traffic By-law (No. 2849) unless marked as the Parking Meter By-law (No. 2952).

Where school-zone signs are posted, the school-hours versions of some offences, such as stopping near a stop sign, a crossing or an intersection, are $200 instead of $150. They apply from 8:00 AM to 5:00 PM on school days. Parking a trailer or leaving a derelict vehicle on the street costs more: $250, or $175 within 14 days.

Older fine amounts are still online. Most Street and Traffic By-law fines went up on January 1, 2026. Before then, most of these tickets were $100 and the time-limit tickets were $70 or $77, so older websites and news stories often quote amounts that are out of date. Parking Meter By-law tickets did not change.

Early-payment discount and late surcharge

• Pay within 14 days for the discount. The discount applies if the City receives your payment within 14 days of when you received the ticket. A ticket left on a vehicle counts as received by the registered owner that day; a mailed one is treated as received on the 7th day after mailing. The City’s own pages say to pay within 14 days of the issue date, which is the safest deadline to aim for.
• Pay late and a surcharge is added. If the City receives payment more than 21 days after the penalty became due, the late surcharge applies: $225 instead of $150, for example. The dates for your ticket are printed on it and on any notice the City sends, so check them rather than counting days yourself.
• The same 14 days is your only window to dispute. After that you can still pay, with the surcharge if it applies, but you can no longer dispute the ticket.

How to pay a ticket

Pay the City of Vancouver directly, using one of these methods:

• Online. Through the City’s pay your ticket page, with Visa, Mastercard or American Express.
• By phone. Call 3-1-1 in Vancouver, 604-873-7000 from outside the city, or 7-1-1 for TTY. Lines are open 7 AM–7 PM Monday to Friday and 8 AM–5 PM on weekends and holidays. Credit card only. Have the ticket (by-law notice) number or your licence plate ready.
• In person. Revenue Services, ground floor of City Hall, 453 West 12th Avenue, 8:30 AM–5 PM Monday to Friday, except holidays. Cash, debit, credit card, cheque or money order. Credit card cheques aren’t accepted.
• Drop-off slot. A mail slot at City Hall’s south entrance doors on West 12th Avenue takes cheques and money orders 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Make them payable to the City of Vancouver and write the ticket number on them.
• By mail. City of Vancouver, Revenue Services, PO Box 7747 Station Terminal, Vancouver BC V6B 8R1. Leave plenty of time: the discount depends on when the City receives your payment, and the City warns that a postal delay can cost you the discount or add a late fee.

A returned cheque or a credit card chargeback adds a $35 NSF fee, and once a payment has been returned you lose the discount on that ticket: the full amount plus the fee is due. If you paid and still get a notice, the City says the payment may have gone to another ticket for the same vehicle, or a discounted payment may have arrived after the 14-day deadline.

How to dispute a ticket

If you think a ticket is wrong, start with the quick steps.

1. Look at the evidence. You can view the issuing officer’s photos on the City’s by-law photo evidence site.
2. Call the Ticket Inquiry line at 604-257-8732, Monday to Friday 8:30 AM–4:30 PM, except holidays. A ticket may be cancelled if your car was stolen, the ticket was issued to the wrong licence plate, you had a valid permit for that area, or a duplicate ticket was issued for the same incident. If staff can’t resolve it, they can help you request adjudication.
3. Apply for adjudication within 14 days. Use the City’s online dispute form. The City says to apply within 14 days from when the ticket was issued, and no dispute is possible after 14 days. Each ticket needs its own application.
4. Screening review. A screening officer contacts you. Under the provincial Local Government Bylaw Notice Enforcement Act, they can cancel a ticket if the contravention didn’t happen as alleged, if the notice itself is defective, or on grounds set by City policy. If the ticket is cancelled, the process ends there.
5. Hearing. Otherwise, an adjudicator appointed under the Act hears the case. Hearings take place at City Hall (ground floor, Room 116), and the City also holds phone hearings. They are open to the public, and the issuing officer doesn’t need to attend. The Act also lets you be heard through an agent or in writing. If you choose a phone or other electronic hearing, the Act makes you pay any extra adjudication cost this causes, so ask the City whether there is a charge. If you don’t take part, the penalty becomes due immediately.
6. Decision. The adjudicator decides only whether the contravention happened, on the balance of probabilities, and must cancel the ticket if it didn’t happen as alleged. They can’t reduce the amount or rule on whether the by-law itself is valid. The decision is final. If the ticket is upheld, you pay the full amount, with no discount, plus a $25 fee.

Evidence for a hearing

The City’s evidence, including the officer’s photos, can be viewed online 14 days before your hearing on its hearing evidence page. You’ll need the notice number and the issue date and time. You can submit your own evidence:

• in person at Revenue Services (City Hall, ground floor) before the hearing;
• at the hearing itself;
• by email to bylaw@vancouver.ca, 14 business days before the hearing; or
• by phone, during a phone hearing.

The public can see any evidence presented. The City says personal circumstances are not considered, so focus on whether the contravention happened as the ticket describes.

Tickets by mail and licence plate cameras

A ticket can arrive in the mail even if you never saw one on your car. The City says a mailed ticket is still valid if someone removed it from your vehicle, someone else was driving, or the officer couldn’t place it on the vehicle, for example because it drove away first. You must pay or dispute it like any other ticket. Questions go to the Ticket Inquiry line, 604-257-8732.

Since May 14, 2026, the City has been piloting licence plate recognition (LPR) cameras that read plates so tickets can be mailed instead of placed on vehicles. The pilot covers four residential permit zones near transit: Commercial–Broadway Station, Joyce Station, Oakridge and Commercial Drive. It isn’t citywide, though the City says it may expand depending on the results.

What happens if you don’t pay

• It costs more. If you neither pay nor dispute within 14 days, the full penalty becomes due immediately, and later the late surcharge is added: a $150 ticket becomes $225.
• You get a notice of the amount owing. For a ticket that wasn’t handed to you in person, such as one left on the vehicle, the Act requires the City to send a notice of the amount owing, and court collection can’t start until 28 days after you receive it. Under the Act, if you tell the City within 21 days of that notice that you never received the original ticket, the debt is cancelled and the ticket is reissued to you.
• Collections. The City says unpaid tickets may be sent to a collection agency. For a ticket upheld at adjudication and left unpaid, it says you will owe the ticket value plus 50%, plus the $25 fee.
• Court and towing. The Act lets the City file an unpaid amount in Provincial Court, where it has the same effect as a court judgment for a debt, unless it has been owed for more than 2 years. The City also warns that your vehicle could be towed.

Towed? How to get your car back

Parking enforcement officers patrol seven days a week, on foot, by bicycle and in vehicles. The City says a vehicle can be towed if it breaks a parking by-law, or if it’s abandoned and a safety hazard or inconvenience. Its contractor, Busters Towing, tows and impounds vehicles from city streets and parks under the Impounding By-law (No. 13709).

Where to look

• Towed from a city street, lane or park: City Impound Yard, 425 Industrial Avenue, 604-685-7246, open 24 hours every day. You can also search for the vehicle by licence plate on Busters’ website.
• Abandoned vehicles: Abandoned Vehicle Yard, 1150 E Kent Ave South, 604-321-6527, Monday to Friday 8 AM–4 PM, except holidays.
• Towed from a commercial lot or garage: the tow-away sign names the towing company. For private-property, accident and police tows by Busters, call its office at 604-685-8181.
• Not at any lot: it may have been courtesy-towed nearby for construction. Otherwise, report it stolen to the Vancouver Police Department.

To get the car back, bring a valid driver’s licence, and in some cases the vehicle registration, plus payment for the towing and storage charges. Busters accepts cash, Visa, Mastercard and debit.

Towing and storage fees

Impounding By-law No. 13709, Schedule A, for vehicles of 2,999 kg or less. Fees exclude taxes and are collected by the towing company. The parking ticket is separate and paid to the City.

For example, a car under 20 ft towed less than 6 km and collected within the first day costs $130.93 before GST ($82.18 tow + $22.19 fuel surcharge + $26.56 storage), and the parking ticket comes on top of that. The by-law also lists other charges, such as owner searches and registered mail, that can be added to the bill.

For a BC-registered vehicle, the City must send a written notice to the owner’s address on ICBC’s records within 14 days of the impound. For a vehicle registered outside BC, or unregistered, it has 21 days, if the owner can be found. A vehicle still unclaimed after 30 days, or a later date given in the notice, may be sold or disposed of. The by-law also lets the City Engineer waive impounding costs in cases of undue hardship.

Private lot tickets and tows

A notice from a private lot or parkade operator is not a City by-law notice: you can’t pay or dispute it through the City, and the City’s discount and adjudication process doesn’t apply. Contact the operator named on the notice.

If you’re towed from private property, the tow-away sign names the company. The City’s Vehicles for Hire By-law (No. 6066, Schedule C) caps what a tow company can charge to remove a car from a commercial parking lot, and for storage. For a vehicle up to 3,000 kg, the caps on the regular tow, per-km rate, 27% fuel surcharge, dolly add-on, regular release fee and storage match the City rates above. The dolly release fee, multi-level parkade charges and administrative fees differ. The City says tow-truck drivers must carry a list of their fees.

Avoiding a ticket

City of Vancouver open data (updated Sep 28, 2026) shows where the costly rules are on metered blocks:

• Rush-hour windows. 487 of the 2,967 metered zones (16%) have a rush-hour window when you can’t park. The most common windows are 7:00–10:00 AM plus 3:00–7:00 PM (163 zones) and 3:00–6:00 PM only (146). Fairview, Mount Pleasant and the Downtown core have the most. The data doesn’t list the days, so check the sign. Where it says No Stopping, stopping during those hours is a $200 ticket; where it says No Parking, parking is $150. Either way the car can be towed, and paying the meter doesn’t override the sign.
• Loading and passenger zones. 264 zones have other posted restrictions, most often commercial vehicle loading zones (99), loading zones (83) and passenger zones (51). The most common loading window is 7:00 AM–6:00 PM (80 of the 182 loading and commercial loading zones). During posted hours, a loading zone allows up to 3 minutes to load or unload passengers or 30 minutes for materials, a passenger zone allows 3 minutes for passengers, and a commercial loading zone is for permitted commercial vehicles. Stopping for anything else is a $150 ticket. A loading or passenger zone sign with no times applies 24 hours a day, including holidays.
• Time limits. Most meters allow 2 hours on weekdays (2,283 zones) and some allow 3 (422). Staying past the limit is a $77 ticket. On unsigned residential streets the limit is 3 hours between 8:00 AM and 6:00 PM, with some exceptions, such as the block you live on. Overstaying is a $90 ticket. Moving to another spot on the same block to get around a time limit doesn’t reset the clock: that is a separate $150 ticket.
• Broken meters. The City’s advice is blunt: “Do not park at a broken parking meter. You will get a ticket.” Report it online using the 6-digit meter number on the side of the meter, and find another space.

Before you leave the car, check the sign on the block. It always takes precedence over any map, including ours.