Reference Source

How long before a car left on your property or towed from it can legally be sold — by US state

State-by-state comparison of the legal timeline for a vehicle left on private property (or towed from it) to be classified abandoned, held, noticed, and eventually sold or junked. This is a genuinely different process shape per state, not just a different number of days on the same form: Colorado uses a flat 24-hour threshold for a vehicle to count as abandoned on private property, and a separate 48-hour window for the owner to reclaim it from an impound lot before it is treated as abandoned there too. Georgia uses a single flat 30-day unattended-on-property threshold, with no separate notice-and-sale sequence specified at the abandonment-classification stage. Texas runs a multi-step notice sequence instead of a single threshold: the vehicle must sit at least 24 hours before a first notice is sent (within 5 days if Texas-registered, 14 days if out-of-state), a second notice follows 15-20 days after the first, and the storage facility must then wait at least 30 days after the second notice before a public sale — a ~65-90 day process from tow to sale, compared to Colorado's 24-48 hour classification. Answers 'how long do I have to get my towed car back before it's sold', and 'how long does a car have to sit on my property before I can have it removed as abandoned'. Relevant to property owners, HOAs, landlords, and people whose car has been towed.

Records44
Sources49
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The data

StateOwner notice processStatutory citationWhat makes it abandoned on private propertyMinimum time before sale/disposal
Alabamaunclaimed as provided in Section 32-8-84 for not less than 30 calendar days from the date the notice was sent to the owner and lienholder of recordAla. Code § 32-13-1
AlaskaAS 28.11.020in excess of 24 hours
Arizona28-4801seventy-two hours on public or private property
CaliforniaCal. Veh. Code § 22658The vehicle has been issued a notice of parking violation, and 96 hours have elapsed since the issuance of that notice
ColoradoC.R.S. 42-4-210124 hours or longer
ConnecticutSec. 14-150a period longer than twenty-four hours
Delaware21 Del. C. § 4401inoperable, dismantled, wrecked, or which displays expired registration plates which are at least 30 days expired, or which displays no registration plates, or from which major components have been removed, is in such a state of disrepair as to be incapable of being operated in the manner for which it is designed and is situated on private property appearing to have been abandoned
District of Columbia§ 50–2431on private property for more than 30 days
FloridaNotice of the sale must be sent by certified mail to the registered owner of the vehicle or vessel, the insurance company insuring the vehicle or vessel, and the person having the recorded lien on the vehicle or vessel at the address shown on the records of the registering agency at least 30 days before the sale of the vehicle or vessels. 713.7835 days after the vehicle or vessel is stored by the lienor if the vehicle or vessel is an older model or 57 days after the vehicle or vessel is stored by the lienor if the vehicle or vessel is a newer model
GeorgiaO.C.G.A. § 40-11-1not less than 30 days
HawaiiHaw. Rev. Stat. § 290-11any vehicle left unattended on private or public property that is not parked in compliance with the notice required by subsection (a)
IdahoIdaho Code § 49-1806if there is posted on or near the property in a clearly conspicuous location, in large print, a sign or notice that unauthorized vehicles will be removed or booted at the owner’s expense
Illinoislaw enforcement agency having jurisdiction authorizes removal625 ILCS 5/4-201after a waiting period of 7 days or more
IndianaIC 9-13-2-1more than forty-eight (48) hours
Iowa321.89more than twenty-four hours
KansasK.S.A. § 8-1102the provisions of subsection (a) requiring that a motor vehicle be abandoned for a period of time in excess of 48 hours prior to its removal shall not be applicable
Kentucky376.275forty-five (45) days
LouisianaLa. R.S. 32:471more than three days
Maine14 days after the notices to the owner and lienholder are sent by the Secretary of State or 14 days after the advertisement is published§185214 days
Maryland25–201more than 48 hours without the consent of the owner or person in control of the property
MassachusettsSection 22Cmore than seventy-two hours upon a public or private way therein or on any property therein without the permission of the owner or lessee of said property
MichiganBefore removing the vehicle from private property, the towing agency shall provide notice by telephone, or otherwise, to a police agency having jurisdiction over the vehicle that the vehicle is being removedMCL 257.252aA vehicle that has remained on private property without the consent of the ownernot less than 20 days after the date of the notice
Minnesota168B.04single-family or duplex residential property, immediately; (ii) that is private, nonresidential property, properly posted, immediately; (iii) that is private, nonresidential property, not posted, 24 hours
MississippiMiss. Code Ann. § 63-23-3lawfully towed onto the property of another at the written request of a law enforcement officer and left there for a period of not less than forty (40) days without any one having made claim thereto
Missouri304.157left unattended for more than forty-eight hours
Montana61-12-4015 days or more on a city street, public property, or private property
NebraskaNeb. Rev. Stat. § 60-1901more than seven days on private property if left initially without permission of the owner, or after permission of the owner is terminated
Nevadathe person who removed the vehicle must notify the registered owner and any person having a security interest in the vehicle by registered or certified mail that the vehicle has been removed and will be junked or dismantled or otherwise disposed of unless the registered owner or the person having a security interest in the vehicle responds and pays the costs of removal.NRS 487.25015 days after notification
New Hampshire10 days' notice to redeem itRSA 262:40-cmore than 24 hours without the appropriate permission being given
New JerseyN.J.S.A. 39:4-56.6without the consent of the owner or other person in control or possession of the property or for a period in excess of that for which consent was givenfails to make any claim for the return of the vehicle within 90 days after such removal
New MexicoNMSA 1978 (NM MVD Vehicle Procedures Manual, Chapter 1)left unattended on either public or private property for at least 30 days
New YorkSuch local authority shall notify the last owner, if known, that the vehicle in question has been recovered as an abandoned vehicle and that, if unclaimed, it will be sold at public auction or by bid after ten days from the date such notice was given.N.Y. Veh. & Traf. Law § 1224more than ninety-six hours on property of another if left without permission of the ownerten days from the date such notice was given
North CarolinaG.S. § 20-137.7more than 10 days without the consent of the owner or person in control of the property
OhioOhio Rev. Code § 4513.60left on private residential or private agricultural property for at least four hoursremains unclaimed by the owner for thirty days
OregonORS 819.100, ORS 819.210not reclaimed within 30 days after it is taken into custody
PennsylvaniaPrior to removal or processing of the vehicle, that person shall file a report, on a multipart form prescribed by the department, with the local police department declaring that an unauthorized vehicle has been left unattended and on private property for at least 24 hours.75 Pa.C.S. § 7311.1more than 24 hours
Rhode IslandR.I. Gen. Laws § 31-42-1more than three (3) days
South CarolinaS.C. Code Ann. § 56-5-5810more than seven days
TexasTex. Occ. Code § 2303.157the 30th day after the date notice is mailed
UtahUtah Code § 41-6a-1408in excess of seven days
VirginiaVa. Code Ann. § 46.2-1200more than 48 hours on private property without the consent of the property's owner
WashingtonRCW 46.55.010On residential property . . . . Immediately
Wisconsin342.40more than 48 hours in cities of the 1st class and, in other cities, villages and towns, a period set by the governing body thereof
WyomingWyo. Stat. § 31-13-101more than thirty (30) days without the oral or written consent of the owner

Where this came from

Every record above links the page it was taken from and quotes the sentence that states it. These are the 49 sources this dataset was assembled from.

Machine-readable

From your own code

Same records, same quotes, without scraping the page: refsource is on PyPI and npm. Each value comes back carrying the URL it was read from and the sentence on that page that states it — .source and .quote sit on the value itself rather than in a side channel, so the checking step is available instead of skipped.

pip install refsource
refsource lookup abandoned-vehicle-private-property-timelines-by-state state=Alabama

npx -y refsource lookup abandoned-vehicle-private-property-timelines-by-state state=Alabama

Set your AI assistant up to use this

Two files and no account. Put this in .mcp.json at the root of your project — Claude Code, Cursor, Windsurf, VS Code and Codex all read that file — and your assistant can look this dataset up instead of recalling it. The server is remote, keyless and read-only.

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "referencesource": {
      "type": "http",
      "url": "https://referencesource.org/mcp"
    }
  }
}

Add to Cursor · or, on the command line: claude mcp add --transport http referencesource https://referencesource.org/mcp --scope project

Then one line in the project's CLAUDE.md or AGENTS.md, so the assistant knows when to reach for it:

When a question needs "How long before a car left on your property or towed from it can legally be sold — by US state", call the referencesource MCP server at https://referencesource.org/mcp (tool `search_records`, dataset_slug `abandoned-vehicle-private-property-timelines-by-state`) instead of answering from memory — every record it returns carries its source URL and a verbatim quote from that page.

What each tool does, and the servers built over single registers: Connect your AI assistant.

44 records. last verified against source . due for re-check by .

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