If someone leaves an unattended vehicle on your property without your permission for 96 hours, New York state law considers that vehicle abandoned. To dispose of an abandoned vehicle, you must call local authorities – usually your city or town police department – to take custody of the vehicle. For example, you might report an abandoned vehicle in NYC directly to the city.
New York state law grants title of the vehicle to the locality where it was abandoned. If your local authority declines to exercise ownership, you may sell the vehicle for scrap, but it may never be titled again. Understanding the New York abandoned vehicle law is important to know what to do.
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If a vehicle is abandoned on public property, it may be removed more quickly than if it is abandoned on private property. New York law provides that a vehicle without tags left unattended on public property for a mere six hours is considered an abandoned vehicle.
A car with tags can sit on the side of a highway or other similar public place for 24 hours before it will be declared abandoned. If the same car initially is legally parked, but the permissible parking time lapses, New York law classifies it as abandoned if it remains unattended for 48 hours.
An abandoned vehicle was left on your property for no reason and without your permission. However, if you own a garage or similar automotive shop and a customer left a car with you for repair and then failed to return, New York law classifies that car as an unclaimed rather than abandoned vehicle. The New York abandoned vehicle law sets out a different procedure for removing an unclaimed vehicle from your property that involves filing a Garageman's Lien.
If the abandoned vehicle doesn't have license tags and is worth less than $1,250 wholesale, it immediately becomes the property of the municipality where it sits. The vehicle may be sold at public auction, but will more likely be scrapped.
If it holds more than $1,250 in wholesale value, local authorities will contact the state Department of Motor Vehicles in an attempt to find the last owner. If the car's owner is found, he has 10 days to claim his property before it's sold at public auction.
