Question about the legalities of having a car towed from your drive way.

Factual Questions
1

My friend lives in a small cul-de-sac with 7 houses. His house is the last one on the right as you’re coming out or the first on the left as you’re going in. The road is straight for about ten feet before it turns into the cul-de sac, just to give you an idea.

OK, I loaned my car to his wife, it broke down over there the same day she got it from me and sat there for roughly a month on the edge of his front yard. Granted it was an eye sore, but I wasn’t about to pay to have it towed back to my house, because I have a new car now anyways. It was half in the road, half on his grass.
The neighbors called and called said the police and complained. They came out (cops) roughly three times regarding it, my friend still did nothing. So they came and towed it.

Now, here is the kicker, he had a minivan in his DRIVEWAY that was broken down for about three months and THEY TOWED THAT ONE AS WELL ! THen they gave him a ticket for each vehicle.

To hell with the car, I understand that one.

How is it legal for them to tow a truck that is on HIS PROPERTY, IN HIS DRIVEWAY about 10 feet from the road? How can this be done?

What is any different than the cops coming into your driveway and towing one of your cars?

Is this legal in Maryland?

I personally would’ve never let this happen if it were my property.

2

Here is a part of Tampa’s Code of Ordinances:

My assumption is your friend’s car was towed under a similar municipal ordinance in Maryland; however I can’t say for certain that this is the case as you didn’t tell the municipality where this happened (I just quoted this from Tampa’s ordinances as it was the first city ordinance I was able to find which was pertinent.)

While I can’t say I’m generally informed about this sort of thing, I am informed from some real life experience that keeping junkers in public view on your property very often constitutes a violation of local codes. In my experience these codes are often enforced by “Code Enforcement” officers instead of regular police, but I imagine the police can perform all the duties of Code Enforcement officers (and then some.)

So this may explain what happened, but I don’t know for sure what the situation is in the city in which this happened, however in my experience living in a few different cities in my lifetime such ordinances are not uncommon and nor is it an unheard of situation (for me, personally) to see a junker get towed by the police.

3

Two possibilities, off the top of my head:

  1. Most likely, it has to do with deeds restrictions. I imagine there’s a clause in your friend’s deed that allows his homes association to tow abandoned vehicles off his property. It probably requires that they give him notice, but I imagine the repeated phone calls would do the trick. Legal? Absolutely.

The neighbors probably didn’t differentiate between the two abandoned vehicles when they called to complain, and the homes association had equal right to tow either one, as long as it was abandoned for some length of time defined in the deed.

  1. There might also be a specific zoning ordinance that allows the city to remove unsightly items from private property, within limits. Those limits would almost certainly include vehicles. Legal? Yes - though some kind of injunction might be required first.

Abandoned vehicles are a point of contention in residential communities. They can drive down property values, they’re an eyesore, and they can be an early sign of a neighborhood going “bad.” A huge percentage of housing developments built in America since WWII include specific provisions in the deeds restricting how long a vehicle can be parked in the driveway or on the yard.

4

Wow, I find it hard to believe that in the USA you can’t have a vehicle that YOU OWN sitting in a driveway that YOU ALSO OWN longer than 72 hours. Just…wow.

Edited to add, I just read the second post and that’s a good point about driving down property value !

5

I think such local ordinances are there as a safety value. As long as everyone takes some responsibility for keeping their neighborhood relatively clean and safe, the city is not going to lay in wait to tow away a disabled vehicle. Only after neighbors have said things to the owner, and if that owner doesn’t do anything, the neighbors have a simple and legal recourse to require the person to clean up their eyesore or get it towed.

Where we live there is a city ordinance that no vehicle may remain parked in the same spot on the street in a residential area longer than 24 hours, or it is subject to ticketing and towing. Taken at face value that means the city would be here every day of the week towing vehicles because some people park their vehicles on the street instead of their drive way (often full with a trailer or boat) and certainly cannot park it in the garage (full of crap). The intent of the ordinance is to make sure disabled and/or abandoned vehicles do not remain and contribute to the decay of the local neighborhood.

When we moved into our current neighborhood several years back, there was a guy down the street who had his disabled car parked in the driveway (it appears to have been in a front-end collision). Judging from the grass and thick moss growing around and on top of the car, we figured at least a year. Our immediate neighbors corrected; it had been there at least five years. Yet no one had complained to the city. It was gone within 30 days after we moved in down the street from him. Our areas is a nice, quiet and well-kept residential street. Our end of the street is maintained very well by folks who care about their street. The other end is not.

6

Yes, it’s a safety issue also. Discarded vehicles can leak fluids, attract transients, and even increase the crime rate. Your home may be your castle but that doesn’t mean you can hire it out to store nucular waste, either. :rolleyes:

It’s likely they cited your friend at least once, if not several times. Before they start towing from Private property, they make damn sure the Property owner knows what can happen. It wasn’t a suprise to him, trust me.

Your “friend” blew it. I also want to point out you could get a large bill from the city for towing and impound fees. The Impound fees can often be $100/diem, so don’t screw around with this, unless you want a bill for a couple thousand bucks.

I don’t get what you mean by *“I personally would’ve never let this happen if it were my property.” *You mean you’d do something smart like move the cars after three notices, or that you’d try to stop the cops from towing? :dubious: :confused:

7

Agreed; there’s probably a restrictive covenant in the property deed. I guess it could be a zoning law, but a contractual agreement running with the property is more likely.

8

Just to clarify, I’m pretty sure (but IANAL) that “inoperative” in the ordinance means unable to run, not just just that you haven’t driven it lately. So parking a working vehicle in your driveway would be legal indefinitely.

9

Some neighborhood associations have rules against cars being left on the street or in the driveway. The only one I know about specifically is in a gated community.

I got a cheap refrigerator because someone had moved into a new house there. The house came with all appliances installed and the family needed to get enough of the extra furniture out of the garage to let them get their cars out of the driveway. I don’t know if towing was in the future or just pissy comments and fines, but they had to get their cars out of the driveway and out of sight.

10

We have the same type of bylaws here as well, and it has to do with ‘unsightliness’ and property value, not to mention pollution and danger.

11

A little hijack…

What if you have a fridge sitting in your front yard or a stack of garbage? Does the city just keep citing you or would they actually come “tow” that stuff away?

And, if you don’t pay to get your crap (car, fridge, paint, etc) back, because you obviously don’t care, do they just keep sending you bills? If you don’t pay that do you go to jail or to collections?

12

Our county just passed a junk car ordinance, I don’t like it a bit. To me it’s basically a way for neighbors to rat on other neighbors who happen to have some junk in their yard. Big deal. Of course nothing says I can’t have refrigerators, dryers, couches, or any other junk in my yard.

13

If that happens here, I believe a lien is entered against your mortgage (if you own the house).

14

I think it is explicitly a way for neighbors to complain about junk collectors in their area.

As far as other junk, I don’t think you can firmly state you’re legally in the clear to store whatever crap you want in your front yard. There is the potential to be liable for damages relating to an attractive nuisance if a whippersnapper happens to play in your junked refrigerator and gets hurt because of it.

15

Here in Minneapolis, the city will send workers out to pick up that junk and trash it. The bill for this is then added to your property taxes for the property. You pay that eventually, or they won’t let you sell the property.
P.S. A junked refrigerator/freezer has special restrictions applied to it here, because of the possibility of kids getting inside and suffocating. You need to either remove the door, or chain it completely shut.

16

In Long Beach, I was warned that I would be cited for parking my car on my own lawn if it ever happened again. I don’t see how this could be legal.

17

Don’t know about Maryland, but I doubt this. The OP said the police towed the car in the driveway. I can’t imagine the police (law enforcement) enforcing a deed restriction. That is a civil matter. Imagine the possibilities if the police enforced deed restrictions-they would be enforcing rules created by a private group. If the restriction has to do with house color, what would the police do? If the police towed the car, it was a violation of local law. Perhaps a Zoning ord., but more likely a traffic law intended to keep inoperative vehicles out of residential neighborhoods.

18

In Maryland, cars need to have valid tags on them. If the van in his driveway was inoperable and lacking tags with a current sticker, they were within their rights to tow it.