A stranger’s or tenant’s car is stuck on your Florida property. You cannot sell it, but Florida law gives you real options. Here is the legal playbook, step by step.
Direct answer: No — you cannot sell a car that is not titled to you, even if it was abandoned on your land. Your legal options are the police non-emergency line, code enforcement, and a licensed towing company acting under Florida Statute 715.07.
It happens more than you would think. A tenant moves out and leaves a dead car in the driveway. A relative parks a car “for a few weeks” and a year goes by. You buy a house and there is a rusting sedan behind it. Or a stranger simply dumps a car on your lot and vanishes. Your first instinct is probably: “It’s on my land — I’ll just sell it to a junk car buyer.” Please do not. That one move can create real legal trouble.
A quick note: we are a junk car buyer, not lawyers. What follows is general information based on Florida statutes, not legal advice. If your situation involves a dispute, an estate, or a lot of money, talk to a Florida attorney.
First, the Hard Truth: It Is Not Your Car
In Florida, a vehicle belongs to the person named on its certificate of title — not to whoever owns the land it sits on. Leaving a car somewhere, even for a long time, does not transfer ownership to the property owner. There is no “finders keepers” rule for cars.
Florida’s lost and abandoned property law (Chapter 705, Florida Statutes) makes this plain: it is unlawful to take lost or abandoned property and treat it as your own, or to refuse to hand it over when the law requires it. In other words, selling an abandoned car, parting it out, or signing paperwork as if it were yours can expose you to claims from the real owner — and worse. The state has a process. Use it — do not shortcut it.
Step 1: Try to Reach the Owner, and Document Everything
Start with the simplest thing: contact the owner if you know who it is. Text, email, or — better — a letter you can prove you sent. Many “abandoned” cars are really neglected situations where the owner shows up once they realize you are serious.
While you do that, build a paper trail. Take dated photos of the car where it sits. Write down the license plate number and the VIN (visible through the windshield on the driver’s side of the dashboard). Note when it arrived and every attempt you made to reach the owner. If this ever reaches code enforcement or a courtroom, that documentation is gold.
Step 2: Call the Police or Sheriff’s Non-Emergency Line
Your next call is to law enforcement — the non-emergency line, not 911. In Palm Beach County, that is the Sheriff’s Office or your city police department. An officer can run the plate and VIN, check whether the car was reported stolen (common with dumped cars), and tell you how they handle abandoned vehicles locally.
Know what law enforcement’s formal process covers: under Section 705.103, Florida Statutes, officers deal with lost or abandoned property found on public property — they post a notice on the vehicle giving the owner a short window (5 days in the standard notice) to remove it, contact the Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles (DHSMV) to identify the owner and any lienholder, mail them notice, and dispose of the vehicle if nobody claims it. On purely private land, police may not tow it themselves — but their report and the stolen-vehicle check are still worth the call.
Step 3: Call Code Enforcement
If the abandoned car also qualifies as a junk vehicle — flat tires, no plate, expired tag, wrecked, overgrown — your county or city code enforcement office can cite the property and start its own compliance process with deadlines. This is the same machinery covered on our HOA and code enforcement junk car removal page.
One caution: if you own the property, a code citation may land on you as the property owner, even though the car is not yours. Do not ignore it. Respond with your documentation — photos, your attempts to reach the owner, your police report. Officers deal with this regularly and mainly want the car gone, which is exactly what you want too.
Step 4: A Licensed Towing Company Under Statute 715.07
This is the most direct legal tool a Florida property owner has. Section 715.07, Florida Statutes, says the owner or lessee of real property — or someone they authorize, including a condominium association’s representative — may have a vehicle parked on that property without permission removed by a company regularly engaged in the towing business. Done correctly, the property owner is not liable for the costs of removal, transportation, or storage: those costs fall on the vehicle’s owner. You can read the statute itself in the full text of Florida Statute 715.07.
The law puts strict conditions on these tows, and a legitimate towing company will know them cold:
Signage. For most properties, tow-away zone signs must be posted at every entrance — “tow-away zone” in letters at least four inches high, a warning that vehicles will be towed at the owner’s expense, and the towing company’s name and phone number — mounted three to six feet high and in place at least 24 hours before a tow. (Single-family homes are exempt from the signage rule.)
Storage rules. The car must be stored within 10 miles of where it was picked up in a county of 500,000 people or more — Palm Beach County qualifies — at a site open for vehicle redemption from 8:00 AM to 6:00 PM, with a posted phone number the operator answers around the clock.
Owner protections. If the owner shows up while the tow is in progress, the operator must release the car for a drop fee of no more than half the posted tow rate.
After the tow, the story leaves your hands — and that is the point. Towing and storage companies have their own legal lien process for vehicles nobody claims: notices to the owner and lienholders, waiting periods, and eventually a lawful sale to recover their costs. That right belongs to them. It never belonged to you — which is why the tow, not a sale, is your correct move.
Is the car actually yours to sell? If your name is on the title, we can help today: call 561-559-5865 for a cash offer, free towing, and cash at pickup. If it is not, use the steps above first — we will never ask you to sign for a car that is not yours.
Special Cases Worth Knowing
The Owner Was Your Tenant
Check your lease first — many leases cover abandoned property and notice requirements, and Florida landlord-tenant law has its own rules for property left behind after a tenancy ends. Send the tenant written notice at their last known address, keep copies, then use the towing route above if the car stays. Do not sell the car to offset unpaid rent; that debt and the car are legally separate things.
The Owner Died — and You Are Family
If the car belonged to a deceased relative and you are an heir, Florida has a real title path: the DHSMV can transfer title to heirs with the right documents (typically a death certificate and estate paperwork). Once the title is legally in your name, the car is yours — to keep, or to sell like any owner. Our paperwork guide for selling a junk car in Florida covers the documents, and our Florida title signing guide walks through the transfer itself. The DHSMV website at flhsmv.gov has the official forms.
You Bought the Property With the Car Already On It
Buying land does not buy the cars sitting on it. The car still belongs to its titled owner. Follow the same steps: document, try to find the owner, involve law enforcement, then a licensed tow under 715.07. Expect the process to take days to weeks, not hours.
What NOT to Do
Do not sell it to a junk buyer, a neighbor, or anyone else. You cannot transfer a title you do not hold, and the sale can unwind on you.
Do not part it out or scrap pieces of it. Selling the wheels or the converter off someone else’s car is still treating their property as your own.
Do not push or tow it onto a public street yourself to make it “the city’s problem.” Moving it can create liability for you and may violate the same statutes you are trying to use.
Do not trust anyone who offers to “just take it off your hands, no paperwork.” A buyer who happily takes a car with no title from a non-owner is a red flag — legitimate buyers verify ownership first.
So When Can Junk Cars Yard Help?
Honestly: when the car is legally yours. If your name is on the title — including after an heir transfer — selling your junk car to us works like any other sale: call 561-559-5865, describe the car, get a cash offer, and we tow it free and pay cash at pickup anywhere in Lake Worth and Palm Beach County. If the car is not yours, we will tell you so on the call and point you back to the steps on this page. That honesty costs us a sale sometimes — and it is still the only way we do business.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can I sell an abandoned car that was left on my property in Florida?
No. Ownership follows the certificate of title, not the land. Selling, parting out, or scrapping a car titled to someone else can make you liable to the real owner. Your legal routes are law enforcement, code enforcement, and a licensed tow under Statute 715.07.
How long does a car have to sit before it is legally abandoned in Florida?
There is no single number of days after which a car becomes yours — it never becomes yours automatically. Law enforcement notices for abandoned property on public land use short windows (5 days in the standard posted notice), but private-property removal runs through the 715.07 towing process, not a waiting clock.
Who pays for towing an abandoned car off my property?
Under Statute 715.07, when a licensed towing company removes a vehicle parked without permission and follows the rules, the removal, transport, and storage costs fall on the vehicle’s owner — not on you as the property owner.
Can I get a title for an abandoned car in Florida?
Not just because it sits on your land. Titles change hands through the titled owner, a court or estate process, or the statutory lien process that towing and storage companies use. If you are an heir of the deceased owner, the DHSMV has a transfer path for you.
What if the abandoned car is blocking my driveway or business?
That strengthens your case for acting quickly. Document the blockage, call the police non-emergency line, and contact a licensed towing company about a 715.07 removal. A vehicle blocking access is exactly the situation the statute exists for.
The Bottom Line
An abandoned car on your land is annoying, unfair, and — handled wrong — legally risky. Handled right, it is a short checklist: document everything, try the owner, call the police non-emergency line, loop in code enforcement if it qualifies as a junk vehicle, and let a licensed towing company remove it under Statute 715.07. And if you end up owning a vehicle legally along the way, Junk Cars Yard is one call away at 561-559-5865.
Junk Cars Yard
4096 S Military Trail, Lake Worth, FL 33463, USA
Phone: 561-559-5865
Email: junkcarsyard@gmail.com
Website: https://junkcarsyard.com/
Hours: Monday–Sunday, 9:00 AM–5:00 PM