Kingsport, TN Business Licensing & Operations: Auto Repair on Residential Property (2026)

Kingsport Code § 38-34(a) reaches any person who parks, keeps, stores, permits, suffers or allows the accumulation of an inoperable vehicle, unlicensed motor vehicle, worthless vehicle or parts thereof on private property or a vacant lot they own, occupy or control. The same subsection covers any vehicle at any time in a state of major disassembly or disrepair, or in the process of being stripped, dismantled or painted. Each of those acts is declared a nuisance, which is the section that governs backyard and driveway repair work in the City of Kingsport.

Section 38-34(b) protects a tenant. An occupant or tenant who is not the owner is not penalized if, after written notice from the city manager or designee, the occupant gives the notice to the owner and the owner cures the nuisance within five days. If nobody complies, the owner and the tenant or occupant are guilty of a violation, upon conviction.

The exceptions in section 38-34(c) decide what is allowed. The section does not apply to a vehicle on private property that is not visible from the street or from other public or private property, if the vehicle is completely enclosed within a permanent or portable building consisting of four walls and a roof and that building complies with all gas, plumbing, electrical, zoning and mechanical codes and the adopted building code. It also does not apply to a vehicle held in connection with a business lawfully licensed by the city and properly operated in the appropriate zone under the zoning ordinance, if storage or parking of the vehicle is necessary to the business.

The zoning chapter adds limits on a business run from a house. A home occupation under section 114-1 must be conducted within the principal building by a resident, with not more than one non-resident employee and not more than 25 percent of the dwelling's floor area, and it cannot cause excessive traffic generation, parking or noise. Section 114-1 also defines a junkyard to include auto wrecking yards, excluding such uses conducted entirely within a completely enclosed building.