New Brunswick, NJ Business Licensing & Operations: Auto Repair on Residential Property (2026)

Chapter 12.20 of the New Brunswick Municipal Code, titled Abandoned, Wrecked and Repair of Vehicles on Streets, is the rule that reaches a home mechanic in the City of New Brunswick. Section 12.20.030(B) bars any person, firm or corporation from permitting, authorizing or allowing the repair, service or overhaul of any vehicle of any description on the public highways or streets. The only carve-out is an emergency repair completed in less than sixty (60) minutes, or a longer period granted as an extension by the New Brunswick Police Department. Subsection (A) separately prohibits leaving a partially dismantled, nonoperating, immobile, wrecked or junked vehicle on any public right-of-way, street or highway.

Private lots run on a different clock. Section 12.20.040 forbids the owner, tenant, occupant, lessee or anyone else in charge of property from letting a partially dismantled, nonoperating, wrecked, junked or discarded vehicle remain there longer than forty-eight (48) hours. Three exceptions are printed: a vehicle in an enclosed building, a vehicle on the premises of a business enterprise operated in a lawful place and manner when necessary to that business, and a vehicle in a storage place or depository the city maintains. Section 12.20.010 defines vehicle to include automobile, truck, trailer, motorized scooter, electric scooter, electric bicycle, motorcycle, tractor, buggy and wagon.

The Property Maintenance Code in Chapter 15.08 adds a yard rule at PM-303.8: no person can park or store an inoperable, wrecked or partially dismantled vehicle whose wheels are not all mounted, or a vehicle with uninflated tires or without a current affixed and valid license tag, except at a licensed repair facility or a similarly enclosed area designed and approved for that purpose. For paid work, the zoning definitions in Chapter 17.02 describe a public garage as any building, land or part thereof, other than a private garage, used for the storage, care or repair of motor vehicles for profit.

Section 12.20.050 authorizes the chief of police, a designated police officer, the director of public works or a designated department employee to remove a vehicle that reasonably appears to violate the chapter. The registered owner is notified in writing by personal service or certified mail.