Montebello, CA Garage & Yard Sales: Frequency, Duration & Permits (2026)

Montebello Municipal Code Section 17.10.230(B) sets the citywide limit for garage sales held on any residential (R-zoned) lot. A homeowner can hold no more than four garage sales during the calendar year running January through December, item 1, and each sale cannot run longer than three consecutive "weekend days," a term the ordinance defines as a consecutive Friday, Saturday and Sunday, item 2. Timing is further narrowed by item 3: a sale must fall within the first full weekend of March, June, September or December, so a resident cannot simply pick any weekend that suits them.

Item 4 sets the daily hours at nine a.m. to six p.m. for any permitted weekend day, meaning no early-morning setup traffic or evening sales after dusk. Item 5 requires that every item offered for sale, along with any personal property used to run the sale, stay on the seller's own private property; goods cannot spread onto a neighbor's yard or into the public sidewalk or street. The city imposes no fee and requires no special permit to hold a qualifying sale, item 8, so residents self-police the frequency, duration and hours limits without a city inspection beforehand.

Any violation of these standards, whether an extra sale beyond the four-per-year cap, a sale run outside the designated weekend, or one that spills past 6 p.m., is an infraction under item 9, punishable by a fine set in Section 17.06.070 of the Administrative Fines chapter. The Montebello Police Department and code enforcement staff respond to neighbor complaints about oversized or out-of-window sales.