Brockton, MA Parking Rules: Abandoned Vehicles (2026)

Section 14-17 combines several vehicle-storage restrictions under one heading. Subsection (a)(1) bars any property owner, tenant, occupant or titled owner from letting a partially dismantled, nonoperating, wrecked, junked or discarded vehicle sit on their property for more than seventy-two hours, unless it is inside an enclosed building, on a licensed business's premises, or in a lawful city storage depot; after notification, the vehicle must go within seventy-two hours or the city impounds it and bills the owner for all charges. Subsection (a)(2) separately limits any residential lot to one unregistered vehicle kept outdoors; the police department enforces that limit and fines a violator fifty dollars per offense, with each day of continued violation a separate offense, and an offending vehicle is subject to impoundment.

Subsection (b) makes it unlawful to abandon a vehicle so that it blocks a public way or private driveway or otherwise creates a hazard, for any length of time. Subsection (c) adds that an unregistered or uninsured vehicle cannot sit on a public way at all, and separately bans parking an oversize commercial vehicle, defined as a semi-trailer truck cab towing one or more trailers, on the street in a residentially zoned area. Under subsection (f), the police chief, DPW commissioner or other officer in charge can remove a violating vehicle, and if the owner is not found or does not claim it within seven days of a registered letter, the vehicle is hauled to a junkyard and disposed of without liability to the city.