Beaufort County, SC Parking Rules: Abandoned Vehicles (2026)

Beaufort County Code of Ordinances § 38-62 prohibits parking, storing or keeping any junked, wrecked or abandoned vehicle, including recreational vehicles, on public or private property where it is visible from a public or private street, right-of-way, or adjacent property. A vehicle counts as junked or wrecked if it is in disrepair, dilapidated, needing major repair, scrapped or abandoned from its original use, or lacks current license plates, tags or stickers. The county incorporates South Carolina Code §§ 56-5-5620 through 56-5-5950 for treatment and disposition of abandoned vehicles, and a vehicle is deemed abandoned if left on county property more than 48 hours, on private property without the owner's consent more than 24 hours, or on a public street or highway more than 48 hours.

Compliance can be achieved three ways: remove the vehicle, enclose it in a building, or screen it with a commercial-grade fence or wall of wood, concrete or masonry, or with natural or planted vegetation providing complete year-round visual screening. Interwoven slat or fabric/plastic chain-link screening and sheet metal or sheet tin fencing are explicitly not allowed as screening. Under § 38-63, after the ordinance's effective date the enforcement officer surveys the county and inventories noncompliant vehicles, and the landowner gets written notice with 90 days to remove or screen the vehicle.