DeKalb County, GA Parking Rules: Abandoned Vehicles (2026)

Code § 18-8(b) contains distinct prohibitions aimed at different places. On private premises, no owner or occupant may park an inoperable vehicle, or permit any other person to park one, for more than 72 hours unless the vehicle is inside an enclosed structure. The wording does real work. Because it reaches occupants as well as owners, a tenant is bound the same as a landlord. Because it covers permitting any other person to park, a resident is responsible for a visitor's dead car left on the lot, not just their own.

And because the exemption requires an enclosed structure, keeping the vehicle outdoors, covered or not, does not stop the 72-hour clock. The section carves out premises where the zoning code permits the storage of junk vehicles, as defined by section 27-31, outside an enclosed building; on those lots the 72-hour rule does not apply. The other prohibition has no clock at all: no person shall park any inoperable vehicle upon any public street, alley, or other public property, so there is no grace period once the vehicle sits on public ground.

Enforcement runs as a Chapter 18 nuisance matter, and a court can additionally order the owner to restore ground cover left bare underneath the vehicle. The rule applies in unincorporated DeKalb County.