Highlands County, FL Parking Rules: Abandoned Vehicles (2026)

Section 5-19 flatly bans leaving any partially dismantled, nonoperating, wrecked, junked or unlicensed vehicle on a street or highway in the county. Section 5-20 covers private and public property generally: no one in control of property may let such a vehicle or vessel, described there as 'partially dismantled, nonoperating, wrecked, junked, discarded or unlicensed,' remain longer than 72 hours, and no one may leave one there for longer than 72 hours either. Section 5-21 declares any vehicle or vessel kept in violation a nuisance and puts a duty on both the vehicle's owner and the property owner to remove it or move it into an enclosed building or an exempt storage facility.

Under section 5-22, the enforcement officer, the county's development director or an assistant, must give the registered owner (or, if unknown, the property's owner or occupant) written notice demanding removal within 72 hours, delivered personally or by certified mail. Section 5-27 exempts vehicles inside an enclosed building, on a legally licensed and zoned junkyard, wrecking yard or storage yard, on a business's premises when necessary to its lawful operation, or in a county-maintained storage depository.