Melbourne, FL Parking Rules: Abandoned Vehicles (2026)

Chapter 36's Junked, Abandoned and Wrecked Property article makes it unlawful under Section 36-19 for any owner, occupant, lessee, agent or tenant to store or deposit an abandoned, junked or discarded motor vehicle, trailer, or other towable vehicle on private property in the city without proper licensing. Section 36-20 gives code officers an evidentiary shortcut: the absence of a current-year license plate and/or a current motor vehicle registration is prima facie evidence creating a rebuttable presumption that the vehicle is abandoned, junked or discarded, so a lapsed tag alone can support enforcement.

Section 36-21 is the removal mechanism at issue here: once such a vehicle is found on private premises not licensed for that use, the city must give the owner or occupant of the premises, or the vehicle's owner if identifiable through license plates, ten days' written notice to remove it. If the vehicle is still there after those ten days, the police department or code compliance division removes it themselves, or has it removed and disposed of at public sale if state law requires a sale, at the cost of the property owner/occupant or the vehicle owner if that person can be identified.

A related but separate rule in Section 36-22 targets vehicles being worked on or simply sitting broken: outside a duly licensed automotive repair business, no one may repair, rebuild, dismantle or disassemble a vehicle they don't own, and no visibly inoperable vehicle may be kept outside a covered structure for more than ten days. Costs the city recovers from an owner or lienholder for removal, storage or destruction of the vehicle are deposited into the city's general fund per Section 36-16.