Parsippany-Troy Hills, NJ Parking Rules: Abandoned Vehicles (2026)

Chapter 401 of the Parsippany-Troy Hills Township Code, Vehicles, Abandoned, applies to every street and every piece of real property in the Township, in Morris County. Section 401-1 defines the terms. A vehicle is a machine propelled by other than human power, designed to travel along the ground by wheels, treads, runners or slides and to transport persons or property or pull machinery, including an automobile, truck, trailer, motorcycle, tractor, buggy and wagon. Property is any real property within the Township that is not a street or highway. An inoperable motor vehicle is one that cannot be moved under its own power because of mechanical defects or inadequate equipment, including the lack of one or more tires, and that stays in that condition for 14 days or more.

Three separate prohibitions follow. Section 401-2 bars abandoning a vehicle, and also bars leaving a vehicle anywhere in the Township for such time and under such circumstances that it reasonably appears to be abandoned. Section 401-3 bars leaving any partially dismantled, inoperable, wrecked or junked vehicle on a street or highway. Section 401-4 covers private property: the person in charge or control, whether as owner, tenant, occupant, lessee or otherwise, cannot allow partially dismantled, inoperable, wrecked, junked or discarded vehicles to remain longer than 48 hours, and no person can leave such vehicles there for longer than 48 hours.

Section 401-4 B carves out three situations: a vehicle in an enclosed building, a vehicle on the premises of a lawful business when necessary to the operation of the business, and a vehicle in an appropriate storage place or depository the Township maintains in a lawful place and manner.

Enforcement runs through the Police Department. Under § 401-5 the Chief of Police, or a member of the Police Department the Chief designates, can remove or have removed any vehicle left anywhere in the Township that is deemed to violate the chapter. The vehicle is impounded until it is lawfully claimed or disposed of under applicable statutes and the procedures in Chapter 409, Vehicles, Impounded. The chapter's cross-references also point to Chapter 220 on junkyards, Chapter 385 on towing and Chapter 405 on vehicles and traffic.