Bernalillo County, NM Parking Rules: Abandoned Vehicles (2026)

Bernalillo County Code § 42-142, adopted in 1969 under Ordinance No. 41, article 20C, sits in the Environmental Health Code and works alongside § 42-141's blanket requirement that every regulated establishment or property comply with all applicable county, state and federal rules. Subsection (a) makes it unlawful to store, keep or maintain a dilapidated or abandoned motor vehicle, or an abandoned motor vehicle body, on any property that is not designated for that purpose under the county's zoning ordinance, meaning a resident cannot keep a wrecked car in a yard zoned for houses even though the vehicle sits on the owner's own land.

Subsection (b) lays out a two-step removal process: the county manager or a representative first serves written notice giving the owner 60 days to remove the vehicle or vehicle body, and if it is still there 30 days after that deadline, the county manager can have it removed with the cost charged back to the property owner. The rule applies county-wide in the unincorporated area, including the South Valley, North Valley and East Mountains, and reaches vehicle bodies as well as complete vehicles, so a stripped hulk left on a lot is covered the same as a wrecked but intact car.

Because § 42-142 sits outside the fire code and outside the towing statute that governs vehicles abandoned on public streets, it is the vehicle-on-private-property nuisance rule that code enforcement, not the sheriff's towing unit, administers.