Elkhart County, IN Parking Rules: Abandoned Vehicles (2026)

Chapter 73 of the Elkhart County Code of Ordinances, adopted by Ordinance CC-2025-06 on February 20, 2025, does not write a separate local definition of an abandoned vehicle; § 73.01 instead adopts the state definitions, pointing to I.C. 9-13-2-1 for ABANDONED VEHICLE and I.C. 9-22-1-3.5 for STORAGE YARD. Under § 73.02, officers under the control of the Elkhart County Sheriff enforce the statutory abandoned-vehicle procedures codified at I.C. 9-22-1, including the disposal process, exactly as the Sheriff directs.

Section 73.03 sets the county's dollar figures. Towing an abandoned vehicle or an abandoned vehicle part run by a county agent costs $155, and storage is billed at the maximum rate Indiana law allows under I.C. 9-22-1-4(b) and (c). A person who buys an abandoned vehicle at disposal pays a bill-of-sale fee capped at the maximum permitted by I.C. 9-22-1-24. Before an owner, lienholder, insurer or their agent may inspect or remove an object from an abandoned vehicle sitting in a county storage yard, that person must pay a $155 inspection fee, though a crime victim who owns the vehicle is exempt from that fee. The inspection fee is refunded once the towing, storage and other charges are paid in full, so the fee functions as a deposit rather than a separate cost.

Because Chapter 73 folds enforcement into the state statute rather than creating a local hearing process, disputes over an abandoned-vehicle tow in unincorporated Elkhart County run through the procedures I.C. 9-22-1 itself provides, not a county board.