Southborough, MA Parking Rules: Abandoned Vehicles (2026)

Chapter 163 (Vehicles, Abandoned) was adopted by Town Meeting as Art. XIB of the 1983 Code. Section 163-1 defines a vehicle as a machine propelled by power other than human power, designed to travel along the ground by wheels, treads, runners or slides, and lists automobile, truck, trailer, motorcycle, tractor, buggy and wagon. "Property" means any real property within the Town which is not a street or highway, and a street or highway is the entire width between the boundary lines of every way publicly maintained when any part is open to public vehicular travel.

Section 163-2 prohibits abandoning any vehicle within the Town and also prohibits leaving a vehicle at any place for such time and under such circumstances as to cause it reasonably to appear to have been abandoned. Section 163-3 adds that no person shall leave any partially dismantled, nonoperating, wrecked or junked vehicle on any street or highway. Both sections defer to vehicles for which other provisions are made under the laws of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.

For private land, § 163-5 sets a 10-day limit. A person in charge or control of any property, as owner, tenant, occupant, lessee or otherwise, cannot allow a partially dismantled, inoperative, wrecked, junked or discarded vehicle to remain longer than 10 days. The exceptions are a vehicle in an enclosed building, a vehicle on the premises of a business enterprise operated in a lawful place and manner when necessary to that business, and a vehicle in an appropriate storage place or depository maintained by the Town. The section does not apply to Class 3 licenses under MGL c. 140, § 58.

Section 163-4 separately restricts unregistered motor vehicles kept ungaraged on private premises, and § 163-7 provides that an invalid section does not affect the rest of the chapter.