Catawba County, NC Parking Rules: Abandoned Vehicles (2026)

Article VIII of chapter 44, the Abandoned and Junked Vehicle Chapter, defines an abandoned vehicle in Section 44-803 as any motor vehicle left on a public street or highway in violation of parking law or for more than seven days, on county-owned property for more than 24 hours, or on private property without the owner's consent for more than two hours. Section 44-804 makes it unlawful for the registered owner or the person entitled to possession, or for the owner, lessee or occupant of the property where the vehicle sits, to leave or allow the vehicle to remain on public property once it has been declared abandoned; if that happens, the board of commissioners may direct the sheriff or a designee to remove the vehicle to a designated storage area.

Related but distinct categories exist for private property: a nuisance vehicle, defined broadly to include one that harbors pests, collects standing water, or presents a fire or safety hazard, can be ordered removed by the planning director under Section 44-805 after notice by mail or by affixing notice to the vehicle; and a junked motor vehicle, one that lacks a current NC plate and is dismantled, wrecked, inoperable, or more than five years old and worth less than $100, must be fully enclosed in a garage or building under Section 44-807, with a carport specifically excluded as an acceptable enclosure.

The planning director enforces the article under Section 44-808, investigating complaints, issuing written notice of the violation and the correction deadline, and in urgent health-or-safety cases skipping notice altogether. S. 153A-123. This article applies in the unincorporated county and in a city's extraterritorial jurisdiction, and a municipality inside the county can adopt it by resolution under Section 44-801.