Yonkers, NY Parking Rules: Abandoned Vehicles (2026)

Under City Code § 109-141, it is unlawful to park, leave, or permit to be parked or left any motor vehicle that a Police Department officer, in a credible and objective belief based on facts, determines is so disabled it cannot operate, or that the officer believes has been willfully abandoned, on any public street or highway of Yonkers or on property the City controls, where parking is not otherwise prohibited, for more than one week. Section 109-142 gives the Police Commissioner or a lawful agent the power to remove or cause removal of any such vehicle once it has sat for more than a week.

Separately, § 109-143 lets the Commissioner order abandoned or parked vehicles towed during snowstorms, floods, fires, or other public emergencies to precinct-designated lots. When a vehicle is removed, § 109-144 requires the Police Commissioner to trace the registered owner through the Bureau of Motor Vehicles and mail written notice by first-class mail with proof of mailing; a damaged vehicle left without plates or other ownership identification is deemed abandoned or junk, and after 10 days' published notice in an official City newspaper the Commissioner, with the Mayor's approval, may dispose of it.

Anyone claiming the vehicle after that must pay all City removal, storage, and publication costs. Under § 109-147, title to any removed vehicle unredeemed within one month of storage vests in the City after that published notice, becoming absolute 20 days after publication unless the owner applies to a court to stay the vesting. Redemption before that point, per § 109-146, requires proof of identity and ownership plus payment of all towing, storage, fines, penalties, and judgments tied to the vehicle.