5 Alabama Rules That Decide What Happens to a Car Left in Your Yard

In Cullman, a pile of abandoned or broken-down cars in your yard can count as a nuisance, with fines up to $500.

The exact rules depend on where you live because city codes and state law both come into play.

Here are the Alabama rules that decide what happens to a car left in your yard.

Note: This is general information, not legal advice. Vehicle and nuisance rules vary by city and county and are subject to change.

1. 48-Hour Clock

A car left on your land without your consent for more than 48 hours counts as an unclaimed vehicle under Alabama law.

As the landowner, you can have the car removed to a secure place.

Whoever hauls it away at your direction has a lien on the car for a reasonable removal and storage fee.

2. Mobile’s State Inoperable Vehicle Law

A state law written for Mobile lets the city set up a procedure to treat an inoperable car left on private property as a public nuisance.

Under the law, a vehicle is inoperable when major parts such as the engine, transmission, drive train or wheels are missing or don’t work.

It also has to sit on private property, in view of the general public, for 30 days or any longer period the city sets.

The law requires the city’s procedure to give notice to the last registered owner, any lender with a lien on the car and the owner of the property.

The notice has to say you can ask for a hearing, and that the car will be removed if nobody does.

The law lets removal costs be assessed against the registered owner, or against the owner of the property.

If someone left the car on your land without your consent, raise that at the hearing.

When the hearing finds you didn’t consent and haven’t accepted the car staying, the state law bars the city from charging you.

Alabama has a second state law on inoperable cars, in chapter 11-67B, for Class 5 cities with a mayor, commission and city manager government.

Your city hall can tell you whether your city falls under it.

It uses the same 30-day trigger as the Mobile law.

It also requires the city’s procedure to let the owner of the land remove the vehicle at their expense before the city does.

3. Northport’s 10-Day Notice

Northport’s Ordinance 2247, adopted November 18, 2024, covers an inoperable car left on private property in view of the public for 30 days or more.

Missing or nonworking major mechanical parts make a vehicle inoperable under the ordinance.

The ordinance also lists a vehicle with no valid license tag among the signs that nobody is using it.

The city sends the notice by certified mail to the property owner of record.

The notice gives the vehicle’s owner 10 days from receipt to remove it.

The ordinance treats that notice as received within five days of mailing, whether or not it ever reaches you.

Mail counts either way.

If the car is still there after that, the city can remove it and hold a lien on the impounded vehicle for the cost.

Those costs can be assessed against the registered owner or against you as the property owner.

A violation of the ordinance is a misdemeanor on top of those costs.

4. Cullman’s $500 Maximum Fine

Cullman’s rules treat an accumulation of abandoned or inoperable vehicles as a nuisance.

The Cullman Tribune reported that a 2020 ordinance names any motor vehicle that’s wrecked, dismantled, partially dismantled, discarded or otherwise inoperable.

The ordinance gives you 14 to 30 days to clear any type of nuisance before the city acts.

The ordinance sets a fine from $50 up to $500 for a violation, whatever the type of nuisance.

That isn’t the only cost.

If the city clears the nuisance itself, the cost becomes a lien against your property.

5. $200 Reinstatement Fee

The state's insurance rules suspend the registration of a car with no insurance on the verification date, the date on the state's verification notice.

That applies even when the car never leaves your yard.

The reinstatement fee is $200 for a first suspension and $400 for each later suspension.

Sitting still isn't an excuse.

You can avoid the fee if the car was stored, inoperable or otherwise unused, but you have to show your local licensing official proof of that.

You can claim that exemption only once per registration period.