If you own rental property long enough, you will face the day that a tenant has a non-working car on your property. Or you might drive by your property one day and find someone decided to abandon their car on your property. If this happens to you, here is what you should do with an abandoned car or a non working car that is on your property.

Both abandoned cars and non-working cars are not very attractive to view on your property. Potential tenants will not want to rent your property because of these non working cars. These cars can impact your ability to get your vacant units rented. Landlords should immediately have this cars removed from the property.

The best way to get these abandoned and non working vehicles removed from your property is to use a towing company. These companies will tow the vehicle to their impound lot and keep it in a secured area. The owner of the vehicle can retrieve their car by paying a find directly to the towing company.

Towing companies will not immediately tow a car when you call them. Most towing companies will require you place a sign on the property that says illegally parked cars will be towed and has the phone number of the towing company. These companies may require you to place sticker on the driver’s side window and the front windshield to alert the owner of the vehicle that they are in violation and the car will be towed.

The towing company will provide you with the stickers and the signs that you can place on the property. In my state the towing companies require the signs to be up for at least 24 hours before they tow the vehicle. After this period of time has elapsed you can call the towing company back and request that they tow the car.

The towing company will show up and tow away the vehicle for you. They will require the property owner or the property manager to be present at the time that they tow the vehicle. They will require you to sign a waiver giving them permission to tow the car.

Once the car has been towed the owner of the vehicle may attempt to contact the property owner to determine what happened to their vehicle. You should refer them directly to the towing company. Once the vehicle has been towed the property owner no longer is responsible for the vehicle.

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Filed under: Landlord Tip • Landlording • Property Management • Real Estate Investing

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