Abandoned Car on Street

[Anonymous]

How do you get rid of a car that’s been parked on our neighborhood un-zoned street for more than three weeks in DC? It’s probably not totally abandoned because it’s a nice clean car in good condition. It even has sun reflectors inside the windshield. We’ve called 311 three times already but no action yet.

[Anonymous]

If it's properly registered and in working order, it won't be considered abandoned. And the parking is unzoned, the driver is allowed to leave their car there.

If its registration is expired or there are other indicia it's undriveable you can report it as abandoned . . . but from experience it can take a while.

Keep in mind that some people may leave their car on unzoned streets while they're away for a while because it's legal

[Anonymous]

OP here - probably doesn't matter, but the license plates are from a distant state.

[Anonymous]

Keep putting in requests on 311. Over and over.

[Anonymous]

Non emergency police?

Probably a stolen car. When you speak to someone, tell them that the plate is from out of state and give them the number.

I don't live in DC, but I've done this in Alexandria for odd cars parked on our street for more than 2 weeks.

[Anonymous]

Don’t call - use the website. They have to send you back a response. Do it daily.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If it's properly registered and in working order, it won't be considered abandoned. And the parking is unzoned, the driver is allowed to leave their car there.

If its registration is expired or there are other indicia it's undriveable you can report it as abandoned . . . but from experience it can take a while.

Keep in mind that some people may leave their car on unzoned streets while they're away for a while because it's legal

Is this actually legal in DC? To leave your car parked in an unzoned area for weeks? In Alexandria, it's 72 hours, to keep people from using the street as car storage. You can get a vacation exemption for 2 weeks, up to 4-5x a year. But you must notify the city.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If it's properly registered and in working order, it won't be considered abandoned. And the parking is unzoned, the driver is allowed to leave their car there.

If its registration is expired or there are other indicia it's undriveable you can report it as abandoned . . . but from experience it can take a while.

Keep in mind that some people may leave their car on unzoned streets while they're away for a while because it's legal

Is this actually legal in DC? To leave your car parked in an unzoned area for weeks? In Alexandria, it's 72 hours, to keep people from using the street as car storage. You can get a vacation exemption for 2 weeks, up to 4-5x a year. But you must notify the city.

Bully for Alexandria.

You live on an unzoned street. You sound like some precious suburbanite. "Someone is parking in front of my house. Waahhhh."

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP here - probably doesn't matter, but the license plates are from a distant state.

Which state ?

[Anonymous]

Are you near a university? It's probably a student who drove here then realized 1) parking is way more expensive than they imagined so they found a free spot, and 2) you don't need a car as a student in DC, so it sits there unused.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:How do you get rid of a car that’s been parked on our neighborhood un-zoned street for more than three weeks in DC? It’s probably not totally abandoned because it’s a nice clean car in good condition. It even has sun reflectors inside the windshield. We’ve called 311 three times already but no action yet.

Are you reporting it as an abandoned car or as a ROSA violation?

[Anonymous]

OP here. Thanks for all the helpful responses. The license plate is Colorado. We will keep filing on the website too, as suggested. I don't think its a student, we're not near a university. The car is probably not entirely abandoned because its very clean, in good condition, and whoever parked it took the time to put up the sun reflector shields. It must be someone who's just parked it for a long while on our street because there's some extra room. And maybe we are being a bit precious because there is other parking room on the street, but after so long it is kind of annoying. If we knew who it belonged to and when it would be moved, we'd have no objections.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Don’t call - use the website. They have to send you back a response. Do it daily.

Is this really what it takes to get MPD to simply do their job??

OMG - they are even worse than I had heard.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Don’t call - use the website. They have to send you back a response. Do it daily.

Is this really what it takes to get MPD to simply do their job??

OMG - they are even worse than I had heard.

What is their job here?

Just because OP is butt hurt doesn't mean it's illegal to park a car somewhere.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If it's properly registered and in working order, it won't be considered abandoned. And the parking is unzoned, the driver is allowed to leave their car there.

If its registration is expired or there are other indicia it's undriveable you can report it as abandoned . . . but from experience it can take a while.

Keep in mind that some people may leave their car on unzoned streets while they're away for a while because it's legal

Is this actually legal in DC? To leave your car parked in an unzoned area for weeks? In Alexandria, it's 72 hours, to keep people from using the street as car storage. You can get a vacation exemption for 2 weeks, up to 4-5x a year. But you must notify the city.

Bully for Alexandria.

You live on an unzoned street. You sound like some precious suburbanite. "Someone is parking in front of my house. Waahhhh."

I live in Alexandria. A few years ago there was a car parked in front of our house for 5 months straight (from November to April). Never moved when they had to plow the streets, had leaves collected underneath it, was getting super dirty. Had DC plates. Finally I called the nonemergency number to report it because we thought it must be stolen. Parking enforcement came, put the orange sticker on the window that states it will be towed if not moved in 72 hours and surprise surprise it was moved the next day. A neighbor said a friend of another neighbor was parking it there who lived in DC and didn't want to pay for parking. But it literally didn't move for 5 months. Never saw it again. Was nuts.