Junk Vehicles

The presence of an excessive number of junk vehicles can threaten the character and safety of neighborhoods. They may cause deterioration of neighborhoods partly due to visual blight which affects property values. Junked vehicles can create attractive nuisances for children, and provide harborages for rodents, insects and other pests. Most municipalities have approached this problem through the adoption of junk vehicle nuisance ordinances which prohibit the storage of junk vehicles in open areas of private property.

Statutes and Regulations

• Chapter 46.55 RCW Towing and Impoundment
• Chapter 308-61 WAC Unauthorized and Abandoned Vehicles
• Discussion of Authority to Abate and Remove Vehicles

Ordinance Provisions

• Algona Municipal Code Ch. 10.48 - Junk Vehicles
• Bothell Municipal Code, Ch. 8.22 - Unauthorized Vehicles and Junk Vehicles
  Brewster Municipal Code, Ch. 10.16 - Junk Vehicles
• Clark County Code,  Section 9.24.010 (2)(d) - Nuisances Enumerated
• Cowlitz County "Hulk Permit" Junk Vehicle Verification, Notification and Affidavit
• Everett Municipal Code, Ch. 8.22 - Junk and Inoperable Motor  Vehicle Abatement
• Friday Harbor Ordinance No. 1168 - Prohibiting Junk Vehicles on Private Property (6-01)
• King County Code, Ch. 23.10 - Abandoned, Wrecked, Dismantled or Inoperative Vehicles
• Mountlake Terrace Ordinance Municipal Code Section 8.15.050 - Vehicles
• Mukilteo Municipal Code Ch. 9.47 - Regulating Junk and Junk Vehicles
• Pierce County Code, Ch. 8.10 ( 410 KB) - Public Nuisance Vehicles –Prohibited Activities–Penalties–Removal   (Ordinance No. 2003-32S2), passed 6/03)
• San Juan County Code, Ch. 10.20
• Spokane Code Enforcement Junk Vehicles - Abandoned Vehicles
• Sumner Municipal Code Section 18.16.030 (26) - Public Nuisances Declared  - Re unscreened areas
• Tacoma Municipal Code, Chapter 8.23 ( 750 KB)  - Junk Vehicles
• Thurston County Junk Vehicle Web Site
• Union Gap Municipal Code, Ch. 9.28 - Abandoned and Junk Vehicles
• Wilbur Ordinance No. 293 ( 306 KB) - Prohibiting the Storage of Junk Vehicles on Public or Private Property (1995)

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