Someone left a car on your property: how to get it removed in Illinois

A car that isn’t yours, sitting where you can’t use the space, is a different problem from a junk car you own. Every route in our guide to getting rid of a junk car starts with the owner’s papers, and you don’t have them. What you do have is a set of Illinois rules that decide who can move the car and who pays for it.

This is general information, not legal advice. Confirm the steps with your local police department, which is also where the process starts.

The first call: your police non-emergency line

Call before you do anything else. The car may be stolen, or the owner may be someone the police can reach. It’s also the police who can authorize the car’s removal under the state rule below. Have the plate number, the make and color, where the car is sitting, and roughly when it showed up.

Abandoned on your land: what Illinois law says

Three sections of the Illinois Vehicle Code carry most of the weight.

Rule	What it says, in short
625 ILCS 5/4-201(b)	Abandoning a vehicle on private or public property in public view is unlawful, except on property of the vehicle’s own owner or bailee. Police may authorize its removal from private property after “a waiting period of 7 days or more”, or at once if it’s a hazardous dilapidated vehicle.
625 ILCS 5/4-203(f)	The owner of private property, or someone the owner authorizes, may have a vehicle left there without permission removed by a towing service, without liability for the costs of removal, transport or storage, or for damage from them.
625 ILCS 5/18a-700	In counties of 1,000,000 or more people, which means Cook County, towing from private property falls under the separate Commercial Relocation of Trespassing Vehicles Law. Smaller counties can opt in, and a town can opt out by resolution.

The 4-203(f) route comes with conditions on the tow company, not you. It has to tow only on the property owner’s express written instructions, notify police within 30 minutes of the removal, store the car at its own place of business, and it can’t pay the property owner anything for the job. In Cook County the relocation law adds its own rules, including signs on lots, though it doesn’t require a sign on residential property kept for residents (625 ILCS 5/18a-302). Ask any tow company which rules it works under before it hooks the car.

Why you can’t keep it, sell it or junk it

The 4-201 exception is for the car’s owner or bailee, and leaving a car somewhere doesn’t make it yours. When a towed car goes unclaimed, the disposal rules in 625 ILCS 5/4-208 give notice to the owner first and then send the car to licensed recyclers, rebuilders or scrap processors, or, outside the largest cities, to the tow operator. The person whose land it sat on isn’t on that list. If someone offers to get you a title to a car you found on your property, check with the Secretary of State before you act on it.

For the same reason, a buyer can’t take it from you. We’d be buying a car from someone who doesn’t own it, with none of its papers.

Your village may run a shorter clock

State law sets the floor. Several of the suburbs we cover add their own rules, and some can cost the property owner money:

• Oak Forest: Section 132.11(H) lets police remove an abandoned vehicle seven days after a warning and charges the removal to the owner of the property, so a car someone else left could end up on your bill. Details are on our Oak Forest page.
• Lemont: a car that hasn’t been able to move under its own power for seven days is a nuisance in public view, on private property too, and police may remove it after seven days’ notice. See our Lemont page.
• Justice: the village code treats a car in disrepair that can’t be driven, or one left unmoved for a week that looks deserted, as abandoned, and the police chief can order it off private property after at least seven days. Our Justice page has the section numbers.

Other towns have their own versions. The police will know which one applies when you call.

When the car turns out to be family

Sometimes the car on the property does have a connection to you. If it belonged to a relative who has died, it can be transferred and sold once the right person has the authority to sign; our guide to selling a late owner’s car in Illinois sets out who that is. If it’s your own car or your family’s and the papers are in order, ask us for an offer: the tow is free and you’re paid at pickup.

And if you’re the one leaving, don’t leave a dead car behind for the next owner of your house. Our guide for anyone moving away with an old car covers that side.