How Long Before an Abandoned Car Becomes Yours in Indiana?

In Indiana, the shortest realistic path to owning a car abandoned on your property runs about 20 to 30 days from the moment law enforcement tags it, and only if you follow every step through the Bureau of Motor Vehicles. How long before an abandoned car becomes yours in Indiana depends on three things: where the car was left, what it is worth, and whether the registered owner can be found and notified. Skip a step and you don’t get title; you get exposure to fines or theft charges.

Start With a Call to Local Law Enforcement

Before you do anything else, call the police. An officer has to attach a prominent notice tag to the vehicle, and that tag is what starts the clock. The owner then has 24 hours to move it if the car is on an interstate or state highway right-of-way, or 72 hours anywhere else, including your private property.¹ The tag also puts the owner on notice that they will owe all removal, storage, and disposal costs.

If the vehicle still sits there after that window, the officer writes a formal abandoned vehicle report documenting its condition.² You can then have it towed off your land. In an emergency, when the vehicle interferes with normal business operations or creates a safety hazard, you can tow immediately without waiting out the 24 hours.³

Do not move, strip, or scrap the car yourself at this stage. It still belongs to someone else.

The Notification Clock After Tow

Once the vehicle reaches a storage yard or towing service, that agency has three business days to search the National Motor Vehicle Title Information System (or an equivalent database) for the last known owner and any lienholder.⁴ If a name and address turn up, the towing service or public agency has another three business days to send notice by certified mail, certificate of mailing, or a BMV-approved electronic service.

The notice must list the agency or towing service’s name, address, and phone number, warn that storage charges are accruing and the vehicle is subject to sale, and state the earliest possible date and location of a public sale or auction.⁴ Notification failures are the single most common reason these claims fall apart. If the towing service or agency skips the notice, it loses the right to collect any further storage costs beyond the date it had the owner’s address.

When the Car Can Actually Become Yours

The waiting period after notice depends on the track your vehicle falls into.

For a vehicle going through the standard mechanic’s lien process, the owner and lienholder have 20 days from the notice to come forward. If they don’t, the lienholder can sell the vehicle at a public sale or auction, which has to be advertised at least one week in advance. The local government unit holding the vehicle can also sell it as unclaimed property on the same timeline. In consolidated cities such as Indianapolis, the window drops to 15 days.⁵

Low-value cars move faster. If the market value is under $1,000, the towing service takes the vehicle straight to a storage yard, and it can be disposed of 30 days after the tow date. A municipality can set a lower value threshold, up to $750, by local ordinance.⁶

So the realistic minimum is roughly three weeks for a vehicle with a traceable owner, and about a month for a junk vehicle on the disposal track. Untraceable owners, bad addresses, and sale advertising requirements can push it longer.

Getting Title Through the BMV

Taking possession is not the same as owning. Title comes from the BMV, through one of two paths.

Certificate of Authority (Disposal)

If the plan is to dispose of the vehicle, you apply for a Certificate of Authority using State Form 55018 and attach proof that you met the notification requirements under IC 9-22. That means showing you sent a certified letter, or a certificate of mailing for vehicles worth under $1,000, to the owner and any lienholder.⁷ The fee is $4.⁸ If the vehicle has no VIN, a police officer has to complete a physical inspection on State Form 39530.

Mail everything to BMV Central Office Title Processing, 100 North Senate Avenue, Room N411, Indianapolis, IN 46204. If anything is missing, the entire packet is rejected, so verify the checklist before sending.⁷

Mechanic’s Lien Title

If you stored or repaired the vehicle and want title rather than disposal, Indiana uses a mechanic’s lien title application. The BMV splits the process at the $3,500 line based on NADA average or clean retail value: vehicles above that threshold use the Over $3,500 Mechanic’s Lien packet with more documentation, while vehicles below use a simplified packet.⁹

Costs You Will Owe First

Storage and towing charges travel with the vehicle. The registered owner is legally liable for them, but if the owner never surfaces and you want title, those accrued charges still have to be settled. Indiana caps storage at $2,000 for most vehicles and $2,500 for vehicles 30 feet or longer.¹⁰

Check Military Status Before Any Sale

Before selling a vehicle to satisfy a storage lien, confirm whether the registered owner is on active military duty. Under the federal Servicemembers Civil Relief Act, no one can enforce a storage lien against a servicemember’s property during active service, or for 90 days afterward, without a court order. The protected category of liens expressly includes storage, repair, and cleaning.¹¹

Knowingly violating that protection is a federal misdemeanor carrying a fine, up to a year in prison, or both.¹¹ You can run the check through the Defense Manpower Data Center’s SCRA site, which supports single or batch record requests.¹²

What Happens If You Skip the Process

Certain violations of Indiana’s abandoned vehicle chapter can be charged as a Class A misdemeanor, which carries up to one year in jail and a fine of up to $5,000. Beyond that, disposing of or claiming ownership of a vehicle without the tagging, notification, and BMV steps can trigger theft or conversion charges under Indiana’s general criminal statutes, with penalties scaled to the vehicle’s value.

A car sitting on your property for months does not become yours by default. The $4 application fee and three to four weeks of patience cost far less than a criminal defense.

1
Indiana General Assembly. Indiana Code 9-22-1-11 – Notice Tag for Abandoned Vehicles
2
Indiana General Assembly. Indiana Code 9-22-1-12 – Officers Abandoned Vehicle Report, Photographs
3
Indiana General Assembly. Indiana Code Title 9 Article 22 Chapter 1 Section 9-22-1-16 – Towing Vehicle From Private Property
4
Indiana General Assembly. Indiana Code Title 9 Article 22 Chapter 1 Section 9-22-1-19 – National Data Base Search, Notification
5
Indiana General Assembly. Indiana Code Title 9 Article 22 Chapter 1 Section 9-22-1-23 – Public Sale by Unit or Holder of Mechanics Lien, Notice
6
Indiana General Assembly. Indiana Code 9-22-1-13 – Disposal of Vehicle or Parts, Retention of Records
7
Indiana Bureau of Motor Vehicles. Certificate of Authority Application Checklist
8
Indiana Bureau of Motor Vehicles. BMV Fee Chart
9
Indiana Bureau of Motor Vehicles. Special Titling Circumstances
10
Indiana General Assembly. Indiana Code Title 9 Article 22 Chapter 1 Section 9-22-1-4 – Responsibility and Liability of Owner of Abandoned Vehicle or Parts, Limitation of Costs for Storage
11
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 50 USC 3958 – Enforcement of Storage Liens
12
Defense Manpower Data Center. SCRA Website