How Long Before an Abandoned Car Is Yours in Virginia?

In Virginia, an abandoned car doesn’t become yours just because it has been sitting on your property for a certain number of days. How long before an abandoned car is yours in Virginia depends on running the DMV’s Abandoned Vehicle Program: after the DMV mails the registered owner a certified notice, the owner has 15 days to reclaim the vehicle, followed by an additional 21-day waiting period before you can title, auction, or scrap it. That puts the practical minimum at roughly 36 days from the notice date, and longer if the owner can’t be located or the vehicle is a manufactured home.

When the Clock Starts: What Counts as Abandoned

Before any DMV process begins, the vehicle has to qualify as abandoned under Virginia law. The statute covers motor vehicles, trailers, and semitrailers weighing at least 75 pounds, and one of three conditions must apply.¹

Left unattended on public property for more than 48 hours in violation of a state law or local ordinance.
Left on private property for more than 48 hours without the property owner’s consent, regardless of whether the vehicle was originally brought there with permission.
Left unattended on the shoulder of a primary highway, which qualifies immediately with no 48-hour wait specified in the statute.

The private-property rule is the one that catches most people off guard. If you let someone park a car in your driveway and they never return for it, the vehicle can still qualify as abandoned once 48 hours pass and you want it gone.¹ The initial permission doesn’t lock you in.

Starting the DMV Abandoned Vehicle Program

Once the vehicle qualifies, you cannot legally tow it to a scrapyard, sell it, or keep it for yourself without going through the DMV. The Abandoned Vehicle Program (AVP) is the only legitimate path to ownership.

Document the vehicle first: location, condition, year, make, model, and VIN. Then submit an application to the DMV and pay the $40 AVP fee.² The DMV searches its own records, a nationally recognized crime database, and a national vehicle title database to identify the registered owner and any lienholder.

What happens next depends on what that search turns up.

The Waiting Periods in Detail

If the DMV identifies an owner or lienholder, it sends a certified letter to the last known address. That letter starts the formal waiting period, and it counts as valid notice whether or not the owner actually signs for it.²

The standard reclaim window is 15 days. For manufactured homes and mobile homes, it stretches to 120 days. After the reclaim window closes, the DMV’s guidance describes an additional 21-day waiting period before the vehicle can be auctioned, retitled, or demolished.³ Only after both periods run does the owner and any secured party legally waive their rights in the vehicle.²

So the shortest realistic timeline for a standard passenger vehicle is:

At least 48 hours on the property before it qualifies as abandoned.
Time for you to file the AVP application and for the DMV to run its search and mail the certified letter.
15 days for the owner to reclaim.
21 more days before you can complete titling, sale, or destruction.

If the DMV search turns up no owner information at all, you can move to disposal under the statute without waiting for a reclaim. There’s an important exception. If the vehicle was last titled in another state and that state refuses to release information to Virginia’s DMV, you take on all liability for disposing of the vehicle without written notice to the owner or lienholder.² That exposure is real, and it’s a scenario where slowing down and getting legal advice is worth the delay.

Titling, Selling, or Scrapping the Vehicle

Once both waiting periods have ended, the owner and any lienholder have legally waived their rights, and you have three options: title the vehicle in your own name, sell it, or send it to a demolisher.²

The document that carries the whole process is the Vehicle Removal Certificate, DMV form VSA 40.³ To title the vehicle in your own name, submit the completed VSA 40 along with the DMV search receipt to the Department of Motor Vehicles and apply for a certificate of title and registration.

Selling routes work differently. When a locality handles a public auction (including online auctions), the buyer receives a sales receipt plus the completed VSA 40 and the DMV search receipt, and applies for title from there. If the vehicle is going straight to a demolisher, the sales receipt alone authorizes the transfer with no further titling, and the demolisher then confirms to the DMV that the vehicle has been destroyed.⁴

What Towing and Storage Can Cost You in the Meantime

If a vehicle sits on your property for over a month while the AVP runs, and you’ve had it towed to storage, the fees add up. Virginia caps some of them.

The initial hookup and towing fee for a passenger car cannot exceed $210. Tows between 7 p.m. and 8 a.m., or on a weekend or holiday, can add a surcharge of up to $30, and no more than two such surcharges apply to any single tow.⁵

Storage charges cannot start until the vehicle has been in custody for more than 24 hours. During that first day, only the towing fee itself can be charged. After that, daily storage fees apply, and local governments can set their own limits on what towing companies charge. Localities can also prohibit storage charges for any period when the yard was closed and the owner could not retrieve the car.⁵

These costs matter because if the vehicle eventually goes to auction through a locality, towing, storage, and DMV search costs are all reimbursed from the sale proceeds before anything else.⁴

If the Owner Is an Active-Duty Servicemember

Virginia flags active-duty military status on vehicle records. If that flag appears during the AVP process, additional federal protections may apply, and the flag itself doesn’t discharge your obligation to check.⁶

Under the Servicemembers Civil Relief Act, no one can enforce a storage lien on a servicemember’s property without a court order, and that protection lasts for the entire period of military service plus 90 days afterward. A knowing violation can bring fines and up to one year in prison.⁷ A towing yard or storage facility cannot simply auction a servicemember’s vehicle for unpaid fees without going to court.

If the abandoned vehicle process moves into any civil proceeding where the servicemember does not appear, the plaintiff must file an affidavit stating whether the defendant is on active duty. If the defendant is a servicemember, the court can appoint an attorney and cannot enter a default judgment without that step, and the court can also stay proceedings or adjust obligations based on the servicemember’s duties.⁸

For a property owner trying to claim a vehicle, the practical takeaway is straightforward. If the AVP results indicate the registered owner is on active duty, don’t try to move the vehicle to your name or send it to auction on your own. Get legal advice first, because the federal timelines and court requirements override the standard Virginia waiting periods.

1
Virginia Code Commission. Virginia Code 46.2-1200 – Definitions
2
Virginia Code Commission. Virginia Code 46.2-1202 – Search for Owner and Secured Party; Notice
3
Virginia Department of Motor Vehicles. Abandoned Vehicle Frequently Asked Questions
4
Virginia Code Commission. Virginia Code 46.2-1203 – Sale of Vehicle at Public Auction by Locality; Disposition of Proceeds
5
Virginia Code Commission. Virginia Code 46.2-1233.1
6
Virginia Code Commission. Virginia Code Article 1 – Abandoned Vehicles
7
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 50 USC 3958 – Enforcement of Storage Liens
8
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 50 USC 3931 – Protection of Servicemembers Against Default Judgments