Someone else's car left on your Tulsa street or property

How long a car can sit on a Tulsa street

Tulsa's traffic code, Section 519, bars leaving any vehicle unattended on a public street, alley or other public way for more than 24 hours in a row. That includes a running car with a current tag.

A police officer or city code enforcement officer who believes a car has sat that long posts a red sticker notice on it. If the car has not moved 24 hours later, it may be impounded. The City's code page says where the report goes: “Inoperable vehicles parked in the street should be reported to the Customer Care Center at 311.”

State law adds its own test. Under 47 O.S. 901 it is unlawful to abandon a vehicle on a highway or other public property, and police may treat one on a highway, shoulder or right-of-way as abandoned after 48 hours with no sign of an owner who means to move it. Section 902 allows removal at once where the car would be a traffic hazard or highly exposed to vandalism.

The curb in front of your house is public. Tulsa's nuisance code counts all streets as public property, and the state's private-property tow law covers land you own or possess, so a car at the curb is the City's to handle.

Source: Tulsa Revised Ordinances, Title 37, Section 519: parking over 24 hours; Tulsa Revised Ordinances, Title 24, Chapter 3: abandoned or junked vehicles; City of Tulsa: Top Violations; Oklahoma Statutes, Title 47, Sections 901, 902 and 954A (PDF).

Who to call in Tulsa, and what to tell them

For a car left on a public street, start with the City's Customer Care Center, Tulsa311:

• Phone: 311 inside city limits (Monday to Friday, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.), or (918) 596-2100 from outside Tulsa.
• Online: Tulsa311.com takes reports 24 hours a day, and there is a Tulsa311 app for iPhone and Android.
• Email: Tulsa311@cityoftulsa.org.

Code Enforcement asks anyone reporting a violation for two things: “Be prepared to give a physical address and your name (this will be kept confidential).” Give the closest address, the make and color, and how long the car has sat. Flat tires, missing parts, out-of-date tags and a missing plate are on the City's list of signs a vehicle is inoperable, so mention any you see.

Call the Tulsa Police non-emergency line, 918-596-9222, if the car blocks traffic, looks stolen or seems tied to a crime, and 911 in an emergency. A car blocking the sidewalk or right-of-way is on Code Enforcement's Priority 1 list, the cases it looks at first.

Source: City of Tulsa: Contact the City, 311; City of Tulsa: Code Enforcement, reporting and priorities; City of Tulsa: Top Violations, inoperable vehicle signs; Tulsa Police: Make a police report.

What happens after police tow it

Once Tulsa Police tow a car, Section 305 of the traffic code has the department tell the registered owner where it is if nobody reclaims it within 24 hours. For an abandoned car, 47 O.S. 903 adds a state notice: the officer's agency reports the impound to the Department of Public Safety within 72 hours, and DPS mails the owner and any lienholder the car's location. Where police tows go is on the towed and impounded guide.

Source: Tulsa Revised Ordinances, Title 37, Section 305: authority to impound; Oklahoma Statutes, Title 47, Section 903 (PDF).

A junk car in a neighbor's yard or driveway

On private land the limit is 48 hours. Chapter 3 of Tulsa's nuisance title bars keeping a dismantled, inoperable, junked or abandoned vehicle, or any vehicle legally or physically incapable of being driven, in the open for longer than that. Major parts count too: a body, engine, transmission, frame or rear end. The exceptions are a vehicle fully enclosed in a building, or one at a business or storage site the zoning code allows. The City's summary adds that every vehicle kept on a property must be capable of lawful operation on public streets.

Report it through Tulsa311. Code Enforcement puts vehicles on blocks in Priority 1. Cases on neither of its first two lists are Priority 3, handled in the order received, and the City says it gets a high volume of those in warmer months.

After notice, Section 302 gives the car's owner, or whoever owns or controls the land, ten business days to remove it or put it in a building out of sight, with more time for an obvious hardship. If that passes, the Chief of Police has the vehicle removed and stored. Its owner has 30 calendar days to reclaim it by paying the costs, and after that it may be sold without further notice. Ignoring the notice can bring a fine of up to $1,200, up to 180 days in jail, or both, and each day counts as a separate offense.

To follow the case, open the City's Self Service Portal, choose Search Public Records, set the search to Code Case and enter the address. It lists every case on the property since 2018. The owner's side of the notice is on the towed and impounded page.

Source: Tulsa Revised Ordinances, Title 24, Chapter 3, Sections 300 to 307; City of Tulsa: Top Violations, inoperable vehicles; City of Tulsa: Code Enforcement, priorities and case status.

An abandoned car at your apartment complex

Tulsa's property maintenance code, Section 1115.6, requires residential rental property to be kept free of abandoned or inoperable vehicles visible from a public right-of-way or any common area, and the code makes the owner or the owner's agent responsible for premises.

The City asks tenants to tell the complex first so it can fix the problem. If nothing happens, report it to 311, at Tulsa311.com under the “Other Request” option, or by email. A team from Code Enforcement and the Fire Marshal's office inspects properties with four or more apartments in one building or parcel, and on privacy the City's page says: “If violations are found in a common area, then the complainant can remain anonymous.”

Under state law a private-property tow is requested by the land's owner, legal possessor or authorized agent, so ask the office who signs for the lot.

Source: Tulsa Revised Ordinances, Title 55, Section 1115: rental premises standards; Tulsa Revised Ordinances, Title 55, Section 102: owner responsible for premises; City of Tulsa: Multi-Family Housing; Oklahoma Statutes, Title 47, Section 954A (PDF).

Towing a stranger's car off your own property

On land you own or lawfully possess, such as your driveway or business lot, 47 O.S. 954A lets you have a car towed in two cases:

• you have reasonable cause to believe it was abandoned there, and it has been on the property at least 48 hours; or
• it was left on the property without express or implied permission.

The second case has no waiting period. The statute does not define implied permission, says nothing about signs, and works in addition to any local ordinance procedure. Its steps:

1. Call a licensed Class AA wrecker service in the county where the property sits. If none can come in a reasonable time, one from a neighboring county may, and the form records that.
2. Sign the Tow Request and Authorization Form, a Department of Public Safety form the wrecker supplies. You give your name, address, phone and driver license or state ID number, and certify that you own, possess or act as agent for the property. No Class AA wrecker may tow under the statute “until the form furnished by the Department has been appropriately completed by the parties.”
3. Inventory the car together. You and the driver list its contents, each in the presence of the other, or the form says why you could not.
4. Keep your copy. The wrecker sends the original to DPS and a copy to the city's police department, which for a Tulsa address is TPD.

The statute bars DPS and the Corporation Commission from giving out your ID number without a court order or your written consent.

Source: Oklahoma Statutes, Title 47, Section 954A (PDF); Oklahoma DPS: Wrecker service forms; Oklahoma DPS: Tow Request and Authorization Form (PDF).

Who pays for a private-property tow

The Oklahoma Corporation Commission caps what a wrecker may charge for a nonconsensual tow, under rates in force since June 1, 2024, and a wrecker may charge less. Section 954A has the car's owner or lienholder pay the wrecker's charges, certified mail and reasonable towing and storage to get it back. It does not say what, if anything, the wrecker may bill you, so settle that before you sign.

If the owner of a drivable car under 10,000 pounds arrives before it leaves, the wrecker must release it and may charge a drop fee of no more than $99.75 instead of other fees. Within three business days of the time on the tow form, the wrecker must ask for the owner's and lienholder's names, then mail them the car's location by certified mail within seven days of the answer. If it skips that, the owner owes no storage.

Parking lot owners have one more duty. Under 47 O.S. 964, a vehicle left 30 days in a garage, trailer park or any storage or parking lot must be reported to DPS by make, motor and serial number within five days. Failing to report forfeits any storage claim and risks a fine of up to $25, with each day a separate offense. The rule does not cover continuous parking arranged by an owner the lot owner personally knows.

Source: Oklahoma Corporation Commission: Nonconsensual Towing; Oklahoma Corporation Commission: Nonconsensual tow rate questions and answers (PDF); Oklahoma Statutes, Title 47, Sections 954A and 964 (PDF).

If nobody ever claims the car

Oklahoma ends an unclaimed car's story with a lien and a public sale.

After a private-property tow, Section 91A of Title 42 treats the Class AA wrecker as lawfully in possession and gives it a lien for towing and storage. To foreclose, it posts a notice of sale in two public places in the county at least ten days ahead and sends it by certified mail to the owner and anyone else with an interest. Who may bid is spelled out: “The lienor or any other person may in good faith become a purchaser of the property sold.”

Title 47's abandoned-vehicle chapter, Sections 907 to 911, gives anyone lawfully holding an abandoned vehicle a special lien for their expenses. Its sale notice goes up in three public places at least ten days ahead, with a copy by registered mail, and no sale may start until ten days after the lien arises. Sale money covers the cost of the sale, the lien and other lienholders. The rest goes to the owner, or if the owner is unknown, to Service Oklahoma for the state's General Revenue Fund.

None of these sections hands the car to a landowner for waiting. If you buy it at the sale and it ends up titled to you, the junk car page covers selling one that will never run again.

Source: Oklahoma Statutes, Title 42, Section 91A (PDF); Oklahoma Statutes, Title 47, Sections 907 to 911 (PDF).

If the car might be stolen

Call Tulsa Police at 918-596-9222, not 311. TPD's online system cannot take stolen-vehicle reports and sends them to that number. Tulsa's traffic code lets officers impound a car on a street that was reported stolen when its owner cannot be reached or cannot come for it within a reasonable time. If the stolen car is yours, see the stolen car guide.

Source: Tulsa Police: Make a police report; Tulsa Revised Ordinances, Title 37, Section 305; Oklahoma Statutes, Title 47, Section 954A (PDF).