Santa Cruz de Tenerife Struggles to Remove Abandoned Vehicles Amid Legal Hurdles
Santa Cruz de Tenerife authorities are struggling to remove abandoned vehicles due to strict national traffic laws that frequently stall the legal process, resulting in only 13 cars being cleared during the first half of 2024.
Managing long-term parked vehicles on the streets of Santa Cruz de Tenerife has become a bureaucratic headache for local authorities. In the first half of 2024, the Local Police opened 304 files to declare vehicles abandoned, but 68% of these cases—209 in total—were closed without the cars being removed.
This high failure rate is largely due to strict national traffic laws. Current regulations protect property rights by requiring a vehicle to remain unmoved in the same spot for over a month before it can be declared abandoned. If a car is moved even slightly during this period, the entire legal process must be scrapped and started over, leading to significant delays and wasted resources.
Furthermore, the law requires proof that the vehicle is too damaged to be driven. To navigate these hurdles, the City Council uses a two-pronged strategy: while following the lengthy state-mandated process, the Local Police also enforce a municipal ordinance that allows them to fine owners if a car stays in one spot for more than ten days. The goal is to pressure owners into moving their vehicles or authorizing them to be scrapped.
Despite these efforts, only 13 vehicles were definitively removed from the streets in the first six months of the year. The complex legal requirements, which include mandatory notifications and waiting periods for appeals, make forced removal rare. As a result, many abandoned cars remain in a state of administrative limbo, highlighting the difficulty local governments face when trying to clear public spaces of unwanted vehicles.