California Abandoned Boat Law: Fines, Removal, and Liability

California’s abandoned boat law makes it an infraction to leave a vessel on any public waterway, or on public or private property without the owner’s permission, and it carries a fine of $1,000 to $3,000 plus liability for the full cost of removal and disposal. The rules sit in the Harbors and Navigation Code, and they follow the last registered owner even after a sale unless that owner properly notified the DMV of the transfer.¹

What California Treats as an Abandoned Vessel

Harbors and Navigation Code Section 525 prohibits abandoning a vessel on a public waterway or on any public or private property without the express or implied consent of whoever controls that property. The one exception is when leaving the boat is necessary to protect the safety of people on board.¹

Certain conditions count as automatic evidence. A vessel left in an unseaworthy or dilapidated state on publicly owned submerged lands or tidelands for more than 30 days, with no one aboard or in charge, is considered abandoned. Once that clock runs, the local government or public agency with jurisdiction over that land can take title for the purpose of removal and disposal.²

The boat doesn’t have to be sinking. A vessel found on a waterway with registration expired by more than a year can be treated as subject to impoundment under Section 523.³

Fines and Cost Liability

Abandonment is an infraction under Section 525, punished by a fine between $1,000 and $3,000. A court can also order the owner to reimburse the removing agency for the actual costs of pulling the boat out and disposing of it. Those costs can easily exceed the fine, especially for larger vessels or wrecks that need hazardous material handling.¹

The presumption of who pays is the piece that catches people off guard. If you are listed as the owner in state records and you never notified the registration or documenting agency that you transferred or gave up your interest, the abandonment itself is treated as evidence of your liability for all removal and disposal costs. In other words, a handshake sale years earlier does not protect you if your name is still on the paperwork when the boat turns up derelict.¹

Eighty percent of the fines collected under Section 525 go into the Abandoned Watercraft Abatement Fund, which pays grants to local agencies for removing and disposing of abandoned vessels. Grantees must run an active enforcement program and put up a 10-percent local match.¹

Commercial Vessels Face Much Larger Penalties

The rules above cover recreational boats. If a commercial vessel is at risk of becoming derelict, Harbors and Navigation Code Section 528 raises the stakes sharply. A person who anchors or allows such a vessel to occupy state waters can face civil penalties of $1,000 to $5,000 per day, each day counting as a separate violation, and the owner or operator bears the full cost of removal or destruction. When setting the amount, a court considers the extent of harm, whether the damage is reversible, the owner’s ability to pay, any voluntary cleanup effort, and prior violations.⁴

Who Can Remove a Boat, and How Fast

Several kinds of officials have authority to remove abandoned or derelict vessels. Under Section 523, peace officers, lifeguards, and marine safety officers employed by a county, city, or district can pull a vessel off a public waterway when it obstructs traffic, creates a hazard, threatens navigation, endangers wildlife or water quality, or has registration expired by more than a year.³

The California State Lands Commission has broader reach. Under Public Resources Code Section 6302.1, added in 2011, the Commission has statewide jurisdiction over navigable waters and can remove abandoned vessels through an expedited administrative process.²

When a boat is not an immediate hazard, agencies generally give notice first. The Commission attaches a 30-day removal notice to the vessel and uses reasonable means to find the owner and any lienholder; if it locates the owner, it mails a notice demanding removal within at least 15 days.⁵

Notice can be skipped entirely in two situations: when the vessel obstructs traffic or creates a navigation hazard, and when it poses a significant threat to public health, safety, welfare, sensitive habitat, wildlife, or water quality. Local officers acting under Section 523 have parallel emergency authority for the same kinds of conditions.⁵

How to Break the Chain of Liability When You Sell

The presumption in Section 525 is straightforward. If your name is still on the registration when a vessel is found abandoned, you are the one who pays. The only way out is to have already told the registration agency that you gave up your interest before the abandonment happened.¹

California requires you to notify the DMV within five calendar days of selling or transferring a vessel. The form is the Notice of Transfer and Release of Liability, REG 138. It asks for the vessel’s CF number, the hull identification number, and the builder name, and you can submit it online, by mail, or in person.⁶

Sign and date the release of ownership on the Certificate of Ownership as well. If co-owners are joined by “and,” every co-owner has to sign. If joined by “or” or “and/or,” any one of them can release. The buyer then fills in the back of the title with their name, address, the purchase date, and the price.⁷

Skipping these steps, even for a casual sale to a friend, leaves you exposed. If the buyer never registers the boat and later walks away from it, you are still the last registered owner in state records, and the removal bill lands on you. Filing the REG 138 is the single cheapest form of insurance a seller has.

Surrendering a Boat You Can’t Sell

California offers a voluntary way out for owners of boats that have no market. The Surrendered and Abandoned Vessel Exchange, run by the State Parks Division of Boating and Waterways, funds participating local public agencies to accept unwanted recreational vessels and cover the cost of removal, hazardous material cleanup, demolition, and disposal. The owner isn’t billed.⁸

Acceptance is not automatic. Under Harbors and Navigation Code Section 526.1, each participating agency decides on its own whether to take a given vessel, weighing whether the boat is in danger of being abandoned and whether it is likely to cause environmental damage or become a navigation hazard. Private businesses can’t apply for SAVE funding directly, but they can go through a participating local agency if they are the registered owner or lienholder.⁸

Surrendering a boat while it still has some structural integrity is almost always cheaper than waiting. Once it deteriorates to the point that an agency removes it as abandoned, you lose control of the process and pick up the fine, potential reimbursement, and any collection consequences that follow.

1
Justia. California Code Harbors and Navigation Code 525 – Wrecks and Wrecked Property
2
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Marine Debris Program. California – Marine Debris Program
3
California Legislative Information. California Code Harbors and Navigation Code 523 – Wrecks and Wrecked Property
4
California Legislative Information. SB-1065 California Abandoned and Derelict Commercial Vessel Program
5
California Legislative Information. Senate Bill 595 – Tidelands and Submerged Lands Removal of Vessels
6
California Department of Motor Vehicles. Notice of Transfer and Release of Liability
7
California Department of Motor Vehicles. Transfers
8
California State Parks Division of Boating and Waterways. Surrendered and Abandoned Vessel Exchange