Car Key Replacement in Mesa, AZ

A car with no key cannot be moved

Two sections of Mesa's Title 10 matter when a car sits at the curb waiting for a new key. Section 10-3-26 lists the vehicles police may impound, including one left parked on a street for more than 48 hours, and it defines "left parked" as not having been moved at least 300 feet in that time. Section 10-3-21 is a separate rule: no parking on a street for more than 72 consecutive hours. Parking is a civil traffic violation, and a violation that continues counts as a separate one for every full hour.

A car with a lost key cannot make a 300-foot move under its own power, so write down the date it stopped and the block it is on, and put both in your request.

Some spots have no grace period at all. Section 10-3-21 also lists places where stopping or parking is always prohibited, among them in front of a driveway, within 15 feet of a fire hydrant, on a sidewalk and in the strip between a curb and a sidewalk. Section 10-3-26 adds a car left in a fire lane or parked in front of a driveway to the list of vehicles that can be removed.

Lots and garages

Off the street, the rules belong to whoever runs the space. Chapter 9 says nobody may park in a private parking area without the owner's consent, and a lot that tows must post signs that include a statement that the vehicle will be towed at the violator's expense. Chapter 5 lets the city post limits on the time and method of parking in city-operated lots and garages.

Downtown Mesa's parking site lists its garages and customer lots by name and address but says nothing about how long a car may stay. Check with whoever operates a garage or lot before leaving a car with no working key overnight.

What to send

• year, make, model and paint color of the car
• whether it starts with a metal key, a fob or a push button
• how many working keys you still hold, if any
• the car's location (street and nearest cross street, or garage level, or lot) and how long it has sat there
• whether the registration or a title document is with you

Keys sitting inside the locked car are a car lockout case, and a fob that only needs re-pairing sits under key fob programming. City-wide context is on the Mesa page.