Storage at IAAI is $50 a day on both branch pages we checked, and the free days are different at each. IAA Riverside, CA lists the award day plus 4 days free. IAA Hartford, CT lists the award day plus 2 days. Both say the car must be secured within 5 business days of purchase. The free window is set per branch, so the branch page, not a general guide, is your deadline.
- Late fee
- $100
- Renege fee
- $0
- Cancellation fee (excl. storage)
- $0
- Storage
- $150
- Total penalties
- $250
Calculator defaults are placeholders: a $5,000 sale price and a $30 a day storage rate. The branch pages below list $50 a day, so change the rate to match your branch. Estimates only. Also available as the standalone IAAI late fee and storage calculator.
This is the cost that bites flippers who bid first and book transport second. It is also the only large IAAI charge you fully control.
LocalIQ™ market snapshot
What top flip candidates are asking right now
| Model | Listings | Median asking price |
|---|---|---|
| GMC Sierra 1500 | 632 | $29,972 |
| Honda Civic | 5,396 | $15,000 |
| Honda Accord | 4,176 | $15,999 |
| Ford F-150 | 3,134 | $24,000 |
| Toyota Corolla | 3,040 | $14,500 |
| Nissan Sentra | 3,004 | $9,880 |
| Toyota Camry | 2,510 | $17,082 |
| Hyundai Elantra | 2,396 | $9,499 |
LocalIQ™ asking-price median · 24,288 listings · updated every 6 hours. National, last 8 model years; asking price is your resale ceiling.
How much are IAAI storage fees?
Per the IAA branch pages we fetched on 2026-10:
| Term | IAA Riverside, CA | IAA Hartford, CT |
|---|---|---|
| Free storage days | Award day + 4 | Award day + 2 |
| Storage fee after free days | $50/day | $50/day |
| Pickup hours | Mon-Fri 8am-4:30pm PT | Mon-Fri 8:30am-4:30pm ET |
| Secure the vehicle within | 5 business days | 5 business days |
| Late payment fee | $50 or 2%, whichever is greater | $50 or 2%, whichever is greater |
Sources: IAA Riverside and IAA Hartford.
Our own post on IAAI fees quotes a range for storage from a general schedule. Where it differs from the branch page for your yard, the branch page wins.
Why do free storage days differ between branches?
IAA runs 200+ locations (its registration page says so), and each branch publishes its own payment, storage and pickup terms. We checked two. They agree on the daily rate and the 5-business-day rule and disagree on free days, which is enough to say branch variation is real. We have not checked the rest, so we do not claim a pattern.
Read three lines on the branch page before you bid: free storage days, storage fee, and pickup hours.
What does a delay actually cost?
Storage is simple multiplication: days over the free window times the daily rate. At $50 a day:
- 3 days late: $150
- 7 days late: $350
- 10 days late: $500
Compare that to the margin you expect on the flip: every storage dollar comes straight out of it and buys you nothing.
Our fee model includes storage days over the free window, and its default daily rate is a modeled estimate, not a branch's published rate. Use the branch's own $50 when you do the math by hand.
What happens if you miss the 5-business-day deadline?
Both branch pages say the same thing in different words: purchases must be secured within 5 business days, and if they are not, IAA will pick up the vehicle and move it to its nearest facility, with standard fees for transportation and storage applying.
That second step is the expensive one. You can end up paying to move a car you have not collected, to a yard you did not plan around, with storage still running. We did not find a published amount for that transfer, so we do not put a number on it.
We also looked for a rule about cancellations or other charges after 30 days. We could not verify one on any page we could load, so we are not repeating it. If you hear a 30-day figure, ask the branch for it in writing.
How do you avoid IAAI storage fees?
Book transport before you bid. A carrier that can load within your free window is part of the deal, not an afterthought. Our guide on shipping costs for auction cars covers how to estimate transport. It is written for Copart lots, but the logic of distance, vehicle condition and carrier timing is the same.
Pay on time. Payment due dates run separately from pickup, and the late fee is its own charge. See IAAI payment methods and deadlines.
Check pickup hours. Branch yards close earlier than the offices, per the branch page, to leave time for loading. A driver who arrives at 4:15 may not get the car out that day.
Confirm the driver's rules. The pages list safety rules for transport drivers on IAA property, and a loader limit of 11,000 lbs. A heavy or oversized unit needs a plan.
How does storage fit into your max bid?
Storage should be zero in your base case and a line item in your stress test. Put the transport cost and a delay scenario into the max bid calculator before you bid, then run the same car through the IAAI fee calculator to see the auction-side total. For the other half of the bill, read IAAI fees and taxes.
Holding costs after you win are separate from storage at the yard. The holding cost calculator covers the cost of a car sitting in your inventory.
A pre-bid checklist
- Open the page for the specific branch holding the car.
- Write down free storage days, daily rate and pickup hours.
- Confirm a carrier who can load inside the window.
- Put a delay scenario in your numbers.
- Pay on time so the late fee never enters the picture.
Run your next lot through the IAAI fee calculator with the branch's actual daily rate, and see how much a missed pickup window would cost before you place the bid, not after.
