Selling a dead or junk car in Fairbanks

The 90-day blight rule

Read the four words in 10-208 together: unregistered, inoperable, unrepaired, uncovered. The section describes a car that fits all four for more than 90 days.

When the city decides a property is blighted, it posts a notice "in a conspicuous location" on the property. It also gets the notice to the owner by hand, by mail or electronically. From that notice, owners have "thirty business days" to fix the violation. That is roughly six weeks, not thirty calendar days.

Owners who let that window pass, or miss an approved alternate timeline, face civil penalties of $300 for each month. Selling the car is one way to end it.

Street parking, tickets and the boot

Section 78-391 bars parking on any city street, highway or city-owned parking lot "for a period of time longer than 24 consecutive hours unless otherwise posted." Move the car within 24 hours of the posting and there is no fine. Leave it, and the minimum fine is $60, the car becomes subject to towing and impound, and the owner covers every cost of the impound.

A ticket left on the windshield under 78-401 tells the driver to answer it "within five days." Tickets that pile up lead to the boot. Section 78-399 allows one once a car has "four or more uncontested parking citations" still unpaid. Release means paying those fines plus an impoundment fee. The owner can ask for a hearing no later than seven days after the boot goes on.

When a car sits in impound

Section 78-973 covers cars impounded after certain arrests and court orders. The holding period is 30 days or ten days, depending on the charge. Daily fees stop when it ends, then resume if the car is still sitting there 30 days later with fees unpaid. A car not retrieved within 90 days of the end of the impoundment "will be considered abandoned and may be disposed of without further notice," and its contents can go with it. Our page on towed or impounded cars explains your options.

The DMV office on 3rd Street

The borough has no hand in titles; the state DMV does that work. Among its offices, we checked 414 3rd Street, which lies roughly 2 miles northwest of central Fairbanks in a straight line. The office phone is (907) 269-5551.

Bring the original title to the sale. The signature lines and the owner's assignment both need filling in, and no space should stay empty. Two owners joined by AND must each sign, while OR lets one of them sign alone. Nothing in the DMV's seller instructions asks for a notary stamp. When the car goes, the original title and the registration certificate go with it. Odometer readings are required unless the car is exempt by age.

If the title is gone, the owner of record files a notarized Form 809 with a $15 fee before the car can be sold. See selling with no title.

Plates, the sale notice, old registrations

Standard plates stay on the car. Only personalized or specialty plates come off. A standard plate cannot be moved to your next car.

Within 10 days, report the sale: mail or drop off the notice strip torn from the title's lower edge, or file "Report the Sale or Transfer of a Vehicle" online. Once the DMV is told a sale is pending, it will not renew that registration.

Alaska registrations run two years. If yours lapsed more than a year ago, the period starts over with no back fees. There is no emissions test either: Fairbanks' program was dropped as an active control measure (EPA final action March 22, 2010) and stays only as a contingency measure. For a car that has sat through several winters, see car sitting for years.

Getting an offer

For an offer, send the vehicle's model year, make, model and odometer miles, say if it runs, and note any title trouble, through the form or at (877) 421-6008. Pickup happens where the car is, from a back yard to a downtown parking lot. Straight-line distance to Anchorage is 258.1 miles, as the crow flies, and Juneau lies 626.4 miles off. The Alaska page holds the statewide rules.