Selling a junk or dead car in Apple Valley

If that's the one parked out back, we buy whole non-running and junk cars. You sell the whole car as it sits, and pickup is free anywhere in the US, even out on the far edges of the Town's 77.009 square miles.

Ten days, counted from the mailbox

Section 11.80.050 has the Town serve "a ten day notice of intention to abate and remove the vehicle" on the landowner and on the car's owner; one mailed copy covers a person who is both. The sample notice orders removal "within ten days from the date of mailing of this notice." Ignore it and the Town takes the car, then puts the bill, "together with administrative costs," against the parcel.

The date that counts is the mailing, not the day the envelope gets opened.

Your hearing window

Inside those ten days you may ask for a hearing under Section 11.80.055, held by the Town Manager or a designee sitting as Hearing Officer. Suppose someone else dumped the car on your lot: a sworn statement denying responsibility, sent in time, counts as a request that "does not require the property owner's presence." Hearing notice then arrives by registered mail ten or more days before the date. Miss that deadline and the car can be removed without any hearing.

Daily offenses

Section 11.80.090 makes it unlawful "to fail or refuse to remove an abandoned, wrecked, dismantled or inoperative vehicle or parts thereof" after an order. Each owner is "guilty of a separate offense for each and every day" it continues.

Note the narrow meaning of abandoned here: a car sitting on property without the owner's consent, express or implied. Your own dead sedan in your own yard isn't abandoned by that test, but it can still be inoperative.

Title work from the high desert

Nothing title-related happens at San Bernardino County; it is all state DMV. Apple Valley sellers sign the seller's line of the Certificate of Title. DMV does not call for a notary. Within 5 days, an Apple Valley seller sends in REG 138 online or by mail to P.O. Box 942859 in Sacramento. The reason is Vehicle Code 22523: should the next owner abandon the car, your filed sale report shields you from the infraction and any unpaid lien-sale balance.

An Apple Valley car sitting for years on expired tags owes fees and penalties for every year missed, unless the owner filed Planned Non-Operation. Recording the car as Junk sends its plates back to DMV; a plain sale usually leaves standard plates on it. See after you sell and, for a car parked for ages, sitting for years.

Nearby towns

Victorville is 8.2 straight-line miles off, Hesperia 11.2, Adelanto 13.4 and Barstow 24.9. The California page has statewide rules.

Getting an offer

Call (877) 421-6008 or fill in the form online. It helps to have the Apple Valley car's details handy when you reach out. Have the mailing date of any Town notice nearby.