Selling a dead or junk car in Berkeley

Berkeley's own rule: BMC 12.98.050

Berkeley's municipal code covers dead cars in section 12.98.050. It is "unlawful for any person to fail to remove an abandoned, dismantled, or inoperative vehicle, or to refuse to abate such nuisance when ordered to do so."

• Who it skips. Cars kept for a licensed dealer, junkyard or dismantler are left out, and so is a car "completely and lawfully enclosed within a building on private property so as not to be visible from the street."
• The letter. The city mails a Notice to Abate by certified or registered mail. For a car on private land, it goes to the property owner and to the vehicle owner at the DMV address.
• 10 days. The city warns it will take and get rid of the car "if the violation is not remedied within ten days of the date of the notice." The notice adds that the property owner will be charged the removal and administrative costs. Owners can ask in writing for a hearing within ten days.
• Then disposal. The car is sent to a scrap yard or dismantler "Fifteen days after the ten day notice to abate or remove expires without a request for a hearing," or 30 days after a hearing ends in a removal order.
• No comeback. Once Berkeley hauls off a dismantled or inoperative car, it may not "be resold, reconstructed, or made operable." Cars eligible for historical or horseless carriage plates are the exception.

A car removed under a local ordinance like this is what the DMV calls an Abated Vehicle.

What state law already allows on a Berkeley block

A stripped car gets no 72 hours. Vehicle Code 22669 lets Berkeley tow at once any car on the public right-of-way that has lost its engine or transmission, or its tires, wheels, windshield, doors or other key parts. That section also allows a Berkeley peace officer, or a city employee given the job, to tow a car believed abandoned. It can be on a street or on public or private land.

Low-value cars, $500 or under, get a paper trail under 22851.3. A tag goes on the windshield 72 hours before the tow (skipped for a $300-or-less car taken under 22669(d)). Berkeley sends word to the owner within 48 hours. In Berkeley, a hearing request has to come in within 10 days. Disposal may follow 15 days after that letter. Those dollar figures are legal tests of value.

When the title is the hard part

A missing title is the common snag. In California you use REG 227. The same form gets you a new title and also transfers it. The fee is $28. Expect the new title in the mail in about 15-30 days. Notarizing is limited to section 5 of that form, and only where DMV records list a lienholder.

If a Berkeley owner lacks the usual ownership proof, the value decides the path. At $5,000 or more, a motor vehicle bond is required. Under that amount there is no bond. Send a REG 256 "Statement of Facts" in with the Berkeley ownership papers. It should say who sold you the Berkeley car, what it is worth, and that it is free of liens. Junk car with no title goes through it step by step.

The rest of the California handoff

In Berkeley, you and any lender both sign the title. No notary is listed for that step. Next, within five days, the Berkeley seller sends DMV a REG 138, either through the DMV website or as a mailed paper form. Plates of the regular kind normally go with the car. A Berkeley car sold off for dismantling owes no Smog Check.

Getting an offer

Try (877) 421-6008 or the form. Call about your Berkeley car. Our truck can collect it at a curb, in a shared driveway or from a garage. Nearby pages cover El Cerrito, Richmond and Oakland, and the California page has the statewide rules.