Selling a junk car in Cerritos

Replacing a lost California title

• Form: REG 227 (it replaces or transfers)
• How: in person or by mail
• Fee: $28 (VC 9265)
• Wait: most arrive by mail in 15-30 days

If a Cerritos car has a lienholder or legal owner on file with DMV, section 5 of REG 227 needs a notary's signature. The ordinary title signing has no notary step in the DMV's private-sale instructions. Our selling with no title guide goes further.

No papers at all

Sometimes the car came from a relative years ago and nothing was ever signed. When normal ownership evidence cannot be obtained, the DMV sorts cars by value:

Recording a car as Junk

To the DMV, a junk vehicle is one "dismantled because it was wrecked, abandoned or inoperable." Junking your own car takes no dismantler's license, but order matters: file the Junk application before taking anything apart, or you pay an investigative service fee. When the owner applies, the plates assigned to the car are surrendered to the DMV. If you are tempted to pull parts and sell them yourself, read part it out or sell it whole first.

What the title might already say

Seven brands can appear on a California title. In reverse alphabetical order: Warranty Return (Lemon Law Buyback), Salvaged, Remanufactured, Park Trailer, Original/Prior Taxi, Original/Prior Police, Grey Market. Flood damage has no brand of its own; it falls under Salvaged, along with crash and vandalism damage and cars that were junked before. See salvage title.

Does Cerritos have its own junk-car rule?

Cerritos's code was not among what we could read online. Vehicle Code 22660 gives each California city the option of its own nuisance ordinance for wrecked and inoperative cars, which Cerritos may have used. In Cerritos, ask the city first if a dead car will sit in open view for weeks.

After the sale

REG 138 is the seller's last filing, due within 5 days; the DMV accepts it on its website, and paper copies go to P.O. Box 942859 in Sacramento. When the car is sold rather than junked, standard plates usually go along with it.

Near Cerritos

As the crow flies: Norwalk 2.9 miles, Lakewood 3.3, Bellflower 3.6 and La Mirada 4.2. Statewide rules are on California.

Getting an offer

By form or at (877) 421-6008, tell us what the car is, its age and mileage, if it runs, and the honest title status, even if that is "lost." Pickup is free anywhere in the US, from a Cerritos driveway or wherever else the car is parked.