Selling a dead car in Chula Vista

There is a simpler exit than waiting for a tow. We buy whole non-running and junk cars, you sell the whole car as it sits, and pickup is free anywhere in the US, anywhere in the city's 49.754 square miles.

Curb or driveway: two different rulebooks

VC 22651 gives Chula Vista streets a three-day limit: break a local parking rule for over 72 hours straight and the car can be towed. In a backyard or driveway, the state steps back. Under VC 22660, a city may pass an ordinance on dead or dismantled cars on private land and bill for the removal. Chula Vista's is CVMC 10.80. With 275,533 residents, the city has plenty of neighbors who might report a car that has not moved.

Chula Vista's own rule: CVMC 10.80

Chula Vista's code covers dead cars in CVMC 10.80.010 and the sections that follow it. The council adopted them under Vehicle Code 22660 and the sections after it "for the abatement, removal and disposal, as public nuisances, of abandoned, wrecked, dismantled or inoperative vehicles or vehicle parts from private or public property, not including highways." The city also recovers its cost of running the program.

• 10 days' notice. "Not less than 10 days prior to any removal or disposal of a vehicle, a notice of intention to abate and remove the vehicle as a public nuisance shall be issued." The exception is when the property owner and the car's owner "have signed releases authorizing removal."
• Five days to disposal. The car can be sent off by "removal to a scrapyard" or a dismantler's yard "Five days after adoption of the order declaring the vehicle or parts thereof to be a public nuisance," or five days after the decision is mailed. After an appeal, the wait is 15 days from the manager's or designee's removal order.
• The dismantler's side. A licensed dismantler taking a car removed this way is excused from a state DMV reporting rule, and DMV fees and penalties that would otherwise be due are waived.

So a city notice on a Chula Vista car starts a 10-day count.

Walking away costs more than it saves

Dumping a dead car on a road, or on a neighbor's lot without asking, violates VC 22523. You face at least a $100 fine and must prove the removal bill is paid. It can get worse: an impounded car nobody claims leaves its last registered owner holding an infraction plus whatever the lien auction did not recover. A report of sale is the one paper that cuts you loose, even if the person you sold to dumps the car later, so file it promptly once the car leaves Chula Vista. If thieves or a parts hunt already stripped it, read missing parts.

Finishing the paperwork

In California the title is one page. In Chula Vista your signature and any listed lender's go on it, then the buyer pays the transfer fee at the DMV. The DMV's private-sale steps never call for a notary. A title that has vanished needs REG 227 before anything else.

Within 5 days of handing over the keys, send the DMV a REG 138 release, through its website or by post. Your ordinary plates stay bolted to the car. Vanity or special plates can follow you to your next car, for a fee.

Smog is rarely the obstacle with a dead Chula Vista car. The county shows up on the DMV's ZIP-by-ZIP partial-biennial list, but transfers made so a car can be wrecked or dismantled skip the inspection.

Towns around Chula Vista

As the crow flies, National City is about 5.5 miles away, Imperial Beach 7.2, Lemon Grove 7.4, Coronado 8.5, La Mesa 9.8 and El Cajon 12.4. State-level rules are on the California page, and car doesn't run covers selling a car that will not start.

Getting an offer

Call (877) 421-6008 or use the form. Selling a Chula Vista car? The form gets us started. The truck comes to wherever the car gave out, at home, in a work lot or at a shop.