Selling a junk or dead car in Corcoran

The Building Official's process

Corcoran built Chapter 5-10 on the abatement power California grants its cities in Vehicle Code 22660. It declares "the presence of an abandoned, wrecked, dismantled or inoperative vehicle or part thereof, on private or public property, not including highways" to be "a public nuisance," except where the chapter allows it.

Here is the sequence the code lays out:

1. Notice of intention. The Building Official mails it to the people involved.
2. Ten days to ask for a hearing. Under 5-10-9, the request must be "in writing" and filed with the Building Official "not more than ten (10) days after" the notice was mailed.
3. Hearing notices. These go by regular mail at least 10 days before the hearing. Recipients are the landowner on the county assessment roll, the car's last registered and legal owners, and the California Highway Patrol.
4. No hearing requested. Section 5-10-10 has the Building Official take the car "to a junk yard, automobile dismantling yard or refuse disposal site."
5. After a decision. Whether it comes from the Building Official or, on appeal, the City Council, the car is removed if it is still there 10 business days after that decision is mailed (5-10-15).

A landowner who didn't put it there

Rental yards and empty lots collect cars that aren't the owner's. Corcoran's code covers that. A landowner who files "a sworn statement denying responsibility for the presence of the vehicle" within the 10-day window has that statement treated as a request for a hearing. They don't have to show up for it.

Moving it before the city does

Under 5-10-15, any interested party may remove the car once the Building Official orders it removed. If it goes "without the cost to the City, only the administrative costs shall thereafter be collected from the owner of the land." So removal costs drop off the bill, but administrative costs do not.

The chapter sections we reviewed set no number of days a car may sit before it counts as a nuisance. City rules beyond these may exist. State law lets Corcoran tow a car from a public street after it breaks a local parking rule for three days straight, 72 hours or more.

Title, plates and a missing title

Corcoran sellers deal with the state DMV, since California has no county title office. Sign the title, and have any lienholder sign as well. Corcoran sellers won't find a notary step in the DMV's instructions. Then get REG 138 to Sacramento within five days, through the DMV site or by post, so later tickets and liability follow the buyer. The ordinary plates belong with the car once it leaves Corcoran.

Inherited and handed-down cars often come without a clean title. For a car worth under $5,000, the DMV skips the bond and takes your ownership documents plus a REG 256 Statement of Facts. That $5,000 line is a DMV rule, not an offer. More on this in junk car with no title and on the California page.

Nearby

Tulare sits 14.7 miles from Corcoran as the crow flies, Hanford 17.7 and Lemoore 19.7. See Tulare, Hanford and Lemoore.

Getting an offer

Use the form or call (877) 421-6008 and share the model year and make, a ballpark mileage, if it starts, and which papers you still have. In Corcoran we pick up beside a barn, from a driveway or at a repair shop.