Junk cars in Corona: five days, then a misdemeanor

How Corona's abatement works

Chapter 8.04 rests on Vehicle Code 22660. Section 8.04.010 finds that dead cars on private or public property "promote blight and deterioration" and "invite plundering," and declares them a public nuisance. Sections 8.04.090 and 8.04.100 set the order of events:

1. Corona mails a ten-day notice of intention, registered or certified, to both owners. A car with no traceable ID numbers skips the vehicle-owner letter.
2. The letter demands removal "within ten (10) days from the date of mailing of this notice, and upon your failure to do so, the same will be abated and removed by the city and the costs thereof, together with administrative costs, assessed to you as owner of the land."
3. Either owner can ask for a hearing before Corona's Board of Zoning Adjustment during those ten days.
4. Landowners can mail "a sworn written statement denying responsibility," and 8.04.100(B) treats it as "a request for a hearing which does not require his or her presence."
5. Hearing dates go out by mail ten days or more beforehand. If nobody asks, Corona may proceed "without holding a public hearing."

The $200 exception

Corona can skip the ten days for a car that is "inoperable due to the absence of a motor, transmission or wheels and incapable of being towed is valued at less than $200 by an authorized appraiser" and "is determined to be a public nuisance presenting an immediate threat to public health or safety." When registration evidence surfaces, the owners are told, and the car must be claimed from the scrap yard or dismantler "within 12 days after the notice is mailed." That $200 is the city's legal test for the shortcut, and nothing more.

Driveways, trailers and boats

Section 8.32.030 lists nuisances on residential property. Trailers, campers, boats and recreational vehicles may not be kept "In an abandoned, inoperative, wrecked or dismantled condition," and the same section separately lists dead vehicles kept in violation of 8.04.010. It also limits parking on a paved driveway that blocks a garage space or hangs over the sidewalk.

On the street

Highways sit outside Corona's chapter, so the curb falls to state law. If a Corona car stays parked three days against a local rule, Vehicle Code 22651 allows a tow. The Corona yard can then keep it until paid, under Civil Code 3068.1. Corona yards have 15 days to start the sale on any car they price at $4,000 or less.

Paperwork for a Corona sale

Corona sellers sign the California title on the seller line; DMV's steps for a private sale mention no notary. Corona sellers need a notary only in one case: a lost title with a lienholder listed, for section 5 of REG 227. Dismantling-bound cars are smog-exempt. File REG 138 within 5 days of a Corona sale. Mail it in, or go to dmv.ca.gov/nrl. Under Vehicle Code 5602, the new owner then takes on later tickets and civil claims. Recording the car as junk means its plates get surrendered.

Getting an offer

Reach out by form or at (877) 421-6008. Selling a Corona car? Start on the form and we'll reach out. We can collect it from a Corona driveway, a side yard or a parking lot. Norco is close by; see also Eastvale, Chino and California.