Selling a dead car in Eureka

One dead car is enough to matter too. If it has to go, we buy whole non-running and junk cars. You sell the whole car as it sits, and free pickup anywhere in the US reaches Humboldt Bay as well.

When Eureka calls a car abandoned

Section 90.01 calls a vehicle abandoned when it is left "in such inoperable or neglected condition that the owner's intention to relinquish all further rights or interests in it may be reasonably concluded." On a highway, abandonment "is presumed to have occurred if a vehicle is left 72 hours or more." It is also presumed when a car sits there and "lacks an engine, transmission, wheels, tires, doors, windshield, or any other part or equipment necessary to operate safely on the highway." Those can be "removed immediately upon discovery by a peace officer or other designated employee."

Section 90.34(M) exempts two kinds of storage. One is a car "completely enclosed within a building in a lawful manner where it is not visible from the street or other public or private property." The other is a car kept lawfully by a licensed dismantler, vehicle dealer or junk yard. A car towed to storage after a crash and never claimed is not treated as abandoned either.

From notice to removal

The Chief of Police runs the process under 90.34:

• The notice. Eureka gives "not less than a ten-day notice of intention to abate and remove the vehicle." If both the landowner and the car's owner have signed releases giving it up, the notice is skipped.
• Hearing rights. The notice must contain "a statement of hearing rights" for both owners.
• The request. A Eureka hearing is requested from the Chief of Police "within ten days after the mailing of notice of intention to abate and remove the vehicle or at the time of signing a release."
• The order. After the hearing, the Chief or a designee can order removal and fix the costs charged to the landowner.

Say the hearing finds you neither agreed to the car on your Eureka lot nor accepted it later. Then 90.34(I) says the city "shall not assess costs of administration or removal" against the property.

Streets, alleys and city lots

Section 90.16 sets a firm ceiling. No licensed or unlicensed vehicle may stay on "any alley, street, or public parking lot for more than a consecutive period of 72 hours." Under 90.15, nobody may abandon a vehicle on any highway, or leave one on another person's land without consent.

Title, plates and smog in California

Humboldt County has no title office. California's state-run DMV field offices handle titles.

1. Eureka sellers sign the title, along with any lienholder. In Eureka the buyer submits it with the $15 transfer fee. A notary never comes up in the DMV's steps for sellers.
2. For a Eureka sale, the DMV needs REG 138 within 5 days, filed through dmv.ca.gov/nrl or sent by mail. Tickets after the sale date then go to the buyer.
3. Plates normally stay on the car. Eureka owners can move personalized plates to their next car by paying a fee.
4. A Eureka car going to a wrecker or dismantler doesn't need a Smog Check.

Title lost? File REG 227 for $28. See junk car with no title.

Getting an offer

Call (877) 421-6008 or write in online. Tell us about your Eureka car through the form, and we'll go from there. Pickup works at a house above the bay, on a side street, or in a mechanic's yard. Eureka is far from our other California pages. In a straight line, Redding is 95.0 miles away and Chico is 142.5. See California for state rules.