Selling a dead or junk car in Hesperia

Where the rule stops

Section 8.32.020 spares two situations: "Vehicles or parts completely enclosed within buildings permitted for such use and not visible from the public right-of-way or public or private property," and vehicles "legally stored or parked on private property in connection with a licensed vehicle dealer, licensed dismantler, licensed junk dealer," or needed for a lawful business's operations.

The ten-day notice

Under Section 8.16.090, the property owner gets a ten-day "notice of intent to abate and remove." Hesperia may skip it when both the landowner and the vehicle's owner have signed releases. A car still there afterward can be hauled off by the Community Development Department or its contractors, with costs billed to the landowner. No notice at all is needed for a car "inoperable due to the absence of a motor, transmission or wheels and incapable of being towed; is valued at less than two hundred dollars ($200.00); and is determined to be a public nuisance presenting an immediate threat to public health or safety," so long as the property owner signed a release. Those dollar figures are thresholds in the code. Twelve days after the notice is mailed, an unclaimed car can be cleared for disposal, and the DMV is told within five days.

Complaints can come from anyone

Hesperia code enforcement "will investigate anonymous complaints," per Section 8.16.080. Residents can also put a written removal request to code enforcement and pay a fee covering its costs; self storage operators are the one group left out. A car taken that way passes to the city by title transfer or lien sale. When a car is an immediate hazard, code enforcement or police can remove it with little or no notice.

Getting a removed car back

Section 8.16.160 sets short windows, keyed to value tests in the code. A car valued at $300 or less that was removed as an abandoned vehicle can be redeemed within fifteen days of the mailing date of the removal notice. Removed as a public nuisance, it must be redeemed within ten days of removal. For abandoned cars, the charges may not exceed towing and seven days of storage.

Smog and title in California

Statewide, a seller normally owes the Smog Check before the sale and hands the buyer the inspection report. Hesperia sellers of electric cars and motorcycles need no smog test. Neither do sellers of a 1975 or older gas car or a 1997 or older diesel. A gas or hybrid car in its first four model years is exempt too, but pays an $8 smog transfer fee. A car headed for a wrecker or dismantler is excused too, and for a Hesperia car that failed smog, that exemption is the whole point. See failed inspection.

Title work runs through DMV field offices, which the state operates. You sign; so does any lienholder; the buyer files the title and pays $15 to transfer it. No notary shows up in those DMV steps. REG 138 reports the sale and is due five days after it. Ordinary plates usually stay put on the car.

Getting an offer

Have a dead car in Hesperia? Call (877) 421-6008 or start with the offer form online. Pickup works from a dirt lot or a garage. Nearby pages: Victorville, Apple Valley and Adelanto, with statewide law on California.