Selling a dead or junk car in Indio

On a street in Indio

Street rules first. Under Vehicle Code 22651, a car left in the same spot on a highway, including Indio's streets, for 72 hours or more in a row against a local ordinance can be towed. Section 22669 goes further. Peace officers, or state, county or city workers assigned to it, may remove a car they believe is abandoned from an Indio highway or from public or private property. A car parked on a public right-of-way while missing its windshield, doors, tires, wheels, transmission, engine or other necessary parts can be hauled away on the spot.

Low-value cars move fast

Abandoned cars worth $500 or less fall under Vehicle Code 22851.3. Indio usually gives 72 hours' warning on the car before removing it. Indio gives no warning notice when a car taken under 22669(d) is valued at $300 or less. Within 48 hours after the tow, Indio has to tell the owner. An Indio owner has 10 days to request a hearing. Indio can dispose of the car 15 days after the notice. Those figures decide which removal rules apply; they are not sale prices.

Leaving it behind costs money

California outlaws ditching a car on a highway, and outlaws leaving one on someone's property, public or private, without that owner's consent. Fines begin at $100, and the court also asks for proof that the removal bill was paid (Vehicle Code 22523). When nobody redeems an impounded abandoned Indio car, the infraction falls on its last registered owner, who also pays any lien-sale shortfall, unless a report of sale was already on file. Towed or impounded covers a car that has already been taken.

Title, plates and the 5-day notice

Indio sellers deal with the California DMV, not a county office, at field offices the state runs or by mail. Sign the title as seller (a lienholder signs as well) and let the buyer submit it; those DMV instructions mention no notary. An Indio seller has five days to get REG 138, the release-of-liability notice, to the DMV through dmv.ca.gov/nrl or by mail to DMV, P.O. Box 942859. After the DMV records it, tickets dated past the sale go to the new owner. Plain plates usually stay with the car, and a car sold off for wrecking or dismantling is spared the Smog Check. After you sell has the rest.

Getting an offer

Give us what you can: model year, make, model, mileage, running or not, and whether there's a title. Do it online or at (877) 421-6008. Pickup can be at a home, a workplace or a shop in Indio. Pages for the nearest towns: Coachella, 6.0 miles off as the crow flies, La Quinta at 6.6 and Palm Desert at 7.4, where the photo above was taken. Statewide rules are on the California page.