Junk cars and dead cars in Laguna Hills

Where the city fits in

California pushes private-lot junk cars down to local government. VC 22660 lets councils adopt nuisance ordinances for dead, wrecked or abandoned cars and bill the removal back. Laguna Hills's version, if there is one, did not appear online, so phone City Hall before assuming a car behind a house or in a condo lot is fine.

Parts cars and the 72-hour warning

Half-stripped project cars draw the most attention. Under VC 22669, a peace officer, or a city or county worker designated for it, who believes a car is abandoned may take it off a road or off public or private land. Cars valued at $500 or below follow VC 22851.3; read those figures as legal tests, never as offers:

• 72 hours' warning posted on the car first, waived when the car rates $300 or below and goes under 22669(d)
• owner notified within 48 hours of the tow
• disposal permitted 15 days after notice
• 10 days to request a hearing

Missing parts explains selling a car that is no longer complete.

When a tow company holds the car

Tow and storage operators in California hold a possessory lien (Civil Code 3068.1). Below the $4,000 line, Civil Code 3072 requires the lien sale to start within 15 days; storage may run 60 days, sometimes 120. You will get the Notice of Pending Lien Sale in the mail, the auction is scheduled between 31 and 41 days afterward, and returning the opposition declaration inside 10 days earns a court hearing. Above $4,000, Civil Code 3071 takes over. See towed or impounded.

Selling it the state's way

Orange County runs no title counter; for a Laguna Hills car it is all state DMV. Sign along with any lender; the buyer handles filing. DMV's seller instructions include no notary.

Wrecker- or dismantler-bound cars need no smog test. Sold to be driven, it needs a passing test supplied by the seller; hybrids and gas cars within four model years of new, gas cars of 1975 or earlier, 1997-or-older diesels, EVs and motorcycles are excused.

Ordinary plates usually stay on the car; Junk status sends them back to DMV. Laguna Hills sellers have five days to get REG 138 to DMV.

Nearby

Measured as the crow flies from Laguna Hills: Aliso Viejo 2.0 miles, Mission Viejo 2.7, Laguna Niguel 4.3, Lake Forest 4.6, Laguna Beach 5.0 and Rancho Santa Margarita 6.3. The California page has the statewide rules.

Getting an offer

Call (877) 421-6008 or use the form, noting the year, make and model, the approximate miles, whether it runs, and which parts are gone. Pickup works at a house, a condo lot or the shop where the car died.