Selling a dead or junk car in Marina

Getting a title back with REG 227

If a Marina seller's title is lost, stolen or damaged, start with REG 227, the Application for Replacement or Transfer of Title. Mail it in, or drop it off at a DMV field office. Vehicle Code 9265 sets the replacement fee at $28, and the new title usually shows up in the mail in 15-30 days.

California's private-sale steps put no notary on the title. REG 227 has one exception: its section 5 needs notarizing when the DMV record still shows a legal owner or lienholder. If a lender is listed, read still owe on the loan.

No papers at all

Sometimes the usual proof cannot be found, such as an old car that was never put in the last owner's name. The DMV handbook splits these cases at $5,000:

• Valued at $5,000 or more: you need a motor vehicle bond.
• Valued under $5,000: no bond. Include any ownership papers you have and REG 256, a Statement of Facts that says who you got the car from, what it's worth and that it has no lien.

Those dollar lines are tests the DMV applies, not prices. Car not in your name covers inherited cars and ones that were never transferred.

Junk-car law in Marina

Marina has two chapters. Chapter 8.20 covers abandoned vehicles. It does not reach a car "in an enclosed building" or in an area of private property "not visible from the street or other public or private property." That exclusion does not apply to a dead car left on private property without the permission of the person in control of it.

Under Section 8.20, Marina lets the landowner or the car's owner ask the public safety director for a hearing "within ten days after the mailing of the notices of intention to abate and remove." After that, the director can order the car hauled away and place the costs "against the owner of the parcel." Five days after that order, the car "may be disposed of by removal to a scrapyard or automobile dismantler's yard." Where the code requires a mailed decision notice, those five days count from that mailing. With an appeal, the wait is fifteen days.

Chapter 8.22 is about where cars sit. You can't park or keep any vehicle on a front yard, "including the lawn area," or on the street side of a corner lot, "except on an improved driveway or in an approved garage or carport." Breaking this rule is a public nuisance, it can be charged "as an infraction," and the landowner or the person in control of the premises pays for removal.

A Marina street car parked three days running, in breach of a local rule, may be towed under section 22651. Section 22523 calls it abandonment if you leave one on someone else's land and they never said yes. It costs at least $100, plus you have to prove the removal was paid for.

Signing it over

With a title in hand, the sale is short. For a Marina sale, you and any lienholder sign the Certificate of Title. After that, the Marina buyer takes the title to the DMV and covers the transfer fee. REG 138, the release-of-liability notice, is due to DMV within 5 days of a Marina sale. Send it online or by mail. A Marina car headed for wrecking or dismantling by the buyer needs no smog test. Standard plates stay on.

Getting an offer

Got a car to sell in Marina, title or not? Call (877) 421-6008 or send the form. Pickup can be from a driveway off the coast highway or a lot near the welcome sign. Seaside is 4.1 miles away, Monterey 7.5 and Salinas 8.6. See the California page for the other state rules.