Selling a dead or junk car in Monterey Park

What Monterey Park treats as a nuisance

Chapter 9.03 covers any "abandoned, wrecked, dismantled or inoperative vehicle or part thereof" kept on private or public property, with highways left to other rules. The council's findings say such cars "promote blight and deterioration" and "invite plundering." Loose parts count the same as a whole car.

Under Section 9.03.050, the chief of police, a deputy, or someone the city manager authorizes "may enter upon private or public property to examine a vehicle." They can also look for the VIN and any proof of registration.

The letter and its clocks

• Ten days. Monterey Park's notice of intent travels by certified or registered post. One copy goes to whoever owns the parcel per the county assessment roll, another to the car's owner of record. The tow can come "not less than ten days after the mailing of such notice."
• A hearing, if you ask in writing. The Monterey Park city clerk must receive the request inside ten days of that mailing. The hearing decides removal and whether costs land on the parcel.
• Twelve days for low-value cars. Before final disposal, owners get notice, and a car not claimed and moved "within twelve days after the notice is mailed" can go.
• Five days after removal. Monterey Park must alert the state DMV, forwarding whatever registration papers, title or plates it recovered.

Monterey Park can drop the ten-day warning if both owners signed releases waiving any further interest. Disposal under 9.03.110 is "by removal to a scrapyard, automobile dismantling yard or any suitable site for processing scrap."

Title, plates and the DMV

Paperwork from Monterey Park goes to the state, not the county. California's DMV keeps its own field offices and also accepts title papers mailed to its Sacramento title box. Your part is signing the title, plus a lender's signature if a loan shows on it. Filing it, and paying the $15 transfer fee, falls to the buyer. Nowhere in the DMV's seller instructions does a notary appear.

No title in hand? REG 227 replaces it, or transfers ownership in its place; the replacement fee is $28. See selling with no title.

Five days is the window for REG 138, the release-of-liability notice; file it through the DMV website or with a paper copy. Standard-issue plates stay bolted on in most cases when a Monterey Park car changes hands. Because this car is headed for junking, no smog certificate is owed. After you sell has the remaining to-dos, and statewide rules sit on the California page.

Close to Monterey Park

Neighbors with their own pages: Alhambra at 2.4 miles, Montebello at 2.6, Rosemead at 3.2 and San Gabriel at 3.8.

Getting an offer

Message us online or ring (877) 421-6008 with a few details. Name the car, give its rough miles, say if the engine catches, and tell us who has the title. With free pickup anywhere in the US, the truck can come to a carport near Atlantic Boulevard, a side street or a repair shop.