Oakland: selling a car that's dead or junk

A second Oakland code counts the same 72 hours

The blight chapter, section 8.24.020, reaches the same car from another direction. It lists any motor vehicle that is wrecked, dismantled or disabled, "or which may not be operated because of the need for repairs or for any other reason," for more than "seventy-two (72) consecutive hours." It applies to open storage, which the code defines as "storage on private property other than in a completely enclosed building."

Such items are barred too from the area from the front lot line to the front of the house, "except where such item is located in an approved driveway or approved parking space." The rule lists two exceptions: a car "completely enclosed within a building in a lawful manner where it is not visible from the street," and cars held for a licensed dismantler, a licensed dealer or a lawful junkyard.

How Oakland's abatement letter works

Under section 10.64.090, Oakland must give the car's owner and the property owner a ten-day notice "by registered mail". You have 10 days from when it was mailed to clear the car away. If not, Oakland tows it and charges the landowner the cost plus administrative costs.

A hearing request to the Chief of Police has to go in during that same 10-day stretch. The landowner, if someone else left the car, can mail a sworn written statement to that effect. Section 10.64.100 counts it as a hearing request, with no need for the landowner to appear. If a hearing is set, its date reaches you by registered letter with ten or more days of warning. If no request comes in, the city can abate without a hearing.

On Oakland streets

Vehicle Code 22651 allows towing a car parked on an Oakland street once it has broken a local ordinance for 72 hours straight. Oakland's own code adds street-work signs: once they have been up for 72 hours, section 10.28.270 lets officers remove cars still parked there. If a tow already happened, read towed or impounded. A tow operator holds a lien on cars it hauls. When an Oakland car is worth $4,000 or less, the yard sells it 31 to 41 days after mailing the lien-sale notice.

The California paperwork for an Oakland car

Oakland sellers deal with the state, not Alameda County: California's DMV keeps title work at its own field offices and also takes it through the mail (PO Box 942869, Sacramento 94269). In Oakland, the seller signs the "California Certificate of Title". A lienholder left from a loan on record signs it too. The DMV's seller steps never ask for a notary. Five days is your limit for REG 138, the state's transfer-and-release notice. With the sale logged at the DMV, Vehicle Code 5602 puts any later tickets and lawsuits on the buyer.

Smog is off the table when the buyer will scrap or dismantle the car; that transfer is exempt. Regular-issue plates normally remain bolted on for the next owner, while vanity plates can follow you to another car for a fee. A missing title is fixed with REG 227 at $28; see junk car with no title.

Getting an offer

Call (877) 421-6008 or use the form, which asks a few quick questions about your Oakland car. Our truck heads to the car, on an Oakland curb, up a hillside driveway, or at a shop that couldn't fix it. Close by are Alameda, San Leandro and Berkeley, and the statewide rules are on the California page.