Selling a junk or dead car in Orange

Orange's two ten-day clocks

Orange wrote Chapter 10.74 under the power that Vehicle Code Section 22660 gives California cities. It contains two counts.

Count one is the misdemeanor. Eleven days with the car parked on Orange land, roads excepted, crosses the line. The code lists exceptions right after the limit, so if your car is covered or stored some special way, read the whole chapter.

The second count opens with a written "notice to abate nuisance." The City Council may have the Chief of Police, or a designee, hand it to the premises owner with a description of the car. It says that if the car is "not removed within a period of 10 days after the notice," a public hearing will rule on removal and on putting "the administrative costs and the cost of removal" on the land. The hearing rule points back to that notice in Section 10.74.080.

If you rent in Orange, the second count falls on your landlord's parcel. That makes it worth talking to the owner before a letter shows up.

Orange curbs and tow yards

We have not read Orange's own parking chapter, so state law covers this part. Police may tow under Vehicle Code 22651 when a car breaks a local parking rule for 72 hours or more. For a wreck on an Orange public right-of-way, Section 22669 goes further. With the engine, transmission, wheels, tires, doors or windshield gone, it can be removed that same day.

Once a yard holds the car, Civil Code 3072 sets the timing for a lower-value car. In Orange, the yard schedules the sale for 31 to 41 days after it mails a Notice of Pending Lien Sale. An owner who objects has ten days to ask for a court hearing. Towed or impounded explains how to act before that.

Selling an Orange car: DMV, smog and plates

Orange County keeps no title desk. California's DMV handles titles itself, at state field offices. On a private sale from Orange, you sign the Certificate of Title, a lienholder adds a signature if a loan was never cleared, and the buyer carries it to DMV. The DMV's seller steps for an Orange sale make no mention of a notary. If the title is lost, a REG 227 replaces it; see junk car with no title.

Orange sellers get five days to file REG 138, the "Notice of Transfer and Release of Liability," and it can be filed online at dmv.ca.gov/nrl. Once it is recorded, later parking tickets and lawsuits go to whoever bought the car.

Orange sellers normally owe the buyer a Smog Check, but not when the car is headed for a dismantler. Junked transfers are exempt. Ordinary California plates usually stay with the car. When a car is recorded as Junk, its plates go back to DMV. There is more in after you sell.

Getting an offer

Phone (877) 421-6008 or start online. Send details on your Orange car through our form. In Orange our truck can back into a side yard, a carport or a repair shop's lot. Santa Ana is 3.7 miles off and Tustin 4.8. For statewide rules, see California.