Selling a junk or wrecked car in Pleasant Hill

What we found, and what we did not

The passage sits in a city zoning document that also deals with parking garages and off-street parking. Pleasant Hill's full abatement chapter, with notices, hearings and deadlines, never surfaced when we looked, and Pleasant Hill may have rules beyond this one.

Statewide, Vehicle Code 22660 is what authorizes a city to adopt such a chapter and recover its costs. Ask the city what applies to your address before planning around a car in the yard.

Taking it apart is a DMV matter

Stripping a wreck in a Pleasant Hill garage and scrapping the shell is legal, but California sets the order of steps. The DMV wants a Junk application from the owner before dismantling begins; tear it down first and an investigative service fee follows. Individuals without a dismantler license are allowed to junk their own cars. Plates come off and go to DMV at the time of that Junk application.

Lost papers have a route too, when normal ownership evidence can't be obtained. Below $5,000 in value, a Pleasant Hill car skips the bond. In Pleasant Hill you turn in any ownership proof you have plus REG 256, a Statement of Facts giving the seller's name and the value and saying there is no lien. DMV wants a motor vehicle bond for a Pleasant Hill car valued at $5,000 or more. Weigh both routes in part it out or sell it whole.

Salvaged, nonrepairable and junk

California's words for a damaged car are precise:

• Salvaged is the one brand California uses for damage, whether from a crash, flood or vandals, and it also marks cars once dismantled. No flood-only brand exists.
• Total loss salvage carries no percentage cutoff. Under VC 544 it is a car the owner or insurer judges uneconomical to fix, and the title gives way to a salvage certificate.
• Nonrepairable cars (VC 431), which are surgical strips, total burns or cars declared good only for parts or scrap, can never again be titled or registered.

Selling it whole

If you sell the car whole instead of taking it apart, the steps are these. You sign the California title as seller, any lienholder adds a signature, and delivery to DMV is the buyer's job. No notary step shows up in DMV's instructions. On an ordinary registration the plates stay with the car. REG 138 goes in within 5 days, by web or mail, so later citations follow the buyer.

Getting an offer

The form or a call to (877) 421-6008 starts it. Share the car, the number on the odometer, if it can drive, and if you have the pink slip. You sell the whole car as it sits, crumpled fender and all. Martinez is 3.7 miles away and Walnut Creek 4.0. State rules: California.