Selling a dead or junk car in Redding

What Chapter 9.08 covers

Redding adopted its abandoned-vehicle chapter under Vehicle Code 22660. Section 9.08.010 declares that "the presence of an abandoned, wrecked, dismantled, or inoperative vehicle or parts thereof on public or private property, except as expressly permitted in this chapter," is a public nuisance. Its wording leaves out the "not including highways" phrase found in some other cities' versions. Its findings blame such cars for falling property values, blight, plundering and fire risk, then add hazards to children and a home for rodents.

The notice, step by step

1. The letter. Redding's Section 9.08.080 calls for "a ten-day notice of intent to abate and remove". In Redding, both the landowner and the car's registered owner get it by certified mail. Only a car with no readable identification numbers skips it.
2. The deadline. The notice orders removal "within ten days from the date of mailing of this notice." Days spent in the mail count against you.
3. The cost. Ignore it and the city hauls the car off, then bills the landowner for removal plus its administrative costs.
4. The hearing. Under 9.08.090, a request received by the board of appeals within the ten days gets a public hearing. The city sends word of it "by registered mail, at least ten days before the hearing." If nobody asks for one, the car can be removed with no hearing.

What the board can decide

Section 9.08.100 gives the board room. It "may delay the time for removal" when the circumstances justify it, useful if a buyer is already lined up. In the end it can order removal and fix the costs the landowner will pay. That order has to identify the car, with its VIN and plate number when those are legible on site.

A landowner who didn't bring the car has a defense. Swear in writing, within the ten days, that you're not responsible, and the board treats it as a hearing request you don't have to attend. Should the board find the car arrived "without the consent of the owner of the land," never accepted since, it "shall not assess the costs" against that property.

Blight and the 72-hour count

Redding's blighted-property section (1.15.160) sets its own 72-hour clock for special mobile equipment, utility trailers, boats and boat trailers kept in front yards, or in side or rear yards not screened by a fence or shrubbery. The count is strict. Parking the item on the street for a while does not restart it: it stays over the limit unless removed "for an intervening period of time in excess of seventy-two consecutive hours," and time spent "upon any public street" doesn't count as removal.

The section spares two kinds of vehicle storage:

• "A vehicle or part thereof that is completely enclosed within a building in a lawful manner where it is not visible from the street or other public or private property"
• one kept on property where a licensed dismantler, a licensed vehicle dealer, or a junkyard that is a legal nonconforming use does business

On the street

Section 11.24.250 is one sentence: no one may park a vehicle "upon any street, alley, public highway or public property for more than a consecutive period of seventy-two hours." Past that point, Vehicle Code 22651 lets a car parked against a local limit be towed. A Redding tow yard holding your car also holds a lien on it. Cars valued at $4,000 or less fall under Civil Code 3072. Once the owner of a Redding car is sent the "Notice of Pending Lien Sale.", the yard can sell it between day 31 and day 41. Within 10 days, a Redding owner can mail a "Declaration of Opposition" and get a hearing before a judge. Towed or impounded covers what to do.

California paperwork for a Redding seller

Shasta County does not issue titles. The state DMV does, at field offices or by mail. Sign the seller line on the Certificate of Title, have any listed lender sign, and give it to the buyer. The Redding buyer then files it and pays the $15 fee. No notary is part of the DMV's private sale steps.

Your own job after the sale is REG 138, the release of liability, due in 5 days. It pays off later as well. Say a buyer abandons the car and the lien sale doesn't cover the bill. Under Vehicle Code 22523, a filed report of sale frees the last registered owner from the infraction and the debt. Selling for wrecking or dismantling removes the smog requirement. Standard plates go with the car, unless the owner has the DMV list it as Junk and hands them in.

Title missing? A new one costs $28 with REG 227. If no ownership papers turn up and the car is worth less than $5,000, no bond is needed: the DMV accepts what ownership documents you have along with a Statement of Facts (REG 256). Junk car with no title has more, and after you sell covers the last steps.

A long way from the next city

Redding is far from the other cities on this site. Chico is 63.1 miles away as the crow flies, Oroville 85.7 and Eureka 95.0. That distance doesn't change pickup. The California page has the statewide rules.

Getting an offer

Selling a car in Redding? Call (877) 421-6008 or fill in our form. We collect cars from side yards, from streets where the 72 hours are running out, and from shops that quit on the repair.