Selling a dead or junk car in Rohnert Park

How Rohnert Park sends notice

The process starts at 8.16.080. A ten-day notice is mailed "by registered or certified mail to the owner of the land and to the owner of the vehicle." The one exception is a car so stripped that its identification numbers cannot reveal an owner.

The landowner's copy says to take the car away "within 10 days from the date of mailing of this notice." If it stays, Rohnert Park hauls it off and charges the landowner for removal and administration.

Hearings, and the five-day order

Inside those 10 days, the land or vehicle owner may write to the Chief of Police asking for a public hearing (8.16.090). Two points stand out:

• A sworn written statement from the landowner denying responsibility counts as a hearing request, and no appearance is required.
• At least ten days ahead, Rohnert Park mails the hearing date by registered mail.

Miss the window, and the city "shall have the authority to abate and remove the vehicle" with no hearing at all. Chapter 10.84 runs a parallel process through the chief of public safety and a hearing officer. An order there requires the job be done "within five days after issuance of the order," unless the examiner sets a reasonable alternative (10.84.060).

A signed removal release from the landowner and from the car's owner lets Rohnert Park skip the notice. It also skips it for a car valued under $200 with no motor, transmission or wheels that cannot be towed, sitting on farm-zoned land or a lot without a house. If registration papers turn up on that kind of car, its owners get 12 days' notice to claim it before disposal.

Title, plates and DMV

California's DMV, not a county office, handles Rohnert Park titles. Its private-sale instructions include no notary step. Rohnert Park sales need the seller's and any lienholder's signatures, and the buyer then hands in the title with the $15 fee for transfer. Title missing? A new one costs $28 through REG 227. More at selling with no title.

In Rohnert Park, the REG 138 release of liability must be filed within five days after the sale. Ordinary plates go with the car, while personalized ones you may move for a fee. Planning to strip it first? DMV wants a Junk record before any dismantling, and an investigative service fee applies if you reverse that order.

Getting an offer

Share the year, make, model, odometer reading, whether it fires up, and the title picture, through the form or at (877) 421-6008. Pickup works at a house near the campus, an apartment complex's lot, or a repair bay where it stalled for good. Santa Rosa is 6.8 miles away and Petaluma 8.3; the California page holds the statewide rules.