San Clemente's 72-hour rule, and selling a dead car

Why the city calls it a nuisance

San Clemente gives its reasons in Section 10.52.010. These cars are "an attractive nuisance creating a hazard to the health and safety of minors, a harborage for rodents and insects, and visual blight." So the city calls them a public nuisance on public or private property. Public highways are the exception, since state law covers those.

The letter, the hearing, the infraction

Section 10.52.090 puts the Director of Community Development in charge. After San Clemente finds a car is a nuisance, the registered owner and the landowner on the assessment roll each get a letter "by registered or certified mail".

• 10 days to respond. "Within ten (10) days of the posted date of the letter," a property owner or vehicle owner may ask that a public hearing be held.
• 10 days' notice of the hearing. The hearing date is mailed at least ten days ahead. If a letter comes back undeliverable, the hearing moves at least ten days past the return.
• The warning. The notice says "it is a criminal infraction" to fail or refuse to remove the car when ordered.

At the hearing, the city can also seek its administrative and removal costs against the property.

Cars stuck at a repair shop

Many dead cars here end up at a shop that can't justify the repair. San Clemente's zoning code limits how long they can wait. Section 17.28.320 says outdoor lots at repair facilities are for employee and customer parking, not "long term (over one week) storage of vehicles." It adds that "no vehicles awaiting repair shall be parked or stored on any street or in any alley," and that junked or wrecked vehicles may not be stored outside the main building. If the shop asks you to move the car, selling it from the shop lot solves that.

One more local trap: a car left in a City park parking lot past the posted curfew can be removed under Section 9.12.060.

Title, plates and back fees

The title is signed by you and, where a loan is still recorded, by the lender. Submitting it and paying the fee is the buyer's part. DMV's instructions for this stop at signatures; no notary appears.

The form you file is REG 138, and it's due inside 5 days. It matters because of Vehicle Code 5602. When DMV records it, tickets and civil suits from after the hand-off go to the buyer.

A car that sat for years with lapsed tags owes DMV fees and penalties for that stretch, unless a PNO (REG 102) was in place. In San Clemente, regular plates pass to the buyer with the car. San Clemente owners with personalized or special plates can shift them to another car for a fee. A buyer who will take the car apart needs no smog test. See car sitting for years and the California page.

Nearby towns

San Juan Capistrano lies 4.3 miles from San Clemente as the crow flies, Dana Point 5.0 and Laguna Niguel 7.5. If the car sits in one of those cities, check that city's code.

Getting an offer

The quickest start is (877) 421-6008 or the form. The offer form walks you through your San Clemente car. We pick up at your home, at the shop that has it, or anywhere along the coast it broke down.