Shafter's 10-day rule and selling a dead car

The cover clause, read carefully

Section 10.44.030 adds: "When covered with an approved car cover, additional objects or trash shall not be placed or stored on top of the stored vehicle and cover." It then requires that "The stored vehicle must not be plainly visible from the street or other public or private property," unless a licensed dismantler, licensed dealer or junkyard keeps it lawfully. A cover with boxes piled on it fails the first test. A car in plain sight of the neighbors fails the second.

A stricter line in the property code

Shafter's adopted property maintenance code carries its own definition. An "INOPERABLE MOTOR VEHICLE" is "A vehicle that cannot be driven upon the public street for reason including but limited to being wrecked, abandoned, in as state of disrepair, or incapable of being move under its own power." The rule that follows: "Except as provided for in other regulations, inoperable motor vehicles shall not be parked, kept or stored on any premises, and vehicles shall not at any time be in a state of major disassembly, disrepair, or in the process of being stripped or dismantled." Pulling parts off a car in the driveway runs straight into that last clause. Read part it out or sell it whole before you start.

Notice, hearing and removal

Shafter's Section 10.44.060 calls for "A ten-day notice of intention to abate and remove the vehicle or parts thereof, as a public nuisance." Shafter sends it registered to both the landowner and the car owner. Shafter leaves out the car's owner only when no identification numbers remain to show who it is. Shafter's form asks the landowner to remove the car "within ten (10) days from the date of mailing of this notice." If it stays, the city takes it and bills the land's owner for removal and administrative costs.

Under Section 10.44.070, either owner who asks inside those ten days gets a public hearing before the City Council. Shafter counts a landowner's sworn denial of responsibility as such a request, so no attendance is needed. Hearing notices go out by registered mail ten or more days ahead. If no one asks, the city "shall have the authority to abate and remove the vehicle or parts thereof as a public nuisance without holding a public hearing."

Moving it down the block does not reset the clock

On time-limited streets, Section 10.40.085 says moving a car to another space within two thousand feet "shall not be deemed a defense to the time limitations imposed by this code."

California title and plate rules

Shafter sellers handle titles with the California DMV. In Shafter, the Certificate of Title gets signed by the registered owner. If there's a lien, the lender adds a signature. The buyer files it and pays $15. Shafter sellers can stop looking for a notary rule; the DMV's seller steps don't include one. Send REG 138 inside five days, online or on paper, so tickets dated after the sale go to someone else.

Smog testing is waived for a car headed to a dismantler. Plates generally stay put on the car, unless it is recorded as Junk, which sends them back to the DMV. A car with a blown engine sells the same way as any other.

Close by

By straight-line distance, Shafter's neighbors are Wasco at 12.2 miles, Bakersfield at 12.7 and Delano at 20.1. State rules live on the California page.

Getting an offer

Tell us about the car on the form or at (877) 421-6008: what it is, the miles, if it still turns over, and where its title is. Pickup comes to it, whether it stands in a driveway near the downtown fountain or at the edge of a field.