Selling a dead or junk car in Suisun City

The words Chapter 10.36 uses

Section 10.36.020 sets the vocabulary behind Suisun City's three-day rule:

• Wrecked means "damaged to such an extent that it cannot be operated upon the highway."
• Dismantled means "partially or wholly disassembled."
• Abandoned means left in such "inoperable or neglected condition" that the owner's intent to give it up "may be reasonably concluded."

One exclusion: an accident-wrecked car hauled to a storage facility but never claimed "will not be considered an abandoned vehicle for the purposes of this program."

Suisun City's 10-day letter

Under Section 10.36.080, Suisun City's ten-day notice of intention goes out by certified mail, one copy each to the parcel owner and the car's owner. Its instruction is to remove the car "within 10 days from the date of mailing of this notice." Ignore it, and Suisun City removes the car, then bills the parcel owner for the work plus administrative costs.

To contest, either owner asks the City Administrator for a City Council hearing inside those 10 days. No request means "the Chief of Police shall have the authority to abate and remove" it. Section 10.36.090 fills in two points. In Suisun City, a landowner can deny responsibility in a sworn written statement, and that counts as a hearing request with no need to attend. Hearing dates go out by certified mail no fewer than ten days beforehand.

Down at the marina

Section 21.06.050 requires the harbormaster's permission before a vehicle, trailer or boat stays in Suisun City Marina lots beyond "seventy-two consecutive hours." Without it, the vehicle "may be cited and removed from the marina area at the owner's expense." Repair work anywhere in the marina is banned, apart from emergency fixes the harbormaster deems necessary to move it. A car that quits beside the docks cannot wait there for a mechanic.

Paperwork once a Suisun City sale is done

What shields you after a sale is REG 138, the "Notice of Transfer and Release of Liability." California requires it within five days. Suisun City sellers use dmv.ca.gov/nrl, or they mail the form to DMV at P.O. Box 942859, Sacramento, CA 94259-0001. When DMV logs it, later parking and traffic liability shifts to the buyer.

Beforehand, sign the California title; so does any lienholder. The California DMV's seller steps list no notary. Regular plates generally go with the car. Suisun City sellers usually hand over a smog certificate. A Suisun City car going to a wrecker or dismantler skips it. See after you sell and the California page.

Suisun City's neighbors

Fairfield is just 1.5 miles off, with Vacaville at 7.9. American Canyon is 14.4, Benicia 14.5, Napa 16.1 and Vallejo 16.8.

Getting an offer

For a Suisun City pickup, call (877) 421-6008 or fill in our offer form. Pickup is free, whether the car sits in a Suisun City driveway, near the waterfront or wherever it stalled. If it won't start at all, see car doesn't run.