Selling a dead car in Wasco

Wasco's own rule: section 17.80.020

Wasco's municipal code deals with dead cars in section 17.80.020, on inoperative and abandoned vehicles. It works by mailed notice. The owner of record is told the city has found the car "exists as an abandoned, wrecked, dismantled or Inoperative Vehicle" and "constitutes a Public Nuisance."

• 10 days to remove it. The notice tells the responsible party to remove the car "within 10-days from the date of mailing of this notice." If that does not happen, the city removes it, and "the costs thereof, together with administrative costs," are assessed to the responsible party.
• 10 days to ask for a hearing. Either the property owner or the vehicle owner can ask for a public hearing "within ten days after the mailing of the notices." The Wasco city council holds it.
• After the hearing. The council may order the car removed "as a public nuisance" and set "the administrative costs and the cost of removal to be charged against the responsible party."
• Seven days to disposal. The rule reads that "Seven days after adoption of the order," or seven days after the decision notice is mailed, the car "may be disposed of by removal to a scrap yard or automobile dismantler's yard."

So a letter from the city starts a 10-day count.

State law that applies in Wasco either way

• Stripped cars on the street. If a car in Wasco has lost its engine, transmission, wheels, tires, doors, windshield or another needed part, Vehicle Code 22669 lets an officer take it off public right-of-way at once.
• Walking away from it. Vehicle Code 22523 bars leaving a car on a California highway. On private land in Wasco, it's only allowed if the landowner agrees. Expect a fine of at least $100. A judge will also want proof that the removal bill got paid.
• Who answers for it. When an abandoned car gets impounded and nobody claims it, the person last registered as owner owes whatever the lien sale fails to recover. Having a report of sale on file removes that exposure.

That last point is why the release form below matters more than it looks.

Clear your name in five days

Wasco sellers have five days to tell the DMV, using REG 138. Its full name is the "Notice of Transfer and Release of Liability." File it online or by mail. Once it is recorded, later tickets, violations and civil claims attach to whoever bought the car.

When the car falls short of air board rules

Vehicle Code 24007 deals with cars out of line with California Air Resources Board rules. In Wasco, that kind of car can only be sold to a dealer or to someone who wrecks or dismantles it legally. The seller hands over a compliance or noncompliance certificate when the car changes hands. Smog Check is a different rule, and junking a car exempts it from that inspection.

The title and plates

Titles here run through the California DMV, not Kern County. A Wasco seller signs the Certificate of Title. A Wasco car still under a loan also needs the lender's signature. The buyer then submits it and covers the $15 fee. On notarizing: the DMV's seller steps list no notary. Lose the title and REG 227 replaces it. Ordinary plates travel with the car, except that recording it as Junk means handing them over to the DMV.

A car that scavengers have picked apart can still be sold; see missing parts. Junk car removal covers how pickup works.

Nearby

Besides Shafter and Delano, Bakersfield is 24.9 miles away, Corcoran 35.6 and Porterville 37.5. State rules are on the California page.

Getting an offer

Selling a car in Wasco? Call (877) 421-6008 or start with our form. Pickup happens where the car stands, from a yard on the edge of Wasco to a repair bay that gave up on it.