Selling a dead or junk car in Westminster

How smog works when you sell

On an ordinary Westminster sale, the Bureau of Automotive Repair expects the seller to get the Smog Check done first and give the buyer the report. That report has to be from the last 90 days. The requirement applies at a change of owner across every smog program area in the state.

Some cars never need the test:

• A Westminster gas or hybrid car four model years old or newer, which pays an $8 smog transfer fee instead
• gas cars built in 1975 or earlier
• diesels from 1997 or earlier, and diesels heavier than 14,000 pounds
• electric cars and motorcycles

Air Resources Board rules add one more limit. A Westminster car that fails those rules may go only to a dealer, or to lawful wrecking or dismantling (Vehicle Code 24007). At the sale, the seller provides a compliance certificate. A dead car going to a dismantler fits the exception.

Westminster's own rules

We could not find Westminster's vehicle code online. Vehicle Code 22660 gives every California city room to write a removal rule for wrecked or inoperative cars on private or public land and to recover what removal costs. Assume Westminster may have one, and check before letting a car sit for months.

Curbside, a car parked three days straight against a local ordinance is towable under Vehicle Code 22651.

Title, release and plates

Titles here run through the state DMV; California has no county title offices. If you'd rather file on paper from Westminster, the address is DMV, PO Box 942869, Sacramento, CA 94269.

• Signing: you sign the Certificate of Title, and a lender signs too if it has a lien. Your Westminster buyer handles the DMV filing and its $15 charge. No notary is needed.
• No title: REG 227 comes first (junk car with no title).
• Reporting: REG 138 is due five days after the sale, by web or by post. It moves later citations and claims to the buyer.
• Plates: regular plates normally stay with the Westminster car you sold. Personalized and special ones can be shifted to another car for a fee. A car logged as junk returns its plates to the DMV.

Around Westminster

Garden Grove is 2.7 miles away and Stanton 3.3. Fountain Valley and Huntington Beach are each 3.8 miles. The California page has the statewide rules.

Getting an offer

Westminster car failed smog? Reach us online or at (877) 421-6008. Our truck can collect from a Westminster garage near the 405, a carport, or a shop done working on it.