Selling a junk or dead car in Darien

The town-lot rule, piece by piece

Darien's lot rules do more than ban dead cars. Each municipal off-street lot has a time limit. When a car reaches it, the car "shall not be reparked in the same lot within one hour thereafter." So pushing a dead car from one space to the next does not reset anything.

A permit does not change this either. The town gives apartment owners on the Tilley Municipal Parking Lot block "up to two (2) free permits per apartment unit" for the lot's middle level. Free spaces in the Center Street lot are held for volunteer agencies. The operative-car rule still covers every car in those spaces.

Who writes these rules? Under Section 74-23, the board of selectmen is "the parking division of the town" for lots the town owns or controls. School lots are up to the board of education during school hours, and park lots are up to the park and recreation commission. New lot rules take effect "15 days after publication in a newspaper having substantial circulation in the town."

A dead car in your own driveway

The Darien sections we found cover town lots, not private yards. Darien may have its own rules for cars on private property. If it does, we did not find them online.

State law gives every Connecticut town the power to adopt blight rules. The town has to give the owner written notice and a fair chance to fix the problem. The statute does not name cars, so whether a junk car counts as blight depends on each town's own ordinance.

Some state rules apply everywhere, Darien included:

• Leaving a car over 24 hours on a road or on someone else's land is an infraction in Connecticut, fined $85 or more.
• If a car seems abandoned or unregistered, police may post a notice on it. One day later it can be towed, and the owner pays storage.
• Once police hold a car, certified letters go to its owner and lender inside 48 hours, and a 10-day window to dispute begins.

The title, and the Danbury DMV

No county or town in Connecticut prints titles; the state DMV alone does. Among offices we looked at for Darien's region, Danbury's sits at 2 Lee Mac Avenue, roughly 24 miles north of central Darien as the crow flies. Appointments exist at most DMV locations.

That drive is rarely needed. On sale day in Darien, your signature goes on the title's reverse, and the buyer leaves holding it plus a bill of sale. Use the state's Form H-31, or draft one listing buyer and seller with addresses, VIN, make, model, year, color, price, date and your signature. A missing title costs $25 to replace on Form H-6B, mailed inside 20 business days. Recyclers holding a state license must receive the title of any car required to have one. Past 20 model years, Connecticut skips titling entirely, so Form Q-1 with your last registration stands in.

Plates, insurance and the tax bill

The plates stay with you. Cancel the registration with the DMV online, which takes about 7 minutes, and keep the receipt. That receipt is your proof, because Connecticut has no separate release form. Keep your liability insurance until the cancellation goes through. See after you sell for the rest.

Getting an offer

Reach us at (877) 421-6008 or through the form. For a Darien car, a quick call or our short form gets things going. Our truck comes to the Darien garage, driveway or roadside spot where it quit. Darien sits between Stamford and Norwalk; for statewide rules, see Connecticut.