New Canaan: selling a car that no longer runs

The boot and the tow under Section 33-1

The code limits how police may immobilize a car. It must be done with a device "which will cause no damage to such vehicle unless it is moved while such device or mechanism is in place." Police must put a notice on the car, "in a conspicuous manner," warning that trying to move it could damage it.

After that, a 24-hour window opens. If the owner has not taken the car back "within 24 hours after the towing, immobilization or removal," the Police Department notifies the owner "by certified mail, return receipt."

The bill grows with time. The code lists:

• storage "for each day or portion of a day" past the first 24 hours
• "All sums legally due to the Town of New Canaan for unpaid parking tickets and fines"

Towed cars go to a pound set up by the Board of Selectmen.

A dead car on your own land

The New Canaan section we found deals with tickets and towing on public streets. We did not find a town rule aimed at junk cars in a yard or driveway. The town may still have its own rules.

Connecticut lets towns like New Canaan adopt blight rules, provided owners receive written notice and a fair chance to correct things. Cars are not named in the statute. State law does set these limits everywhere:

• A car left abandoned over a day on a road, or on private land owned by others, brings an infraction; Connecticut sets that fine at $85 minimum.
• Any car posing a menace to traffic, health or safety, whether on a road or off it, may be seized by local officers, troopers or DMV inspectors.
• An unusable, apparently abandoned car lacking valid plates and worth $500 or less becomes town property, bound for a licensed recycler.

Emissions, tickets and a stuck registration

A parked car often lapses on more than tickets. New Canaan cars take the $20 emissions test at private stations every two years. The four newest model years are exempt, as is model year 2001 and older. A lapse in insurance or emissions can suspend the registration.

Title work from New Canaan

Only Connecticut's DMV issues titles. Of the offices we checked, Danbury's, at 2 Lee Mac Avenue, lies about 16 miles north of central New Canaan as the crow flies.

Odds are you will not go. New Canaan sellers sign on the title's reverse and pass along a bill of sale. Older than 20 model years? Then no title exists; Form Q-1 travels with your most recent registration certificate. When a car does require a title, a licensed recycler must collect it and stamp it "JUNKED."

Plates are yours to keep. After cancelling online, hold on to that receipt, and leave insurance active until DMV confirms the cancellation.

Getting an offer

For a New Canaan quote, call (877) 421-6008 or send the offer form. Pickup can be from a New Canaan home, a garage bay or the curb where it gave out. New Canaan is close to Stamford and Norwalk; statewide rules are on the Connecticut page.