Selling a dead or junk car in Mililani Town

No town code, so state law and the county decide

Mililani Town is a census-designated place of 28,121 people (2020 Census) on 4.009 square miles. It is not an incorporated city, and we found no town code for it online. Junk-car rules here come from Hawaii statute and from Honolulu County, which could add rules of its own beyond these.

The county has ten business days under HRS 290-1 to tow away an abandoned car. Unless a county ordinance says otherwise, a car counts as abandoned once it's been left alone over 24 hours while sitting unlawfully on public land or a highway's shoulder, setback or easement. HRS 290-8 lets the county agency head call a car derelict when it lacks a part or is too wrecked to run and one of the listed conditions also applies.

Once a car is towed, HRS 290-2 requires the county to send the owner a registered or certified letter. If nobody reclaims the car within ten days of mailing, it can be disposed of, and HRS 290-3 allows a public auction after one newspaper ad. To report a car that looks abandoned, Honolulu's number is (808) 768-2530.

A dead car on Mililani property

Where a sign bans unauthorized parking, a car left on private land without permission may be towed, and its owner pays (HRS 290-11). The legal cap on the tow is $75, or $85 with a dolly, and $7.50 a mile on top. For a car towed in Mililani Town, storage tops out at $25 a day for seven days and $20 a day after that. Those are limits on what a tower may charge, set by law.

Mililani Town sits in Honolulu County, so the county's free Junk Vehicle Program is open to you. Residents can have a non-running car hauled off at no cost through the program, and it clears unpaid registration and fees. It has to be clear of debris, sitting on your property or legally on a public street, within reach of a tow truck, and carrying two or more inflated tires on the end the truck gets to. Junking does not wipe out loans, citations or criminal charges.

Title work on Nuuanu Avenue

The office we checked is 1041 Nuuanu Ave. Ste. A, Honolulu, phone (808) 768-4325. Honolulu does title and registration work at satellite city halls by AlohaQ appointment. Lost the title? Apply for a duplicate before anything else with form CS-L(MVR)10 and a $10.00 fee. Do it in person, or by mail with the form notarized. If a lien is recorded, the request can come only from the lienholder. See junk car with no title.

Signing a Hawaii title

• In Section A on the front, write the odometer reading and the date, then print and sign. Every joint owner signs. No odometer reading is needed for model year 2010 and older.
• A notary is optional.
• The buyer gets three things from you: the signed-over title, the most recent registration and a current Hawaii safety inspection certificate.
• Tear Form CS-L(MVR)53 off along the title's upper edge. Mail or file it within 10 days. Missing it can cost up to $100. Hold on to a copy. Filing gives you a complete defense if someone later blames you for the buyer using or abandoning the car.

A transfer only goes through once the car is current on registration and safety inspection, and back registration is for buyer and seller to settle between them. A car an insurer totaled cannot get a standard title until it is repaired and inspected; its new title then reads "Rebuilt Vehicle". If the car has veteran specialty plates, trade them for regular ones first, or the county won't record the transfer. After you sell and the Hawaii page cover the rest.

Getting an offer

Use the form or call (877) 421-6008. Send the form about your Mililani Town car and we'll reply. We can collect it wherever it's parked in Mililani Town, or at a shop in Waipahu or Pearl City if it died there. Mililani Mauka is 2.4 miles away.