Selling a dead car in Arlington Heights

The 48-hour rule and the driveway

That rule sits in Section 28-10, the village's off-street parking section, along with two others that limit where a dead car can wait:

• No grass. "Parking upon grass, dirt or other non-hard surface of any vehicle except towed vehicles is prohibited." Rolling the car onto the side lawn breaks a second rule.
• Not in front of the house overnight. Vehicles other than private passenger cars and certain commercial vehicles may not park between the front of the building and the street overnight in a residential area.

The 48 hours apply to a car that is either inoperable or unlicensed. A running car with expired plates counts.

How a village tow works

Section 18-224 lets the village tow a car found to be abandoned, or parked against certain village rules, "at the expense of the owner of the vehicle." It runs on paper notices:

• Before the tow. A pre-tow warning notice describes the car, lists the plate and VIN, and says a hearing will be granted if requested.
• Ten days. "If, after ten days, there has been no response to the pre-tow warning notice, the vehicle may be towed."
• After the tow. Within ten days a post-tow notice, sent both first class and certified, reaches the owner and any lender with a lien, with a copy of the tow order. For cars seven years old or newer, the towing company sends a second one.

The village can tow right away, with no notice, when the plates and VIN are gone, the car is a hazard, or it blocks traffic or a walkway. Village parking lots have their own rule: no parking in any space from 2 a.m. to 5 a.m. without a 24-hour permit.

When the car was totaled, or flooded

Many dead cars in a suburb like this one got there through an insurance claim. Illinois law is specific:

• Once a total-loss check is paid, the car belongs to the insurer as salvage, unless the damage came from hail alone or the car is nine or more model years old; then the owner can keep it if both sides agree.
• Water damage makes a car salvage only when fixing it would top 50% of its fair market value. That certificate, and each title after it, is stamped "flood."
• A salvage car can't get Illinois plates. If you sell one on a Salvage Title, you must give the buyer a Disclosure of Rebuilt Vehicle form.

See insurer totaled it and salvage title.

Signing it over

Arlington Heights titles are a Secretary of State matter; Cook County stays out of it. On a clean title, date and sign the Assignment of Title, pocket your plates, and get the Notice of Sale (the title's stub, or VSD 703) into the mail promptly, which closes out your responsibility.

Nearby

Rolling Meadows is 2.7 miles from Arlington Heights as the crow flies, Mount Prospect 3.2, Palatine 3.5, and Wheeling 3.8. State rules are on the Illinois page.

Getting an offer

Phone (877) 421-6008 or write in with the car's model year, make, model, running state, and title type: clean, salvage or flood. Holding a village pre-tow warning? Share its date. We can collect from a driveway, a detached garage, or the body shop where the insurance claim stalled.