Edwardsville junk cars: the 10-day notice, emissions and a whole-car sale

Ten days after the letter

Section 74-85 calls storing junked vehicles inside city limits "a threat to the health and safety of the citizens of the city" and a public nuisance. When the director of police finds one on private land, the property owner or the car's owner is notified. From receipt of that written notice, you have ten days to "remove the vehicle to an auto salvage yard, or junkyard, or to a proper place outside the city, or repair the defects."

Miss the deadline and the city has the car towed to a storage site, with the towing and storage costs charged back. Impounded junked vehicles "shall be sold at a public auction," announced in a local paper "not less than 15 days before the auction."

Where a junk car can legally sit

Section 74-85 makes three exceptions: a car "stored within an enclosure eight feet high, a locked garage," or land zoned to allow that storage. A car cover on the lawn earns no exception.

The property maintenance code layers on more. Section 18-120 defines a junk vehicle as one "without a currently valid license plate or plates" that is also rusted, wrecked, dismantled, inoperative or abandoned. Section 18-146 permits "not more than one currently unregistered motor vehicle" per residential property, and even that one may not sit in major disassembly or be half stripped.

Snow routes and other tows

Section 114-345 names snow emergency routes, including both sides of North and South Main Street and stretches of Union, Buchanan and Kansas streets. A car parked there during a ban, or stalled in snow with nobody moving it, can be towed under Section 114-341. Reclaiming it means showing identification and proof of ownership, signing a release, and paying removal and storage fees the code caps. A booted car still restrained after 72 hours is towed and impounded under Section 34-58.

Emissions, title and plates

Model-year 1996 and later gas cars enter the Illinois test program at age four, and Madison is a test county. An Edwardsville car that keeps failing qualifies for a waiver only after $1,176 or more in qualifying emissions repairs, not counting diagnostic labor. Failed emissions walks through selling instead.

Madison County doesn't issue titles. Edwardsville owners go through the Illinois Secretary of State, via Springfield or its branch offices. On the certificate's Assignment of Title, sign, print your name, and certify the odometer reading. Nothing in Illinois's published seller steps calls for a notary. Pull the plates, which remain yours, and mail VSD 703 (or the stub torn from the title) to Springfield straight away. A replacement title runs $50 on form VSD 190.

Getting an offer

Edwardsville sellers can call (877) 421-6008 or use the form. Pickup works near the Kansas Street library, a locked garage or a repair shop. Collinsville, Granite City and Alton are the nearest towns with pages.