Selling a dead or junk car in Homer Glen

The emissions test that keeps coming due

Homer Glen gas cars and light passenger vehicles built in 1996 or later join the program at four years old. Even model years test in even years, odd model years in odd ones. You're due in the month your plates expire. A failing engine stays failing while it sits. Before a waiver, you have to put $1,176 or more into emissions work. The diagnosis fee doesn't count toward it. For a car worth little, that math often points to selling. See failed emissions.

Junk-car rules: what the state allows

We could not find Homer Glen's own code online, so this section covers state law only. The local government may have its own rules.

Homer Glen can pass an ordinance making a visible inoperable car a nuisance, using the power in the Illinois Municipal Code, Section 11-40-3. Owners who ignore it can be fined, and 7 days after the town's notice, police can tow the car. Each town decides this for itself. The state doesn't impose it. In Homer Glen, a car is "inoperable" after a week or more with the motor, wheels or other parts off, or when damage stops it from driving itself. Being down just for routine service or repair is not enough.

Separately, Section 4-201 of the Vehicle Code lets police remove a car left on someone else's private land, in public view, after at least 7 days. The next step turns on the car's age. Homer Glen auctions off an unclaimed car of 7 model years or newer 30 days after notice. In Homer Glen, police keep an older car 10 days or more while they search for its owner. After that it can be junked or sold for salvage. Got a warning already? Read notice to remove a car.

Signing over the title

Neither Cook nor Will County issues titles here; the state does, through the Secretary of State. Homer Glen owners do title work at one of the office's DMV counters or through Springfield by mail. The seller's job sits on the back of the certificate: the Assignment of Title, signed and dated, with every seller and buyer named in print and the odometer certified. No notary shows up in the state's seller steps. Keep a Homer Glen bill of sale showing the buyer's name and address along with the date and price.

A car being junked can go on a junking certificate, which can be assigned to anyone. With no lienholder, the owner keeps the title and still gets one. Lost the title? A $50 duplicate is requested by the owner on form VSD 190. More at junk car with no title.

Plates and the Notice of Sale

Illinois plates belong to the seller, and driving on someone else's is illegal, so unscrew them while the car is still in your hands. For a Homer Glen sale, the state asks for the Notice of Sale "immediately." Send either the title's bottom tear-off or a VSD 703. It goes to Room 629 at 501 S. Second St. in Springfield (62756), the Record Inquiry Division of Vehicle Services. Once filed, the car stops being your responsibility, yet ownership hasn't moved. After you sell covers the rest.

Getting an offer

Ring (877) 421-6008 or reach us online. Send the Homer Glen car's details on the form. Driveway, side yard or garage stall, we pick up all over Homer Glen. Nearby, we also have pages for Lockport, Orland Park and New Lenox. For statewide rules, see Illinois.