Selling a junk or dead car in Joliet

What Section 19-233 forbids

The rule is one sentence: "No person shall store an abandoned or inoperable vehicle on any property located within the city" unless zoning allows it. Section 19-232 says what counts. A car that is "dilapidated, wrecked, dismantled, or in a state of disassembly or disrepair rendering the vehicle incapable of being legally or safely driven" qualifies. So does one without valid plates or registration. The code calls a car with expired or suspended registration an "unlicensed vehicle."

A police officer can write a ticket to more than one person: the owner of the property, the owner of the car, and anyone else in control of it, tenants and lessees included. The lone carve-out is a lawful wrecking or junking yard.

The Joliet clocks

Section 19-235 and Section 3-150 set the timing once the city acts:

• 14 days. For a car "on private property, and in view of the general public," no tow until 14 days after written notice of intent to impound.
• 7 days. Another part of Section 19-235 uses a seven-day written notice before a tow.
• 24 hours. A car abandoned on a highway can be removed once it has stayed 24 hours after a "police tow" notice is put on it.
• 3 calendar days. That's how long you have to request a pre-tow emergency review in writing. The city legal department holds it within two business days.
• 7 calendar days. Your deadline to ask, in writing, for a pre-tow administrative hearing.

If the city tows anyway, "the owner of the vehicle shall be responsible for the fees and expenses of towing, storage, impounding and enforcement."

Yards and unpaid tickets

Moving the car onto the lawn does not fix it. Section 19-139 says "No vehicles shall be parked in the front yard of a residential use except in a residential parking area," and it bans grassy spots outright.

A car with unpaid tickets has its own problem. Section 3-50 lets the city boot or tow a car whose owner owes on ten or more parking or compliance tickets and hasn't paid within 14 days of the notice. You get the same 14 days to ask the traffic compliance administrator for a hearing.

Title, plates and the Notice of Sale

Joliet straddles Will and Kendall counties, yet titles here are a state job. Illinois' Secretary of State handles them, through its Springfield mail office or a walk-in facility. In the title's Assignment of Title block you write the date and your signature; nothing in the state's list of seller steps mentions a notary. If the paper is lost, order a replacement ($50, VSD 190) before anything else, as covered in junk car with no title.

Pull your plates before the tow truck drives off. Illinois treats them as yours, and the new owner has no right to run on them. Next, fill in the title's bottom stub or form VSD 703 and mail it to Springfield "immediately." Once it's sent, your liability for the Joliet car ends. Ownership changes with the signed title. After you sell lists what follows.

Nearby

Crest Hill is 4.4 miles from Joliet as the crow flies. Lockport and Romeoville are each 8.0 miles off, and Plainfield 8.2. The state rules are on the Illinois page.

Getting an offer

Joliet car to sell? Ring (877) 421-6008 or send the form. Already holding a Joliet notice of intent to impound? Share its date, because the 14 days are counted from it. Pickup is free anywhere in the US, whether the car sits behind a bungalow, in a complex lot or at a mechanic's bay.