Selling a dead or junk car in O'Fallon

Three places the code reaches a dead car

Property maintenance, section 302.8. O'Fallon adopted this rule through City Code 150.05. It opens with "Except as provided for in other regulations," so a permit or zoning rule may carve out a case. The section itself prints no clock.

The nuisance list, 94.01. Item (X) makes it a nuisance to "permit or maintain an unsightly yard or premises" with an accumulation of "any vehicle, equipment, junk, wrecked or disabled automobile, truck."

Zoning, 157.016. A junk yard is defined as a place where "inoperative vehicles" and scrap are "bought, sold, exchanged, stored." Lots selling used cars in drivable condition are left out.

When the police have the car

To reclaim a car before it is sold or disposed of, Section 91.07 has you show the Police Department proof of ownership. You pay all towing and storage charges first, including "a storage charge of $5 for each 24 hours or part thereof" when the car is on city property. A car held under the impound chapter also needs the city's administrative fee paid, or a bond posted, under Section 70.084.

Older cars move fast. Section 91.09 keeps a car past seven years of age that police treat as abandoned for "a minimum of ten days." With no word from the owner by then, "the Chief of Police will authorize the disposal of the vehicle as junk only."

Snow emergency routes

O'Fallon's snow ban is not automatic. Section 72.42 bans parking on posted snow emergency routes once snow reaches two inches and the mayor decides an emergency is needed. Under Section 72.40 the ban lasts until the mayor ends it. One overnight carve-out: snow that starts after 11 p.m. and before 6 a.m., with no announcement before 11 p.m., lets a parked car stay until 7 a.m. after the snowfall.

Emissions and the Illinois title

Emissions testing applies here: St. Clair County belongs to the Metro-East program, which pulls in gas cars of model year 1996 or later at age four, in the month the plates expire. Since we take the whole car as it sits, a failed or skipped test is not a problem for the sale.

The title comes from the Illinois Secretary of State. As the seller you:

• fill in the O'Fallon title's Assignment of Title, with every seller and buyer printing and signing and the odometer reading written in
• keep the plates; a buyer who drove off on them would be breaking Illinois law
• send the Notice of Sale (the tear-off at the base of the title, or VSD 703) at once, addressed to "Secretary of State, Vehicle Services Department, Record Inquiry Division, 501 S. Second St., Room 629, Springfield, IL 62756"
• put the sale date and amount on a bill of sale

No notary is part of the state's printed seller steps. When the car is going to scrap, Illinois offers a junking certificate, and anyone can take an assignment of one. Owners with no lienholder can get it without turning in the title.

Nearby

In a straight line, Belleville sits 7.1 miles from O'Fallon, Collinsville 7.3 and Edwardsville 13.8. The Illinois page has the state rules.

Getting an offer

Reach us online or at (877) 421-6008. Start the form for your O'Fallon car. We reach cul-de-sacs near Rock Springs Nature Park, apartment lots and repair shop bays.