Selling a dead or junk car in Crown Point

What the city code shows, and what it does not

The 2024 Crown Point Code of Ordinances deals with cars in its penalty section, 91.99. The lines we could read speak of an "impounded vehicle," of a vehicle "impounded and towed," and of "the amount of towing and storage." We could not read a full junk-car rule from those fragments. So the junk-car rules below are Indiana's, and Crown Point may well have limits of its own that we could not read.

Indiana's abandoned-car tests, briefly

State law calls a car abandoned in two common cases:

• It is left on someone's private property "without the owner consent for more than 48 hours."
• It has its engine, transmission or differential removed, or is "partially dismantled or inoperable," and is left on public property.

An abandoned car's owner is on the hook for removal, storage and disposal, though storage costs are capped at $2,000.

Expired plates on a car that sat

A car that died in the garage often misses a renewal or two. The BMV describes a flat $15 administrative penalty for renewing late, with no back-year fees stated. Mail-in renewals avoid the fee entirely if the envelope is "postmarked by the expiration date." That matters only if you are keeping the car. A buyer gets a new plate anyway, because the buyer, not the seller, obtains the new registration and plate.

Totaled, flooded or branded cars

A dead car in Crown Point is sometimes a crash or flood car. Indiana requires a certificate of salvage title for a vehicle "made within the last seven model years" that an insurer has settled as "economically impractical to repair," or that is "flood damaged." Flood damage includes a car submerged so water "reached over the door sill" into the passenger or trunk compartment. For self-insuring businesses and buyers of damaged cars, the line is repair cost above 70% of fair market value. And a car branded JUNK, DISMANTLED, SCRAP or DESTROYED in another state cannot be titled in Indiana at all. See salvage title and flood damage.

Signing the title

Indiana's BMV has all owners "sign and print their names in the seller section." The seller then completes "the odometer statement, date of sale, purchase price and purchaser information." Buyers are told to check that both the seller and purchaser sections are filled in before visiting a branch, and they get 45 days to apply. From Crown Point, the BMV phone line is 888-692-6841.

Plates and emissions

Indiana plates stay with the Crown Point seller rather than the car, so take them off before we arrive. You don't have to turn them in to the BMV, and they can go on another car of yours. Crown Point is in Lake County, which IDEM includes in emissions testing along with Porter.

Around Crown Point

Merrillville is about 4.6 miles away as the crow flies, St. John 6.7 and Schererville 7.3. The Indiana page covers statewide rules.

Getting an offer

Reach us at (877) 421-6008 or online with the car's details, its mileage, whether it runs, and any salvage or flood brand on the title. Pickup can happen near the courthouse square, in a garage, or behind a body shop.