Selling a dead or junk car in Plainfield

What a town tow costs

Section 94.07 sets the charges. When the Department of Public Works removes and stores a car outside the abandoned-vehicle process, the owner or lienholder pays "a $50 towing fee and $15 per day storage fee." When the Metropolitan Police Department or Public Works impounds a car and declares it abandoned, the town charges a towing fee and daily storage "consistent with the usual and customary charges for such services." Either way, "The storage fee shall be allowed to accumulate for a maximum period of 60 days."

Abandoned cars that are removed get stored wherever the ordering department designates (Section 94.04). The Clerk-Treasurer runs the town's Abandoned Vehicle Fund (Section 94.08).

Street parking and snow routes

• 72 hours. Section 71.01 bars any vehicle from staying on a street or alley "for a period longer than 72 consecutive hours." Police can have it removed, and the garage collects proof the fine was paid plus the towing and storage charges before it lets the car go.
• Snow routes. Schedule V lists them; Brookside from Buchanan Street to Pierce Street is one. When the town puts a parking ban in place, a car that stalls on a route must be "towed or pushed off the roadway" right away, under Section 71.07.
• Notice by mail. If police tow a car under that section and cannot reach the owner, and the car is not back with its owner within three days, the officer sends written notice.

State rules sit on top. Indiana treats a car parked on another person's land without permission for over 48 hours as abandoned, and its owner pays to remove, store and dispose of it, though storage charges top out at $2,000. Plainfield may have rules beyond the sections we read.

Title and plates

For titles, one BMV branch we checked is in Brownsburg at 860 E. Main St., phone 888-692-6841, about 10 miles north of the middle of Plainfield as the crow flies. Plainfield titles come from Indiana, not Hendricks County, so any branch, BMV Connect kiosk or Partial Service Provider will do.

The seller's part is short. Every owner listed on a Plainfield title prints and signs the seller section, then adds the buyer, price, sale date and mileage. No notary shows up in Indiana's seller steps. You keep the Plainfield plates, and they never return to the state. New title, registration and plate are the buyer's to handle, within 45 days.

No title on a Plainfield car leaves two options. In Plainfield, $15.00 gets a duplicate and cancels the old title. A Plainfield owner scrapping the car instead uses State Form 55018, a $4.00 Certificate of Authority. Hendricks County sits outside the Lake and Porter emissions area.

Nearby

Avon is 4.8 miles from Plainfield, Brownsburg 9.8, Greenwood 15.6 and Zionsville 20.8. See the Indiana page for state rules.

Getting an offer

Call (877) 421-6008 or write online. A short note on the form about your Plainfield car is plenty. Then the truck heads to wherever it quit, be that a garage, a side street or the end of your driveway. For a car already at a lot, see towed or impounded.