Got a city or HOA notice to remove an inoperable car?

Which route is best depends on whether the car is worth fixing. If it isn't, selling it and having it hauled away clears the violation and puts money in your pocket instead of fines.

Read the notice before you do anything

Three things on the paper matter most:

• Who sent it. A city, county or township enforces state law and local ordinance. An HOA enforces its own declaration and rules. The deadlines and penalties are different.
• The date it counts from. Some clocks start when the notice was mailed or delivered, others when you received it.
• What it says fixes the problem. Some notices accept a car moved into a garage. Others want it gone.

Keep the envelope. If it came certified, the receipt date can matter.

The deadline in Ohio, Texas and Illinois

Ohio. A junk motor vehicle, under Revised Code 4513.65, is one that meets the state's junk criteria and has stood in the open with no cover for over 72 hours on someone's private land, with the property holder's permission. A county, township, city or other listed authority can send you a notice by certified mail with return receipt requested. Once it reaches you, you get 10 days to put the car under a roof, such as a garage, or haul it away. Leaving it uncovered after that is a minor misdemeanor (ORC 4513.65).

Texas. The steps to abate and remove a junked vehicle declared a public nuisance must include at least 10 days' notice. The notice can be handed to you, sent by certified mail with a five-day return requested, or delivered by USPS with signature confirmation. It has to say the nuisance must be abated and removed "not later than the 10th day" after it was delivered or mailed, and any hearing request must come before those 10 days run out (Transp. Code 683.075). In Texas, a junked vehicle that people can see, in any season, from a road or other public spot counts as a public nuisance (Transp. Code ch. 683).

Illinois. A car counts as inoperable when, for at least 7 days or any longer period the city sets by ordinance, parts are removed or damaged so it no longer moves on its own. A city may declare inoperable cars in view of the public a nuisance and fine owners who ignore its notice to get rid of them (65 ILCS 5/11-40-3). Chicago-sized cities, over 1,000,000 people, also have a separate scheme for hazardous dilapidated vehicles (65 ILCS 5/11-40-3.1).

If the notice came from your HOA

An HOA can't fine you on the spot in these two states.

Texas. Before fining you, the association must send written notice by certified mail. You get a reasonable period to cure a curable violation and avoid the fine, unless it threatens public health or safety. You may ask for a hearing on or before the 30th day after the notice was mailed (Prop. Code 209.006).

Florida. No fine or suspension without at least 14 days' written notice of your right to a hearing. The hearing is held within 90 days of the notice, before a committee of at least three members the board appoints. Fines can't exceed $100 per violation unless the governing documents say otherwise (Fla. Stat. 720.305).

Elsewhere, read your HOA's declaration and rules for the cure period. A short email saying the car is being sold, with a date, often buys goodwill while you wrap things up.

What each state's law says about a dead car on the property

Most of the real rules for a car sitting in a driveway come from cities and counties. Here is the state-level picture from the records we checked.

A few of these are worth a closer look. In Nevada, unless you hold a wrecker or salvage pool license, two unregistered cars unfit for legal use is the limit on land you own or control, and each day over it can cost a civil penalty of as much as $100 (NRS 487). Kansas lets any city remove a nuisance car from private property and dispose of it (K.S.A. 12-1617e). In Delaware, the state rule doesn't apply to a car on private property that can't be seen from the street and isn't otherwise a nuisance or hazard (21 Del. C. ch. 44). And Maine treats a yard holding 3 or more unregistered or uninspected vehicles as an automobile graveyard (30-A M.R.S. 3752).

More sources for the table: Semmes ordinance, AS 28.11.100, A.R.S. 28-4833, Colorado DMV, Honolulu, Mississippi DOR, RSA 236, NM MVD, NY VTL 1224, G.S. 153A-132, N.D. ch. 23-15, Oklahoma Title 47, Va. Code 15.2-904, RCW 46.55.230, Wis. Stat. ch. 342, Wyoming Title 31.

Four ways to clear the violation

Get it running. If the problem is a battery or a single part, a car that drives under its own power usually stops being "inoperable" under tests like Illinois's. Registration may also matter where the rule looks at expired plates.

Put it out of sight. This works only where the rule allows it. Ohio's notice points to a garage or other structure. Virginia lets localities accept a car shielded so it can't be seen from ground level outside the property (Va. Code 15.2-904). Montana's rule is shield it from public view or remove it. A car cover in the driveway may not count, so ask the code officer before you buy one.

Move it somewhere legal. A friend's garage or a rented storage spot can solve the notice, though storage costs money every month the car sits.

Sell it. For a car that isn't worth fixing, this ends the notice, the fines and the storage question at once. It also beats waiting for a tow: if the city removes the car, you lose it.

If the title is missing

A lost title shouldn't stop the sale, but the route depends on your state. Some states have a scrap route for older, low-value cars. Other states require a duplicate title first. Our guide to selling a junk car without a title covers the options.

Fix it or sell it?

Fix it when the repair is small, the car is otherwise sound, and you'll drive it again soon. Getting it running before the deadline can clear a city notice outright.

Sell it if the repair bill would top the car's value, if you'd need a garage you don't have, or if the notice has become the only reason you're thinking about the car at all. Checking what a junk car is worth gives you a number to set against the repair quote and any fines.

Clearing the notice by selling to us

We buy whole non-running and junk cars, the kind that draw these notices. Sell the whole car as it sits: flat tires, dead battery, missing parts and all. For a quote, send us:

• the deadline on your notice
• where the car is parked and whether a tow truck can reach it
• whether you have the title
• the year, make, model and what's wrong

Free pickup anywhere in the US. Once the car is gone, send the city or HOA a short note that it has been removed, and keep your bill of sale.

Questions first? Call (877) 421-6008.

Plates and the notice of sale come last. Every state handles them a little differently; after you sell spells out yours.