Selling a junk car in Fort Dodge

What Fort Dodge calls a junk vehicle

Section 10.56.020 reaches any vehicle in city limits, "licensed or not licensed for the current year," that threatens public health and safety because of a trait such as:

• "lacking an engine, wheel(s), or any other part which renders the motor vehicle inoperable or unfit for legal use on a public roadway"
• being "used for over seventy-two hours as a storage for items such as garbage, rubbish, debris, yardwaste, batteries, machinery parts, construction material"

That second trait catches the dead sedan that became a backyard storage bin. Under Section 10.56.050, keeping a junk vehicle on private property is a nuisance and puts the health and safety of citizens at risk.

Four abandoned-vehicle clocks

The definitions set four separate timers:

• 48 hours on streets or public grounds, unattended, with no current plates, or short two or more wheels or tires or other structural parts
• 15 days of illegal parking on public property
• 24 hours of illegal parking on private property, or of sitting there without the landowner's consent
• 30 days after the chief of police orders an impound, with no one reclaiming the car

Curb time is shorter still. Section 10.20.165 lets officers remove "a vehicle parked on a street for more than twenty-four hours," and likewise one "parked in any parking lot owned or operated by the city for more than twenty-four hours." Section 10.56.040 hands removal and disposal to Iowa Code 321.89 and 321.90.

Snow routes and unpaid tickets

On posted snow emergency routes, Section 10.52.030 triggers a parking ban "automatically" after "an accumulation of snow and ice of two inches or more," and the ban lasts "for a period of twenty-four hours." A stalled car on one of those streets is squarely in the plows' way.

Section 10.20.220 allows towing a car from a public street or city lot once it has "five or more unpaid tickets." Section 10.20.240 says that to reclaim it before a hearing, you hand the city's towing service a vehicle release form and pay every towing and impound cost.

If nobody claims it

Section 10.20.175 routes an unreclaimed abandoned car to sale. When nobody buys it to drive, "it shall be sold for junk, or demolished and sold as scrap." A car missing its engine or two or more wheels, or worth under $500 at fair market value, can go from police straight to a demolisher. That demolisher has to apply to the county treasurer for a junking certificate "within fifteen days of purchase." Towing, storage and notice costs left after the sale are "the obligation of the last owner or owners." Towed or impounded covers your options before it gets that far.

Webster County title and plates

Fort Dodge anchors its own micro area in Webster County. The county treasurer handles titles and plates according to Iowa DOT rules. In Fort Dodge, sign the seller line on the title's back, then write the buyer's full name and address and the date of the sale. The purchaser also needs to hear which county registered the car last and when that registration expires. If the car is no more than nine model years old, an odometer statement goes along too. The plates stay yours, so remove them.

Getting an offer

Selling a car in Fort Dodge? Use the offer form or phone (877) 421-6008. Fort Dodge sits well away from the other cities with pages here. Ames is 43.8 miles off and Johnston 61.1, in a straight line. Pickup reaches Fort Dodge all the same. See Iowa for statewide rules.