Selling a junk car in Waterloo

If the restoration has stalled, selling may be simpler than racing a notice. We buy whole non-running and junk cars, and you sell the whole car as it sits. Pickup is free anywhere in the US, so the truck can come to a Waterloo backyard, driveway or side street.

The fence exception, and who it covers

The ten-hour test is only half of Waterloo's exception. It protects just three kinds of car: an antique that is being actively restored, an operable special interest vehicle, or a special interest vehicle under restoration. And in every case the car must sit in a rear or side yard, "fully enclosed behind a solid fence at least six feet (6') in height" that hides it from neighboring property. An everyday sedan with a dead transmission in the driveway fits none of that. If your project car is nearer the end than the start, see old project car.

Ten days after the notice

When a 4-4-7 violation notice lands, the section gives the car owner or the property owner "ten (10) days after receipt of the notice" to move the junk car to a place the code allows or repair the defects that caused the violation. Our guide to a notice to remove a car covers what to do first.

Miss the ten days and a code enforcement officer "shall abate such nuisance by causing the junk motor vehicle to be removed and impounded." The cost of that is charged back.

Thirty days, then the car is gone

After a code impound, you have 30 days to "appear and claim" the car with proof of ownership and payment of an impoundment fee plus the towing and storage charges. After that, the owner, the property owner and any lienholder are "deemed to have abandoned the vehicle" and lose every "right, title, claim or interest" in it.

Section 6-7-4 runs on the same 30-day clock for a car impounded off private property for a parking violation, and it adds one detail worth knowing: the rights you lose include "the personal property contained therein." Empty the glovebox and trunk early. If certified-mail notice comes back undelivered, the impound is pushed back at least ten days.

Streets, city lots and "the parking"

A dead car moved to the curb is not safe there either. Section 273 bars parking on any street, city lot or ramp "for a continuous period of more than 48 hours," outside monthly parking, and says a violation makes the car "a nuisance to be abated."

The same section bans parking on "the parking," the ground from the curb line to the abutting property line, or from the road's edge to that line where no curb exists. A dead car left on that strip breaks the rule too.

Section 308 lets Waterloo police tow an abandoned vehicle when it has stayed illegally parked for 24 hours or more, or sits on public property for more than 24 hours without current plates or with "two or more wheels or other parts" missing so it is "totally inoperable." The owner pays the towing and storage.

Title and plates in Black Hawk County

Iowa titles go through county treasurers, and Waterloo is in Black Hawk County. Your seller signature goes on the title's reverse, along with the buyer's name and address, plus the sale date. Pass along to the buyer which Iowa county last registered the car, plus the expiry date. When owners are joined by "and", all of them sign. Cars nine model years old or newer need an odometer statement, and seven or newer a damage disclosure.

A scrap sale moves on a junking certificate. Within 30 days, the buyer turns the endorsed title in at a county treasurer's office for a no-fee certificate. A seller can instead get the certificate first and assign it to the buyer. Your plates stay with you; Iowa sends them home with the seller. Then file form 411107 with the county of registration, or hold on to a buyer's receipt or a photocopy of the signed back.

A replacement title is $35.00 with a mandatory 5-day wait. When a title cannot be fixed, Under Iowa Code 321.90, an owner can request the police authority's permission to hand the car over to a demolisher. More in selling with no title.

Cedar Falls and the next towns over

Cedar Falls lies 5.5 miles off, measured as the crow flies; its code sets its own ten-day clock. Marshalltown is 42.5 miles off, Marion 49.9 miles and Cedar Rapids 50.2 miles. See the Iowa page for state rules.

Getting an offer

Call (877) 421-6008 or reach us online. Start with the vehicle and its mileage. Then say if it starts, and who in Black Hawk County holds the title. A 4-4-7 notice on the door changes the timing, so tell us the day it came. Pickup can happen in a backyard, behind a six-foot fence, or on the gravel beside a garage.