Junk and dead cars in West Des Moines

Reading the 4-4-1 list

The definition opens with a vehicle "not licensed for the current year as required by law," and then piles on physical traits. Besides cracked glass and loose panels, it names:

• a vehicle "lacking an engine or one or more wheels or other structural parts" so that it is "totally inoperable"
• a vehicle that, "because of its defective or obsolete condition, constitutes a threat to the public health and safety"

Read the wheel clause twice. A single missing wheel qualifies here.

Garage, junkyard, or nowhere

Section 4-4-2 declares it a nuisance to store, park or leave an inoperable/obsolete vehicle "upon private property within the city." Only two escapes exist. One is "any vehicle enclosed within a building on private property." The other is a car held by a junkyard or auto use operating in the right zone. Throwing a cover over it on the lawn changes nothing.

Shoving it behind the house on bare ground creates a second violation. On residentially zoned lots, the same section treats a vehicle parked "on an unpaved surface," or on a surface that misses subsections 9-15-4B and 9-15-6G, as a nuisance in its own right.

The posted notice and the daily fee

Section 6-2-3-6 reaches streets, alleys, highways, and parking lots whether public or private. Police may remove a car that blocks traffic or street upkeep, one that sits on a city lot past the 24-hour cap in Section 6-9-6-3, and one parked on a street during or just after a snowstorm when plows must get through.

A posted notice records its date and time and tells the owner there are "forty eight (48) hours from the time the notice was posted to move the vehicle." Reclaiming from the city garage means "an impoundment fee of five dollars ($5.00) per day" on top of the tow. A privately owned garage sets its own towing and storage bill. Leave it 10 days and the code hands the car to the abandoned-vehicle process in Iowa Code 321.89.

Snow bans here end at a set hour. Section 6-6-7 keeps a ban in force from the proclamation until five o'clock in the afternoon the following day, and officials may extend it. Notice goes up on the city website and out to at least two radio and two TV stations. Hauling a junk truck on a trailer? Section 6-6-8 caps those rigs at two hours on a public street.

Four counties under one state rulebook

The city stretches into Dallas, Madison, Polk and Warren counties. Whichever one holds your address, its treasurer handles the title, under rules from the Iowa DOT.

The car's age decides two extra forms. Models nine years old or younger call for an odometer statement, and models seven years old or younger add a damage disclosure. To show the sale happened, keep one of three things: a buyer's receipt, a photocopy of the title's reverse once signed, or form 411107, "Notice of Sale of Vehicle and Delivery of Title," lodged with the registering county. Your plates are yours; unbolt them and take them inside.

Getting an offer

Selling a car in West Des Moines? Use the offer form or ring (877) 421-6008. A tow truck can collect it near Valley Junction, from a home garage, or from the shop that gave up on it. Waukee is 5.9 miles away and Urbandale 6.0, as the crow flies. The Iowa page covers the rest of the state.