Selling a junk or broken car in Billerica

When a garage is allowed to sell a car left with it

Section 39A lays out the order:

1. The garage notifies the registered owner "by registered mail with return receipt," giving its storage rates.
2. If the car is unclaimed 60 days after it arrived, the garage may send notice.
3. Then, 21 days on, it can sell the car at a public or private sale. First it has to run a notice in a local paper "for three successive weeks" and tell the police chief 5 days ahead.
4. From the sale, a Billerica garage keeps what it is owed. The rest goes to the registered owner, or if not, to the district court clerk.

If the bill is already more than the car, read stuck at a repair shop before the clock runs out.

After a police tow

The cap is $35 per 24 hours for a Billerica passenger car towed on police orders and kept in a secure, fenced and lit lot. Any other lot gets half that. By state law, the storage lot also has a lien.

When an insurer is involved

Massachusetts defines a total loss as a car the owner or insurer considers "uneconomical to repair" that is not repaired. There is no percentage test. The owner or insurer applies for a salvage title within 10 days of the settlement, or of the event if uninsured. The brand is permanent: REPR, or PART for a car that will never register again. Older cars get a break here. Billerica passenger cars aged 10 or more years at the time of the loss skip the salvage process. See insurer totaled it.

Title steps

No notary is needed to sell in Billerica. The RMV's list of steps for sellers does not include one. You put down the odometer reading, and then each side signs, prints and dates the transfer document. The price fits on the title if there is a line, or on a bill of sale. Replacing a lost title is $25. Billerica owners can apply online or by mail, paying by check or money order to MassDOT. Arrival can take up to 10 business days. See junk car with no title.

Plates

The plates are the seller's to deal with. Cancel the registration on MyMassGov and keep the receipt. Send a copy to your insurance company. The RMV does not take plates back, so recycle them or destroy them. The cancellation ends Billerica's excise bills and keeps the car off "any public way" from then on. Once you sign the title and the car leaves, chapter 90D, section 15(e), shields you from liability for what comes after.

Getting an offer

Selling in Billerica, even with a shop or lender owed? Ring (877) 421-6008 or use our form. You sell the whole car as it sits, and the truck can collect it from a garage bay, a tow lot or a driveway across Billerica's 25 square miles. Tewksbury is 4.0 miles away in a straight line; the Massachusetts page has statewide rules.