Selling a dead or junk car in Fitchburg

The certified letter and the 10-day clock

Enforcement starts with the Building Commissioner. When a junk car comes to that office's attention, the code has a written notice "sent by certified mail to the owner of the land." The letter names the car's color and, if known, its make.

From the day the letter arrives, the landowner has "a period not to exceed 10 calendar days" to remove the car or arrange its removal. If you rent, note who gets the letter: the owner of the land, not the person who owns the car.

After 10 days the Police Chief or a designee can take it. The bill is the full cost of removal "but no less than $300 for each vehicle removed," plus the cost of gathering any loose parts. A car that poses "an immediate danger or imminent public safety hazard" can be towed with no notice at all.

Streets and city property

Section 172-1 covers public ground. No one may leave a "particularly dismantled, nonoperating, wrecked or junked vehicle on any street or highway within the City." Repairs on a public way or on city property are banned too, except an emergency repair to get a traveler moving.

State law adds a separate clock. Under M.G.L. c. 90 s. 22C, a Fitchburg car left over 72 hours without the landowner's permission, looking abandoned and worth less than the haul, can go with a street officer.

Fitchburg's junk-shop rules

Chapter 116 has the Chief of Police license junk collectors and shops. Collectors wear a round badge reading "Junk Collector" with their license number, and their trucks carry a matching sign at least eight by six inches. Shops must log each seller's name, age and residence, and they may buy only during the weekday hours the code sets.

Massachusetts paperwork for the seller

• Title. Write the odometer reading in. Each side then signs, prints a name by hand and dates the assignment. No notary appears anywhere in the RMV's list of seller steps. If your Fitchburg title has no spot for the price, a bill of sale carries it.
• Lost title. A replacement from the Registry of Motor Vehicles costs a Fitchburg owner $25 and can take up to 10 business days. Read selling with no title.
• Plates. They stay with you. Fitchburg sellers can cancel the plates' registration in their MyMassGov account, then keep that receipt and pass a copy to the insurance carrier. Then saw the plates through the middle, hand them to a recycler, or move them onto your next car inside 7 days.
• Excise. The city, not the RMV, sends the excise bill: $25 on each $1,000 of value. A car keeps owing it until the registration is cancelled.

Under c. 90D s. 15, once your signature is on the assignment and the buyer has the car, its later use and any violations are not on you. There is no release form to file. After you sell covers the last steps.

Nearby towns

As the crow flies, Leominster is 6.1 miles away, Gardner 8.9 and Holden 17.2. Each has its own page: Leominster, Gardner, Holden. The Massachusetts page has the statewide rules.

Getting an offer

Ring (877) 421-6008 or use the form. Reach out about your Fitchburg car. Our tow truck goes to it: a steep driveway above the Nashua River, a lot near the rail station, a side street downtown.