Selling a junk car in Ludlow

What Section VIII-1 asks of you

The bylaw applies to "any unregistered, junked or dilapidated motor vehicle." Unless you hold a license to keep such cars, one may not be kept on any premises in town unless it meets one of the listed conditions. The condition most homeowners can use is storage "out of sight (including covered with an appropriate 'car cover') from abutting properties and public ways."

There is a hard ceiling on top of that. "Any open air storage of more than two unregistered or inoperable vehicles is prohibited" on a lot whose main use is residential. A cover does not get a third car past that line.

The notice, the fine and the repeat

Ludlow starts with paper. The fine applies to anyone who keeps violating the bylaw "after seven calendar days following receipt of written notice of violation," and the bylaw caps it at $100 for each offense.

A second round costs more. A violation that is fixed and then comes back within one year of the original notice counts as a repeat. It carries an immediate penalty of up to $200, and "each day the repeat violation continues shall constitute a separate offense." Covering the car and then pulling the cover off in the spring can land you here. Our notice to remove a car guide covers how to answer one.

A dead work truck on a Ludlow street

Section IV-29 deals with commercial vehicles on the street. One cannot stay parked on any Ludlow street for more than two hours unless the street has a sidewalk, and none may park on any street in town between 6 p.m. and 6 a.m. Emergency and servicing vehicles are exempt from the two-hour limit. A van that quit at the curb cannot wait there overnight.

The sticker, the excise and the sale

The state program is called Massachusetts Vehicle Check. Most cars younger than 15 that have onboard diagnostics get an emissions test every year. Selling one that failed? Getting it inspected falls to whoever buys it, within 7 days after they register it. If your car won't pass, see failed inspection or rust.

The excise is a separate bill. Ludlow, not the RMV, figures and mails this bill. Each registered year costs $25 per $1,000 of the car's value. If you register mid-year, the bill covers that month through year's end. Only a cancellation ends it, and a registration left to expire keeps the bill alive. If a bill looks wrong, Ludlow's board of assessors takes abatement applications for 3 years from when the excise was due, or 1 year from when you paid it, if that comes later.

Handing over the title and plates

Put the mileage on the title. Next, both of you sign, print a name and date the transfer area. If your Ludlow title has no spot for the price, write it on a bill of sale. Ludlow sellers following the RMV's steps skip the notary.

You keep the Ludlow plates. They do not go to the buyer. In Ludlow, end the registration online, save the receipt, and pass a copy to your insurer. After that, cut each plate across or recycle it. Buying a replacement car? The plates can be put on it as long as that happens inside 7 calendar days of the old car leaving, and the RMV has no temporary plates to tide you over.

Towns around Ludlow

Ludlow is a Hampden County town in the Springfield metro. Distances here are straight lines: Chicopee 5.8 miles, Springfield 6.3, Holyoke 9.6, West Springfield 10.6, Amherst 12.7 and Agawam 13.0. The Massachusetts page has the statewide rules.

Getting an offer

Have a Ludlow car to sell? Call (877) 421-6008 or go online. A truck comes to the car, under a tarp out back or at a curb downtown.