Selling a junk or wrecked car in New Bedford

One car, or a license

The way out is a license from the Inspector of Buildings, good for "no more than two (2) unregistered or one wrecked or partially dismantled or stock racing motor vehicle or junk motor vehicle in the open". It lasts one year, and it issues only once the inspector decides the cars "will not create a hazard to the public safety or will not become a public nuisance".

Turned down? The City Council can grant a one-year license on appeal, attaching whatever conditions it sees fit, once a public hearing has been held.

Forty-eight hours after notice

The Inspector of Buildings, the Chief of Police, or someone either of them authorizes may enter a property holding two or more unregistered cars, or one or more wrecked or junk cars, to look them over. Once notice is served, "Any person so notified shall be allowed forty-eight (48) hours following the service of the notice in which to begin to remove said motor vehicles or apply for said license". The same sentence says the owner "shall employ sufficient labor to speedily remove the offending motor vehicles".

Leave the cars in place without a license and the Inspector of Buildings may go onto the premises. Two days leaves little room, which is why lining up a buyer before any notice shows up makes sense. The general process is on our notice to remove a car page.

City impound rules

Two sections deal with tows tied to an arrest or a violation. Section 17-24 holds a car for 12 hours when its driver is arrested in the city for driving while intoxicated; to get it back, the claimant shows a valid license, proof of ownership or authority to operate it, and proof of insurance, and the police may charge a reasonable towing and storage fee.

Section 17-23 has the officer write a $300 citation at the tow. An owner who requests it in writing gets a hearing within 24 hours, weekends and city holidays excluded. If the penalty plus the tow and storage bill go unpaid for 30 days, state law lets the car be disposed of.

Wrecks and branded titles

Massachusetts salvage titles never go away. Each carries a primary brand of either repairable (REPR) or parts-only (PART), and a PART car is barred from registration for good. A second brand on New Bedford titles names the cause, one of Theft, Fire, Flood, Flood/Salt, Collision, Vandalism, or Other. A New Bedford passenger car 10 years old or more on the loss date is left out of the salvage process. When you sell, you state the mileage and both of you sign, hand-print and date the title; the RMV mentions no notary.

Plates, a next car, and excise

You keep the plates. Cancel the registration, then destroy them or recycle them. Moving to another car? The RMV has no temporary plates, so you get seven days to put the old plates on it. Until the cancellation goes through, New Bedford keeps sending the yearly excise, figured at $25 per $1,000 of value.

Getting an offer

Call (877) 421-6008 or go online. Use the form to describe your New Bedford car. Section 23-23 bars wreckers from parking or standing in residence zones AA, A, B and C, on streets and in driveways alike. It exempts a truck standing there to make pickups or deliveries at a building in those zones. Dartmouth lies 6.6 miles away by straight line and Fall River 9.2; state rules are on Massachusetts.