Selling a junk or dead car in Dearborn Heights

What else Section 7-302 reaches

The blight section is broader than the driveway rule. It also covers:

• Home repairs. Only a car owned by someone living there, or family who drive it, may be worked on, and the job has to wrap up within "fourteen (14) days from the start of such repair."
• Plates. It is a blighting factor to park a vehicle "unless the vehicle has proper license plates attached and displayed."
• Business lots. In business, commercial and industrial zones, cars stored there must be tied to the business.

That plate clause meets Michigan's sale rule head on. The state has you pull your plate when you sell, so a car signed over in Dearborn Heights should not linger without plates waiting for its buyer.

Streets, curbs and snow

• A car "incapable of movement under its own power" can't stay on a Dearborn Heights street or other city property past "twenty-four (24) hours."
• Section 7-302 is also broken by any car sitting on a street or city property longer than 48 hours.
• Street repairs are for emergencies only, finished inside "two (2) hours."
• Section 32-554 bans parking on a street once snow or ice reaches "a depth of three (3) inches or more," or during an emergency the mayor declares. If a household has no driveway, or owns more cars than the driveway and garage can fit, it can request a yearly on-street permit from the chief of police.

When police take it as abandoned scrap

Section 32-119 moves quickly. Police have 24 hours from custody, "excluding Saturday, Sunday and legal holidays," to complete a release form and turn the car over to a tow service, a used parts dealer or a scrap metal processor. That business then asks the state for a title or "a certificate of scrapping." The registered owner and any lender are told within seven days that the car was deemed abandoned. That notice warns that skipping redemption or a hearing for 20 days "may result in the termination of all rights" to the car.

At a hearing you can dispute the abandonment call or the towing and storage fees. The police department refunds those fees if the court rules the car should not have been deemed abandoned.

Michigan title and plates

Secretary of State branch offices hand out Michigan titles for the state; Wayne County does not issue them. To sell, sign the original title over to the buyer after completing its odometer statement and seller's part. Each listed owner signs as well. No notary shows up in the state's steps for a Dearborn Heights seller.

Then take the plate off. In Dearborn Heights, the plate stays with you for a car you own now or buy later. If it rides away on the sold car, the buyer's parking tickets could be mailed to you. Michigan has no release-of-liability form. Another Dearborn Heights choice is a branch trip alongside the buyer, or an 18-month minimum on keeping a front-and-back copy of the signed title. Skip both in Dearborn Heights and MCL 257.240 sets a $15 civil infraction, with towing and storage presumed yours if the buyer abandons the car. If the title is lost, see selling with no title.

Getting an offer

Call (877) 421-6008 or use the form. We pick up from Dearborn Heights driveways and repair shops, from the Hines Park side out to the Garden City line, 2.8 miles off on a direct line. Dearborn and Inkster have their own pages, and Michigan covers the statewide rules.