Selling a junk or dead car in Reno

What Reno's code prohibits

Section 8.22.080 makes it a nuisance to keep "any junk, inoperative and/or unregistered vehicle or vehicles on any highway, street or other thoroughfare, or upon any public property within the city." Under the definitions in Section 8.22.030, a car is unregistered when current Nevada or out-of-state registration is not displayed on it.

Restorers have a narrow exception. There is one exception for junk or inoperative cars on private land. Reno requires them to stay "within a garage or accessory building" and hidden from each property line at ground level. The owner also has to be restoring a car eligible for registration as a horseless carriage, antique old timer, street rod, classic rod or classic vehicle.

When an owner ignores a notice, the city can tow the car. The owner and any secured parties, along with the property owner or responsible party, "shall be held liable for the costs of removal."

The clocks on a Reno street

There are two separate timers:

• Three days. An officer who believes a car has been abandoned attaches a citation or notice of infraction for illegal parking. If the car hasn't moved "within three days," it can be removed.
• 48 plus 48. Section 6.20.070 covers cars left unattended for 48 hours on streets, alleys, highways or city lots. A notice goes up, the owner gets 48 more hours, and impound can follow.

Unpaid tickets and the boot

Tickets stack up fast on a car that can't be moved. Under Section 6.30.570, once a vehicle has three or more notices of infraction within two years that nobody has answered, and the owner has been warned, the city can put an immobilizer on it. The owner gets a hearing before a hearing officer the following day. If the boot was justified, the owner owes removal fees plus civil fines. If the owner doesn't show up or refuses to pay the fines, the hearing officer orders the car impounded. Tickets or registration hold explains how unpaid fines affect a sale.

Towed from a private lot

Section 6.09.040 limits when a commercial parking lot may impound a car. Access to the lot must be physically controlled at marked entrances. And where a receipt is not customarily issued and the car was impounded for an unpaid parking fee, the driver must get the chance to pay the fee plus a charge of no more than "ten percent of the parking fee collected, or $5.00, whichever is the greater amount." The lot owner may not add any other charge as a condition of release.

Vacant houses and an old car out back

Section 8.22.110 targets property that has been vacant or mostly vacant for 12 months or more and has seen two or more "abandoned nuisance activities" within 12 months. The list of those activities names "inoperable vehicles." If a parent's empty house still has the old sedan in the driveway, it can count toward that. Inherited car covers selling a car from an estate.

Title paperwork near Reno

The state DMV issues all Nevada titles. The office we checked is at 9155 Double Diamond Parkway, and its phone is (775) 684-4368. Straight-line, it lies roughly 9 miles southeast of central Reno, and Washoe County may have other offices.

Before you hand the car over:

• Use the owner name just as the title prints it. Names joined by "AND" both sign; with "OR," one signer is enough.
• For 2011 and newer cars, give the buyer the paper title. Write down the odometer reading.
• A lost title last issued in Nevada is replaced with form VP 012. It costs $20.00 for delivery to a Nevada address and $35.00 out of state. If a lien is recorded, the lienholder orders it. See junk car with no title.

Emissions, registration and plates

Smog checks are yearly in urban Washoe County. When you sell privately, the buyer handles the test, and a pass stays valid for 90 days. A registration that ran out during the months the car sat gets no grace period. Renewing means paying the full year ahead, prorated fees for the lapsed months and a $6-per-month late penalty. Selling the car is the other way out.

The plates are yours. Ownership changing ends the registration. Within 60 days, the plates either go onto another car you register or back to the DMV. Report the sale through MyDMV's Registration Cancellation and Vehicle Resale Notification, and keep your VP-104 copy. Cancel the registration first, and only then the insurance.

Nearby towns

Measured point to point, Sparks sits roughly 7 miles off, Carson City 28 and Fernley 35. Statewide rules are on Nevada.

Getting an offer

Call (877) 421-6008 or send the online form. Include model year, make, model, odometer, starting or not, and the name on the title. The tow truck comes to it, whether it's in an apartment lot, a home driveway, or a shop that quit on the repair.