Selling a dead car in Hawthorne

If that car is yours to sell, we buy whole non-running and junk cars. You sell the whole car as it sits, and pickup is free anywhere in the US, whether it is parked behind a lived-in house or one waiting to be cleared out.

What the borough code says, and what it leaves out

The full list in 370-13 reads: "overgrown and/or dead vegetation; past due utility notices and/or disconnected utilities; accumulation of trash, junk or debris; abandoned vehicles, auto parts and/or materials; the absence of furnishings and/or personal items consistent with habitation or occupancy". The section says such conditions "may include, but are not limited to" those items.

For a dead car parked at a Hawthorne home, that section sets no day count and no notice period. Hawthorne could keep separate outdoor-storage rules our search missed, so phone the borough first. State law, below, reaches every New Jersey town.

Where the car sits changes the state rule

• Left on someone else's private land. Under N.J.S.A. 39:4-56.6, it must be offered publicly, by sale or auction. When nobody buys, the landowner can ask the state to put the title in the landowner's name.
• Left on a street or public lot. Here the governing statute is N.J.S.A. 39:10A-1 onward, and such cars get auctioned or scrapped. Junk titles are reserved for cars that are dead, or ones where a safety repair would exceed their worth.
• Left at a repair shop. Two months is the line: over 60 days without the owner's say-so, or 60 days after being told the job is done. Past that point the garage has three options: storage, a sale, or a junk-title application.

That last rule matters when a Hawthorne car is stuck at a garage in Paterson or Fair Lawn over a bill nobody wants to pay. If the estimate is bigger than the car, repairs cost more than it is worth walks through the choice.

The title office in Paterson

Transfers in this state happen face to face at an MVC agency counter; mail will not do. Paterson's Vehicle Center (125 Broadway, Suite 201) lies roughly 3 miles south of mid-Hawthorne as the crow flies. We checked it for Passaic County, and the county may have more.

The buyer usually makes that short trip. As seller, your signature goes on the reverse of the title in the part set aside for you. Write a bill of sale too. It lists who bought the car, their home address, the date, the miles shown and the price. After that the purchaser signs, brings Form BA-49 when it applies, and gets a 10-working-day window; missing it brings a $25 penalty.

Plates and a missing title

Unscrew the plates before the car leaves. New Jersey wants them returned to the MVC or moved onto a different vehicle of yours, never left for the buyer. If a car that has been sitting for years turns up without its title, replacing it runs $60. Hawthorne owners file form OS/SS-UTA at a Vehicle Center visit, proving ownership with a registration (old or current), insurance proof, or the certified registration record. Applying when you know the original is still in a drawer can draw a fine, the state warns.

Around Hawthorne

Fair Lawn is 2.6 miles away. Ridgewood and Paterson are each 2.9 miles off, and Elmwood Park 4.2. The New Jersey page gathers statewide rules for sellers.

Getting an offer

Phone (877) 421-6008 or fill out the form with the make, the reading on the dash, whether the key brings it to life, and where the title has got to. Pickup works at the house, a shop, or a relative's place across town.