Selling a dead car in Kearny

Business, commercial and industrial lots

Section 17-8.11 lists three ways a car can break the rule on a Kearny business lot: no registration, no inspection, or not running. Any one is enough. Two more limits come with it:

• No car may be "in any state of major disassembly, disrepair or in the process of being stripped or dismantled," except at an approved automobile repair facility, and only while that car is being repaired.
• No major overhaul, body work included, happens in those zones except at an approved repair facility.

Junkyards are carved out and fall under Section 5-54 instead.

When a lot full of dead cars becomes a junkyard

The zoning definitions in Section 38-2.2 matter if more than one car is piling up. A junkyard there includes any lot used for "the dismantling, demolition or abandonment of any inoperable mechanical equipment, machinery, or vehicles or parts thereof." In zoning terms, a yard of stripped cars can start to look like a junkyard use. Clearing several cars at once settles it.

At home in Kearny

The town sections we found speak to nonresidential property. Kearny could have local rules for homes and apartment lots. Check with Kearny before you count on keeping a car in a driveway. State law is the backstop. Abandon a car on public ground and it gets auctioned or junked under N.J.S.A. 39:10A-1 and following. Abandon it on someone's private lot and N.J.S.A. 39:4-56.6 sends it to a public sale; with no buyer, the lot's owner can apply to title it.

Inspection

Section 17-8.11 lists "uninspected" as a ground of its own. On a different point, New Jersey checks emissions every two years. A car under five model years old can be excused for five years. A car that keeps failing is a common reason people sell; see failed inspection or rust.

The Jersey City office, title and plates

A Kearny title changes hands only across an MVC counter. The Hudson County office we looked at is the Jersey City Vehicle Center on Summit Ave (number 438), around 4 miles southeast of central Kearny as the crow flies; Hudson could have more.

Put your signature in the seller's box printed on the title's reverse. A Kearny buyer goes home holding a bill of sale and the title you signed. A Kearny bill of sale carries the buyer's name and address, when it sold, the miles on it and the price. Plates belong to you, not the car. Return them to an agency or fit them to a different vehicle of yours. For a missing title, a Kearny owner schedules a Vehicle Center visit, files OS/SS-UTA and pays $60.

Getting an offer

Call (877) 421-6008 or use the online form and share what you know. That means the model and its year, the miles, if it can drive on its own, and which papers you have. A truck can collect it from a Kearny business lot, a side street, or a shop over in Harrison or Newark. The New Jersey page has the statewide rules.