Selling a dead or junk car in Carlsbad

The 48-hour rule

Section 50-6 is blunt. No owner, tenant, occupant or lessee may let a "partially dismantled, non-operating, wrecked, junked or discarded vehicle" stay on a property in the city "longer than 48 hours". The same limit applies to anyone who leaves such a car on someone else's land. On a street or highway, a car in that condition may not be left at all, "except in case of temporary emergency."

The same section has a second 48-hour test. Any vehicle left in one place long enough "to cause such vehicle reasonably to appear to have been abandoned" breaks the rule once it passes that mark. Carlsbad's police chief, or an officer he names, may tow a car that appears to violate the chapter or looks "lost, stolen or unclaimed," under this rule.

Collectors of historic or special-interest vehicles are not off the hook. The code says they "shall comply strictly" with the state law that covers them, including proper storage and screening.

The housing code says the same thing another way

Carlsbad's housing code amendments, section 8-53, ban open storage of "any abandoned motor vehicle" or motor vehicle parts on residential property. For that section, an abandoned car is simply one "in a state of disrepair and incapable of being moved under its own power." The owner or occupant has to clear such items "upon notice from the building official."

Big trucks and trailers overnight

A separate line in 50-6 bans overnight street parking in A, B or C residential districts for any truck or motor vehicle over 10,000 gross vehicle weight, and any trailer over 15 feet long. That rule also covers a dead work truck parked at the curb.

If the car was totaled

Eddy County drivers who kept a car after an insurance payout should know New Mexico's salvage rules. An insurer's total-loss declaration brands the car salvage or nonrepairable "regardless of repair cost". If it stays in Carlsbad, the title must carry SALVAGE or NONREPAIRABLE, printed at least half an inch tall. Only a licensed wrecker or an out-of-state licensed processor may buy a nonrepairable car. Selling either kind without its branded title breaks the law. See insurer totaled it.

The MVD office and the sale

In Carlsbad, we located a Motor Vehicle Division field office at 3607 National Parks Hwy. On a map that's roughly 2 miles southeast of downtown. Call MVD at 1-888-683-4636. Eddy County may have others.

Assign the title on its back and record the mileage; the Bill of Sale (MVD-10009) completes the transfer when the assignment is incomplete. The MVD's seller instructions include no notary step.

The plate stays yours, not the buyer's. In Carlsbad you take the plate off. Within 30 days it goes to MVD for destruction or onto a different vehicle in that class. From Carlsbad, mail form MVD-10048, the "Notice of Vehicle Sold", off to the Santa Fe Sold Unit.

Getting an offer

Selling a Carlsbad car? Call (877) 421-6008 or fill in the form. Clearing several at once? Say how many; several junk cars explains how that works. Hobbs and Roswell are each under 70 miles away; see Roswell, or New Mexico for statewide rules.