Selling a junk car in Mount Vernon

Snow emergency routes

Some Mount Vernon streets are designated snow emergency routes. When the Mayor or the Commissioner of Public Safety closes or limits parking on one during a snowstorm, or so it can be plowed, any car parked or abandoned there can be removed. The same goes for any car that blocks traffic, snow removal or fire equipment during a storm, flood, fire or other emergency. A car with a dead engine stays put on a snow route when the order comes, and that is the car the tow truck finds.

What the pound may charge

Chapter 256 sets separate caps for cars and for trailers:

• Cars: towing or removal up to $40. Storage up to $5 a day for the first five days, then up to $10 a day.
• Trailers and semitrailers: towing up to $100. Storage up to $50 a day for the first five days, then up to $100 a day.

You redeem the car by paying the city towing contractor. If a car that was booted or impounded is moved without following the release rules, the owner, and whoever moved it, are liable for any damage to the immobilization device, on top of other fines.

The 15-day letter

A towed car that sits unclaimed gets a letter. If a vehicle, "other than an abandoned vehicle as defined in the Vehicle and Traffic Law § 1224, Subdivision 1, remains unclaimed for at least 15 days after being towed", the Commissioner sends written notice. The last registered owner and any lienholder of record get it by both certified and regular mail. A lender with an open loan on the car gets told as well.

Abandoned cars follow the state process instead. Under VTL 1224, a plateless car the market would put at $2,250 or under wholesale belongs to the local authority immediately. Other abandoned cars can be sold ten days after the owner is notified.

The sections we read cover cars on streets. We did not find a Mount Vernon rule about a junk car on your own land in them. State law hands that question to each municipality, so Mount Vernon may well have rules we did not see. Check with the city before assuming you have longer.

Salvage, wreck and other brands

New York treats a car as a salvage vehicle in several cases. An insurer can take it with a Salvage Certificate (MV-907A) after significant damage. Repairs can cost more than 75% of its pre-damage retail value. It can carry a salvage title from another state. Or the owner can declare it a "wreck" on the back of its New York title at the sale. Under 15 NYCRR 20.20, those brands never come off. More on that in salvage title.

The sale itself

Mount Vernon sellers sign the title's back assignment and an MV-912 receipt. Neither gets notarized. The plates stay yours. Take them and the windshield sticker off, and surrender the plates to the DMV before cancelling insurance, or transfer them to another car right away. Keep the FS-6T receipt.

Nearby towns

New Rochelle is 2.7 miles away as the crow flies, Yonkers 3.0 miles and White Plains 8.7 miles. For statewide rules, see New York.

Getting an offer

Selling a car in Mount Vernon? Call (877) 421-6008 or use our offer form. We pick it up wherever it is: on a residential block, in a driveway, or at a shop.