Your options for a dead car in New Bern

Two codes, two inspectors' rules

The housing rule falls on "every owner or occupant" of residential property. If a car is not removed after the inspector's notice, the city may remove it or have it removed. Removal from private land still takes a written request from whoever owns, rents or occupies the place, unless "the board of aldermen, or a duly authorized city official or employee, has declared it to be a health or safety hazard."

The nuisance chapter adds a second track. Section 26-48 makes it unlawful "to leave or allow to remain on property under his control or management any motor vehicle defined in this section as a junked motor vehicle." The chief building inspector or a designee may order one removed "after finding in writing that the aesthetic benefits of removing the vehicle outweigh the burdens imposed upon the owner of the vehicle." Removal follows the state's procedures, and the city notifies the owner afterward as state law requires.

Streets and the junkyard line

Section 26-46 has two triggers for an abandoned vehicle on a street: parking that breaks a law or ordinance, or sitting on a public street or highway "for longer than seven days." A junked car is an abandoned one that is also partly dismantled or wrecked, among other tests. Sections 70-213 and 70-226 add the usual limits: park between the lines, and obey signed hours on listed blocks such as parts of Roundtree and Bern streets.

Keeping several dead cars can change what your lot is. Under the land-use definitions in Section 15-15, a place used to store, dismantle or sell junked cars counts as a junkyard "regardless of the length of time that such vehicles remain on the property, unless such vehicles are currently being restored to an operable condition."

Title and plates

Craven County does not issue titles. That's NCDMV. You send papers through a plate agency or by mail. A New Bern seller writes the buyer's name and home address on the back, along with the day of sale, the mileage if the car is new enough to need it, and the damage disclosure. A notary watches you sign. A car the water reached may carry a Flood Vehicle brand; see flood damage. The plates are yours. Unless they're going on another car of yours, return them before you cancel insurance. Craven sits outside the state's emissions-testing list, but the yearly safety inspection still applies.

Getting an offer

Use the form or call (877) 421-6008. Name the car, give the miles, say if the engine catches, and list the papers you have. We pick up where it died, be it a driveway, a garage, or a side street off Middle Street. Jacksonville is 31.0 miles away, and Greenville is 38.8. If it doesn't run, that is fine. The statewide rules are on North Carolina.