Selling a junk or wrecked car in Chillicothe

The two-part test

To define a junk motor vehicle on private or public property, 359.07 borrows two pieces of the city's abandoned-car definition in Section 359.05:

• Age: three years old or older.
• Extensive damage, which the code says includes, without being limited to, "a broken window or windshield; missing wheels, tires, motor or transmission; two or more flat tires."

Neither a dollar value nor a running test appears in that definition. A car that would start but sits on two flats meets it.

The exclusions in 359.07(b) are written for property run as a regulated junk yard or scrap metal business, with further conditions attached. They do not cover a family driveway.

Notice, then storage

The offense is willfully failing to remove the car, or leaving it unconcealed, after receiving notice of the violation; the section doesn't say how the notice is delivered. If the owner still doesn't comply, the Chief of Police or a designated officer can order the car into storage. From there it follows the abandoned junk motor vehicle procedure in 359.05: the car goes to a junk yard or scrap processor that holds a city contract, and whatever it brings goes into Chillicothe's General Fund. A car left unclaimed for ten days or more after notification can be disposed of.

Collector cars

A car claimed in good faith as a collector's vehicle has to stay in a garage or other concealing building too, apart from stretches of no more than 72 consecutive hours. It must also be registered with the Ohio BMV as a collectible vehicle and display valid collector tags.

Streets and alleys

Section 351.13 limits a vehicle parked, standing or abandoned on any street or alley to 48 continuous hours, and rolling it a few feet down the block does not restart the count. Police take reports of habitual parking problems and abandoned vehicles through an online traffic complaint form, and questions go to Tips@ChillicotheOH.gov.

On private property, Section 359.02 lets the chief act on a complaint once a car has sat there over 72 consecutive hours without the owner's permission, ordering it into storage; the owner gets it back with the title and payment for removal and storage. For a car towed off a public street after 48 hours, Section 359.03 calls for a certified letter, return receipt requested, and an unclaimed car is declared a nuisance ten days after that letter is mailed.

Ross County title office

Ross County's title office is at 475 Western Avenue, Suite M, about 0.6 miles southwest, as the crow flies, from Chillicothe's Census center point; phone (740) 702-3023. The next closest are the Fairfield County office in Lancaster, about 32.2 miles northeast, and Franklin County's office at 45 Great Southern Blvd in Columbus, about 37.5 miles north.

Your signature on the seller's part of the title must be notarized, which Ohio requires. As for plates, ORC 4503.12 leaves them in your hands: unbolt them the moment the car is sold, because the registration dies with the sale. A wrecked car may already carry an Ohio salvage title, which follows an insurer declaring a car economically impractical to repair and paying the owner. See salvage title for how those sell.

Getting an offer

Start online or call (877) 421-6008, with the model year, make, model and miles, plus a plain description of the damage: the flats, the glass, the missing parts. Nearby towns are Lancaster, Grove City and Athens, with Columbus to the north; the Ohio page covers state rules.