Selling a dead or junk car in Delaware

Junk or nuisance: Delaware uses both words

Section 521.11 defines two kinds of problem car.

A junk motor vehicle has to fit every one of these:

• age: three years or more
• damage: extensive, like a car with no wheels, tires, motor or transmission
• condition: apparently inoperable
• value: $1,500 or less
• place: uncovered and outdoors on private property, past 72 hours

A nuisance vehicle is any car parked in the open that looks neglected or run down. Flat or missing tires count. So does an expired or missing plate, or a defect that would make it unsafe or illegal to drive on a highway.

Officers can also come onto the lot to look. A code enforcement officer, police officer or community service officer may walk into the unenclosed parts of a lot that are in plain view, if a car looks like a violation from next door or from the street.

What the notice asks of you

Delaware's Chief of Police mails the notice certified, return receipt requested, to the person entitled to possess the lot. Count 10 days from the day it arrives. In that window, pick one: move the car into a garage or similar building, fix it until it is neither junk nor a nuisance, or get it off the lot. Every further 10-day stretch counts separately, and the grade rises each time: minor misdemeanor, fourth degree, then third degree from there on.

When the owner can't be found, the city may file an abatement action in the Court of Common Pleas. The court can order the car taken to a storage or salvage lot, and the charges are assessed against the property taxes.

Yard rules that catch project cars

Section 1311.14 matters most to anyone who works on cars at home. Junk vehicles may not be kept anywhere outside a fully enclosed building. A car torn down for a big repair, left in disrepair, or half stripped breaks the rule at any hour, and paint work belongs in an approved spray booth. Any vehicle in a yard must sit wholly inside a driveway or parking area.

Streets, towing and the impound lot

Section 303.09 covers abandoned junk cars left where they don't belong. Leaving one on a neighbor's land without permission is an offense after 72 consecutive hours. On a Delaware street or right-of-way, the line is 48 hours, unless you told the Police Chief the reason. Police may also impound a car that is wrecked or too disabled to run. The owner pays all wrecker and storage fees to the lot operator before it is released. If the owner hasn't contacted police within 12 hours, the department sends word of the violation, the time of impound and the storage rate.

The police take junk-car reports at 740-203-1111. Codes outside Chapter 5 belong to Planning and Community Development, 1 South Sandusky Street, 740-203-1600.

Title and plates in Delaware County

Ohio titles are a county job, handled by the Clerk of Courts. Delaware County's closest office is up U.S. 23 at 2079 U.S. Rt. 23 N, Suite 1, about 2.9 miles north of Delaware's center point as the crow flies; phone (740) 833-2490. The county also runs an office in Lewis Center, down Columbus Pike, about 8.9 miles south, and Franklin County's on East Campus View Blvd. about 12.1 miles south.

The seller's signature in the assignment section on the title's back has to be notarized. Plates don't transfer with the car in Ohio: the sale ends the registration and the seller unscrews them on the spot.

Getting an offer

Call (877) 421-6008 or go online. A few facts get it started: the model year and make, the miles, does it start, and is the Delaware County title in hand. You sell the whole car as it sits, covered or not. More nearby: Westerville and Dublin, or Ohio for statewide rules.