Selling a dead or junk car in Kettering

Walls, a roof, and out of sight

Section 1328.11 reaches every premises in the city, public or private. No one may store, park or leave an inoperable vehicle on one unless it is fully enclosed and shielded from view. A lawfully run junkyard or scrap processor is the only other exception. The section is written to impose strict liability, so the reason the car stopped running does not matter.

That section never defines "inoperable." The city's exterior maintenance page states the opposite standard instead: a vehicle kept outdoors must be parked on a hard-paved surface, be in operable condition, and carry a current license and registration. A car that fails any one of those does not belong outside. The same page says major bodywork, repairs or painting of personal vehicles must happen in enclosed spaces suited to that work.

Collector cars get no pass either. An unlicensed or inoperable collector's vehicle has to be concealed in an enclosed building, garage or other structure that meets the zoning code.

Ten days, and how to ask for more

When one is found, the Chief Code Official serves a notice to abate on the record owner of the premises and places a copy somewhere conspicuous on the car. The notice orders the car removed within ten days of service.

• Extension. A written request that reaches the city at least twenty-four hours before the deadline can earn up to 30 more days, at the Chief Code Official's discretion.
• Compliance agreement. Anything longer needs one, and it cannot exceed 90 days.
• Until the crew shows up. Right up to the moment the city's designee arrives, you may still move the car or put it under a roof at your own expense.
• A car that isn't yours. An owner who swears by affidavit that someone left it without permission, and asks for removal, is not charged removal or storage.

With no compliance and no timely appeal, the city may remove the car. If it sits within the curtilage, the area immediately around a home, the city may first ask a court for a warrant. The section sets no fine; instead, towing, storage and the city's other costs are recovered from the premises owner or the vehicle owner.

Once towed, the car is stored and handled under the state's abandoned-vehicle statutes, 4513.61 and 4513.62, and the company holding it may send the notices those statutes call for. Ten days after that notice is sent, a car nobody has claimed is treated as a nuisance and gotten rid of.

Street, alley or yard: who to call

A car on the street or in an alley must also meet the rules the Police Department and Public Works enforce. The police non-emergency number is 1-937-296-2555, and the city asks for a phone call rather than email or social media messages on safety issues. Property maintenance concerns go through the city's "Share a Property Maintenance Concern" form or the main line, (937) 296-2400, weekdays 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.

Title offices near Kettering

Part of Kettering lies in Greene County, but the nearest title counters belong to Montgomery County's Clerk of Courts; the Ohio BMV issues no titles itself. Distances are straight lines from the Census Bureau's center point for Kettering:

On the title, the seller's job is the ownership section printed on the reverse; your signature there needs a notary. Keep the plates, too. Ohio law cancels the registration at the sale and tells the original owner to take them off at once. After you sell has the remaining steps.

Getting an offer

Call (877) 421-6008 or begin online. A few facts help: the car and its model year, the odometer reading, whether the engine turns over, and where it is parked right now. If a notice to abate gave you a date, tell us that date. Nearby, see Dayton and Centerville.