Selling a dead or junk car in Lancaster

The six tests

A car is junk in Lancaster when three of these are true:

1. It is three years old or older.
2. It is extensively damaged. Missing wheels or tires qualify, and so does a missing motor or transmission.
3. It can't legally be driven on a public road.
4. It has no valid plates and registration.
5. It is worth $1,500 or less.
6. It doesn't run. The code's word is operable: able to start, then move under its own power.

An old, low-value car with expired tags already scores three, even if it starts. "In the open" has its own one-line definition: not garaged. A car kept in a garage stays outside the rule.

Order, appeal, board

Section 343.02 is aimed at whoever owns, rents or controls the lot. Once that person has an order to remove a junk car, letting it stay in the open is an offense. Leaving one on someone else's property without permission is an offense too. A code official chosen by the Mayor or the Director of Public Service serves the order under the Ohio Rules of Civil Procedure. It describes the car and tells you a hearing is available.

You then have 10 days from receipt to appeal in writing to the Service-Safety Director. Skip that, and the car is conclusively presumed a nuisance and taken away immediately. If you do appeal, a three-member Board of Motor Vehicle Evaluation hears it within 30 days and rules whether the car is junk and left in the open. If it is, the board orders the Police Division to remove it. Under Section 343.04 the Health Department, the Fire Department or a code enforcement officer has it hauled to a place the Service-Safety Director picks, and disposal follows state law.

Code Enforcement, which lists junk autos among its examples, works a complaint in four steps: the complaint, an inspection, a mailed violation notice giving 3 to 30 days to fix it depending on the violation, and a reinspection. The office's number is 740-652-2699.

Street and private-lot limits

No car may stay parked, standing or abandoned on a Lancaster street or alley for longer than 48 continuous hours (Section 351.13). The first violation is a minor misdemeanor, and the penalty rises with prior traffic convictions within a year. Police can also take two kinds of car off private or public ground: one parked on somebody else's land 48 consecutive hours without consent, and a wreck too damaged to run that is sitting on a Lancaster street.

At the pound

If 12 hours pass and nobody has come for the car, the pound officer writes to the owner listing the violation and the redelivery charges. The city's FAQ lists the papers: proof of ownership and a current photo ID. Recovery questions go to (740) 687-6680, extension 1. The charge for the tow and storage can't exceed the ceiling in Ohio R.C. 4513.60(E), and it is paid before release.

Title and plates in Fairfield County

Fairfield County's Clerk of Courts handles Lancaster titles. Its office at 982 Liberty Drive is about 3.0 miles west of Lancaster's center point as the crow flies; call (740) 652-7540. The county's second office, 12945 Stonecreek Dr. in Pickerington, is about 16.6 miles northwest, and the state's listing notes both close on holiday weekends.

Every Ohio seller signs the title over before a notary, and a Lancaster sale is no exception. The plates stay with you, because registration ends when ownership changes and the seller must remove them right then.

Getting an offer

Call (877) 421-6008 or start online. Tell us what you're driving, or not driving: model year, make, model, miles, whether the engine turns over, and what's going on with the title. You sell the whole car as it sits. Nearby: Columbus and Reynoldsburg; Ohio has the state rules.