Selling a dead or junk car in Massillon

A car that no longer runs often ends up there, because nobody renews tags on a car that does not move. If you would rather sell it than garage it, we buy whole non-running and junk cars, with free pickup anywhere in the US.

The 20-day plate rule

The one exception Section 521.13 gives is a completely enclosed building or garage. Asked by the city, the owner has to produce insurance papers for every car stored in violation, and a car kept past day twenty can be towed and impounded.

Breaking this rule once is a minor misdemeanor. Get convicted again inside twelve months and it becomes a misdemeanor of the first degree.

When Massillon calls it junk

Section 521.11 sets the vocabulary. "Inoperative condition" means the car is "incapable of being propelled under its own power." "Partially dismantled" means some part it normally needs is gone. A junk motor vehicle is one meeting the state's junk tests that is "left uncovered in the open on private property for more than seventy-two hours," even with the landowner's consent. Junk cars kept outside a building are a public nuisance.

The countdown begins with written notice from the Police Chief or someone the chief designates. It can be served on you in person, dropped at the place you live, or mailed (registered or certified) to the last home address on record for you. Ten days after it reaches you, the car has to be gone.

• Exempt: an enclosed building, a regular junkyard, a part of the city zoned for it, or a collector's vehicle.
• Every day the junk car remains counts separately. Conviction one is a minor misdemeanor; every later one is fourth degree.
• The Police Chief can have the car removed. It is then impounded until someone lawfully claims it, or it is disposed of under Ohio R.C. 737.32 and 737.33.

Code Enforcement handles junk vehicles on private property, at 330-809-0235. Its page says it acts proactively as well as on complaints.

Abandoned on a street, or towed

Section 303.09 presumes a car abandoned in two cases: parked at a public curb 48 hours or longer with police never told the reason, or past the 72-hour mark on another person's property without their say-so. Section 303.08 also lets police move a car that unreasonably interferes with street cleaning or snow removal, and the officer in charge has to tell you what violation or fine it was taken for.

Release under Section 761.08 needs proof of ownership, proper registration and insurance. Storage runs by the calendar day from the day of the tow, with any part of a day counted. Dispatch takes non-emergency calls at 330-832-9811.

Title and plates

Stark County's Clerk of Courts title office closest to the center of Massillon is at 1972 Wales Rd. NE, inside the Massillon Auto Club, roughly 2.8 miles to the northeast in a straight line; the phone is (330) 833-1009. The South Canton office, 3027 Cleveland Ave., is about 7.6 miles east, and the Canton office at 110 Central Plaza South is about 7.9 miles east, both as the crow flies.

A notary has to witness the seller signing the title, junk car or not. The plates stay yours, not the buyer's: the registration ends at the sale, and you remove them yourself. After you sell covers what comes next.

Getting an offer

Online or at (877) 421-6008, describe the car: year, make, model, odometer, whether it still runs, and where the title is. Pickup works from a driveway off Lincoln Way, a back lot, or a shop that gave up on it. Canton is the neighboring city, and Alliance is also nearby.