Selling a dead or junk car in Miamisburg

What makes a car junk here

Miamisburg uses a narrow, state-style test. A junk motor vehicle meets every one of these:

• three years old or older
• extensively damaged, such as missing wheels, tires, motor or transmission
• apparently inoperable
• worth $1,500 or less
• sitting outdoors without a cover on private land for over three days

A car that is newer, or worth more than $1,500, falls outside that definition, though the street rules below still reach it.

Seven days or ten: two kinds of notice

The two differ on shelter. Section 660.07 accepts a garage or other suitable structure; 452.05 asks for a totally enclosed building or garage. Once the seven days pass, the chief or the designated official may have the car taken away.

Two businesses get room. Approved repair garages may keep a junk-type car for up to 30 days, and approved sales lots may keep cars without a current plate or sticker as long as nothing else makes them junk.

On the street, an unlicensed car gets no time

Section 452.13 caps a passenger car's stay on a Miamisburg street, or in the public right-of-way beside it, at 48 consecutive hours. For an unlicensed passenger car, one with improper licensing, or a junk vehicle, the cap is zero. The section does not define either licensing term. Every vehicle is its own offense, every day another, each a minor misdemeanor. Section 452.05 also keeps junk vehicles off public property, public parking areas included, once they have been there two days without the Chief of Police hearing a reason.

Snow removal emergencies

For streets other than its snow emergency routes, Miamisburg lets the City Manager or a designee proclaim a snow accumulation removal emergency and notify residents however they see fit. City Police may remove and impound cars parked in violation, with the removal and impound costs charged to each car's owner. A car that will not start cannot be moved out of the plow's way.

Getting an impounded car back means showing the Police Department proof of identity and ownership and paying the fines or court-set bond. After that, the pound operator collects the towing and storage charges and releases it.

Abandoned vehicles are reported to non-emergency dispatch, (937) 225-HELP, or through the city's online form. Other property maintenance complaints go through the city's Contact Us form, or anonymously to a code enforcement officer at (937) 847-6532.

Title offices, including one in Warren County

The closest title counter is Montgomery County's Moraine office, 5552 N. Springboro Pike, roughly 4.2 miles northeast as the crow flies when measured from the Census Bureau's interior point for Miamisburg. Its extension on the county line, (937) 225-4480, is 5242. Warren County's office at 245-A South Main Street in Franklin is next, about 5.1 miles south, (513) 695-3240. Montgomery's Centerville office, 108 W. Spring Valley Rd., is about 5.9 miles east. You are free to use another county's office.

As the seller, your part of the title is the ownership assignment on its back, signed in front of a notary. Sales tax is the buyer's job at the title office, not yours. Keep your plates: Ohio ends the registration at the transfer and has the seller remove them; after you sell explains the rest.

Getting an offer

Call (877) 421-6008 or start online. We will want the car's year and model, a mileage figure, whether it starts, and the name printed on the title. Nearby, see Centerville and Kettering.