Selling a dead or junk car in Newark

The letter, the 10 days, and what happens next

Newark's Director of Public Safety, or a designee, sends the letter certified, return receipt requested, addressed to the person entitled to possess the land. That can be a renter, not only an owner. Once it is in hand, Newark gives you 10 days to either garage the car (any suitable structure will do) or haul it away.

Waiting costs more each round. Each 10 days the car stays is a separate offense, and the penalty climbs:

• first offense: minor misdemeanor
• second: misdemeanor of the fourth degree
• every one after that: misdemeanor of the third degree

The same section bars storing junk cars on any premises in the city. The exceptions are junk cars kept inside structures in an industrial district, and land set up as an auto junk yard or salvage yard. Complaints go to the Division of Property Maintenance at (740) 670-7585 or propertymaintenance@newarkohio.net.

Streets, driveways and tow-away lots

Section 404.06 gives police several reasons to impound a car, and three fit a car that has quit:

1. It has stayed 48 straight hours or longer on a Newark street, and the Police Chief got no explanation. If it obstructs traffic, police need not wait.
2. It is damaged or wrecked so badly it won't run.
3. Its plates are illegal, or it lacks current plates.

On someone else's residential property, the clock is only four consecutive hours without permission. Private lots can post themselves as tow-away zones with an 18 by 24 inch sign, and the posted rates for an ordinary car may not exceed $90 for the tow and $12 for each 24-hour period of storage.

Snow adds one more rule. Section 452.09 bans parking on its listed streets, Main, Church, Granville Road and Locust among them, once snow reaches 2 inches. The Service Director measures the snow, and the Safety Director announces through the news media when the ban takes effect. A car left there is hauled away at the owner's expense.

Getting an impounded car back

Take ID and your Newark ownership papers to the Police Division at 39 South 4th Street, (740) 670-7200. Pay the fines for the violation or post the bond a court set, and collect a release form. Towing and storage, priced under the city's towing contract, are then paid to the person the Director designates before the car leaves.

Title and plates in Licking County

Licking County's Clerk of Courts does the title work, and its nearest office is on Newark's own East Main Street, number 877, about 3.1 miles east of Newark's center point as the crow flies. Two more sit in Pataskala, 316 South Township Road (about 14.1 miles west) and 12938 Worthington Rd., Suite A (about 16.3 miles west).

Before a Newark car changes hands, sign the seller's part of the title with a notary present. Keep your plates. Under Ohio law a Newark car's registration expires when it's sold, and the original owner pulls the plates off at once.

Getting an offer

Online or at (877) 421-6008, describe the car, give the miles, and say if it runs and if the Licking County title is in your name. You sell the whole car as it sits, and the tow truck comes to it. Nearby: Columbus and Reynoldsburg, or see Ohio for state rules.