Selling a junk car in North Olmsted

Three code sections, one answer

All three of these rules reach one answer: indoors, or gone.

• Section 521.08 bars storing an inoperative car, a car unfit for further use, or loose auto parts on any property unless they are kept inside a building. Inoperative means so damaged, or so short of parts, that it can't be driven safely.
• Section 1363.302, the property maintenance code, is blunter: “No inoperable motor vehicle shall be parked, kept or stored on any lot.”
• Section 351.11 requires a junk motor vehicle on residential property to sit entirely inside a garage or accessory structure. Here a junk car is one without an engine, without inflated tires, or without current Ohio plates and a valid registration sticker.

That last test reaches a car that still starts. Valid passenger plates take a car out of 351.11, but they don't help under 521.08 if the car can't be driven safely.

The two-of-anything test

Section 521.08 also spells out major disrepair. Two or more flat tires qualify. So do two or more broken windows or windshields, or two or more exterior lights broken or missing. If the trunk lid, windshield, a window, a door, a tire, the hood, a quarter panel, a fender or a bumper is gone or not fully attached, the code says the car is in major disassembly, with no room to argue. Either way, it can't sit outside a garage or other complete enclosure.

At home you may do minor repairs on your own registered car: a flat tire, an oil change, wiper blades, lights, a tune-up. Stripping, dismantling or major disassembly on a lot is banned. A major overhaul belongs inside an approved enclosed structure, and painting needs an approved spray booth.

Each day a 521.08 violation goes on is a separate fourth-degree misdemeanor. Neither 521.08 nor 1363.302 sets a waiting period. The Building Division inspects exterior grounds and takes Property Maintenance Complaints through the city site; City Hall is (440) 777-8000.

Streets, snow and the Lorain Road lots

• 2 a.m. to 6 a.m. No car may park on any North Olmsted street in those hours. For an exception, police ask you to call (440) 777-3535.
• Two inches of snow. That much falling within a 24-hour span is a snow emergency, and the mayor may declare one ahead of a forecast. It lasts until plowing is announced complete. Police may remove a car parked so it gets in the way of snow removal.
• 48 hours. Under Section 303.09, leaving a car 48 hours or more on a public street is a minor misdemeanor unless the police chief was told the reason.

Every police tow goes to one of two garages on Lorain Road: Patton's Towing at 29700, (440) 777-4070, or Pro Automotive at 24532, (440) 777-7757. Neither lets a car go until the police clear it. Section 303.08 sets the order: prove who you are and that the car is yours at the police offices, clear fines or bond, then carry the release form to the garage and settle its towing and storage bill.

A title office inside the city

Ohio's BMV doesn't issue titles; each county's Clerk of Courts does, and one of Cuyahoga County's title offices is in North Olmsted itself, at 26642 Brookpark Rd. Extension. It is about 0.3 miles north as the crow flies. Parma's office on Snow Rd. is about 8 miles east by the same measure, and Lorain County's, on Middle Ave. in Elyria, about 10 miles west.

When you sell, complete the reverse side of the title (Ohio calls it the assignment of ownership) and sign before a notary public. Then unscrew the plates. Under R.C. 4503.12 the registration dies with the sale, and removing the plates is the seller's job, at once. No title in the drawer? Get a duplicate before selling; junk car with no title explains how.

Getting an offer

Want an offer? Call (877) 421-6008 or ask online. We'll want the car's year, make and model, roughly how many miles, what's missing from it, whether it starts, and whose name is on the title. A car already sitting at Patton's or Pro Automotive can be picked up there after the police release it and the garage is paid. For the rest of the county, see Cleveland; for statewide rules, Ohio.