Selling a dead car in Pickerington

Three rules can reach the same driveway

Pickerington's code comes at a dead car from three directions, each with its own clock.

• Seven days, disabled. Section 1290.05 caps a disabled vehicle at seven days parked outside an enclosed garage, fence or accessory building. The same section keeps required off-street parking spaces free of inoperative cars and of repair work, emergency repairs excepted.
• Ten days after a nuisance notice. Section 1080.02 forbids openly keeping "automobiles in an inoperative condition, motor vehicles unfit for further use, automobile parts" on any lot in the city. Either the city manager or the police chief serves a written notice, by hand, at the home, or by registered or certified mail. Once ten days from the notice date have passed, each further day the car stays is its own offense.
• Ten days after a junk-vehicle letter. Section 660.07 covers a car that is "three years old or older; extensively damaged, such damage including but not limited to any of the following: missing wheels, tires, motor, or transmission; apparently inoperable" and worth $1,500 or less, sitting uncovered outdoors on private land past 72 hours. Four offices hold that power: the police chief, a state highway patrol trooper, council and the zoning authority. From its arrival you get ten days to have the car "housed in a garage or other suitable structure" or hauled away. The penalty is a minor misdemeanor, renewed with every 30 days the car stays put.

Enforcement is slow. According to the city's code enforcement page, junk-vehicle cases can take up to a month of legal steps before a summons to Mayor's court, and sometimes longer. Code Enforcement's line is 614-833-2204.

Street parking and snow

Section 452.13 limits parking on a street or public lot to 48 consecutive hours unless the police chief signs off in writing.

The mayor can declare a snow emergency once the weather service records two inches and expects more, or when ice accumulates. For as long as it lasts, the even-numbered side of every street must stay empty, and whoever owns a car left there pays the tow and storage. A deeper storm, eight inches or more, lets the mayor call a snow clean-up emergency block by block; parking on those streets is then banned outright, and police have parked cars hauled off.

When police tow it

Under Section 404.07, police can send a car to storage once it has spent four consecutive hours on another person's residential property without permission, or 48 consecutive hours parked on a public street. To reclaim it, report to the Police Department and show the car is yours; any fines or bond come next, then the tow and storage bill.

A car removed as abandoned triggers a notice to its owner within five business days (Section 452.05). Ten days after that notice goes out, an unclaimed car is "declared a nuisance and disposed of." The police non-emergency number is 614-575-6911.

Your title office is in town

Fairfield County keeps a title office at 12945 Stonecreek Drive, right in Pickerington, about 2.7 miles north as the crow flies from the town's midpoint. Its listing says it closes on holiday weekends. Phone (614) 835-2610. For the Franklin County side of town, the Alum Creek Drive office in Columbus is about 10.1 miles west. Ohio accepts any county's title office, so Licking County's Pataskala office, about 9 miles northeast, is an option too.

Ohio's BMV requires a notary to witness the seller's signature. If you can't find the title, begin with a duplicate on form BMV 3774. Keep the plates: once the car is sold, its Ohio registration is over, and taking the plates off is the seller's job.

Getting an offer

Phone (877) 421-6008 or ask online. Have the odometer reading and the title in front of you, and tell us honestly whether the engine turns over. If snow is forecast and the car is on the even-numbered side, mention that too. Neighbors with their own pages: Reynoldsburg, Lancaster and Columbus.