Selling a dead or junk car in Riverside

Fixing it? Ask for ten more days

The rule has a single built-in extension, and it is for repairs. If you are fixing an inoperable vehicle, or have arranged to get it fixed, the city's Zoning Administrator can authorize ten extra days on the premises. Short of that, the code wants it kept in a wholly enclosed garage or structure.

Not just cars

Riverside's definition reaches well past the family sedan. Trucks, buses, trailers, motorcycles, all-terrain vehicles, snowmobiles, farm equipment, construction machinery and boats all count if they cannot be operated. The reasons it gives include:

• no valid, current registration or license plate
• taken apart, in disrepair, on tires that aren't fully inflated, or unable to drive itself
• not legal to operate on public streets

An operable trailer stored outside is caught by the same 48-hour clock.

Notice, appeal, removal

A property out of compliance can be served a Notice of Violation and Order of Compliance and Correction, addressed to whoever is in control of it: owner, lessee, agent or tenant.

1. Appeals go to the City Manager, and the window is ten days from service.
2. Skip the appeal, and the vehicle must be gone inside those ten days.
3. Miss that, and Riverside removes the vehicle and charges you what it cost. The car then goes to impound under Section 303.08, with Ohio Revised Code 4513.62 governing its disposal.

The traffic code adds an older track, Section 303.10. It reaches a junk car left out in the open, uncovered, for more than three days on land whose holder agreed to it. Council, the zoning authority or the Chief of Police can mail a certified letter, and from the day it arrives you get ten days either to have the car "housed in a garage or other suitable structure" or to remove it. Ignoring the letter is a minor misdemeanor, and each 30-day stretch after that is charged as a fresh offense.

Police can also impound a car the Zoning Inspector certifies, in writing, as parked in violation of the zoning or property maintenance code.

Streets and snow levels

Section 303.09 covers two cases, both minor misdemeanors: a vehicle willfully left on a public road or highway right-of-way for two straight days or more, with the Police Chief never told why, and one left on someone else's private land past three straight days without consent. When the car is abandoned junk, the city's cost of getting rid of it is charged as well. A wrecked or inoperable car on a street can be impounded outright.

Snow emergencies are the City Manager's call, and they come in three levels. Parking on a signed snow emergency route is banned at every level, and any car already there has to move within whatever time the Manager sets. A violation is a minor misdemeanor, and unattended cars can be towed and impounded.

Impounded cars are released through the police offices. You will need evidence of who you are and of ownership, plus payment of any fines or court-ordered bond; the pound then wants its towage and storage charges before the car rolls out.

Non-emergency police dispatch answers at 937-233-2080. Community Development, which handles code enforcement and property maintenance, is at 937-233-1801, option 1.

Title offices from Riverside

Two Montgomery County title offices sit at nearly the same distance. Measured as the crow flies from Riverside's Census center point:

• Downtown Dayton, 451 W. Third St.: about 4.3 miles southwest; (937) 225-4480, ext. 5240 or 631
• Huber Heights, 6108 Chambersburg Road: about 4.5 miles north; ext. 5214
• Clayton, 8379 N. Main St., Randolph Plaza: about 8.8 miles northwest; ext. 5241

The county Clerk of Courts runs all three. On the title's back, the seller completes the ownership transfer section and signs while a notary looks on; Ohio then allows the buyer 30 days to apply for a title in their own name. Plates are not part of the deal. The registration ends when ownership changes hands, and Ohio law has the seller take the plates off right then. More in after you sell.

Getting an offer

Call (877) 421-6008 or start online. Say what you're selling, how many miles it has, whether it runs, and whether a city notice or a repair authorization is in play. Nearby, see Huber Heights and Dayton.