Selling a junk or dead car in Wadsworth

The 30-day rule for unlicensed cars

Zoning section 154.409 sets a hard count for homes. In any R-use district, no unlicensed motor vehicle, whatever its condition or type, may be stored or parked in the open or left ungaraged for more than 30 days. Separate stretches add up: periods that total over 30 days break the rule too. Unlicensed here means not displaying a valid license plate as required for driving on a public street.

The city's maintenance page repeats it in plain terms: a vehicle the state requires to carry registration can't sit outdoors for more than 30 days without current registration on it.

Where it sits matters as well. Parking a vehicle, boat, trailer or large recreational equipment in a front or side yard of a home is banned, short-term or long, unless it is on an approved gravel or paved driveway.

Junk cars: 72 hours, then a certified letter

Section 95.06 handles the worst cases. It borrows four tests from 95.04: an age of three years or more, heavy damage such as missing wheels or a missing motor, an apparent inability to run, and a value capped at $1,500. If a car like that stays out uncovered more than 72 hours on private land, even with the landowner's blessing, Wadsworth's zoning authority, its Legislative Authority, its police chief or a state trooper can mail a certified notice.

From receipt, the car has ten days. By then it "either shall be covered by being housed in a garage or other suitable structure, or shall be removed from the property." Missing that deadline is presumed willful, and the minor misdemeanor repeats with each further 30-day stretch.

Section 95.05 is the abandonment rule. It covers dumping a junk car on another person's lot for longer than three days without consent, and leaving one at the curb of a public street 48 hours or more without a word to the police chief. Either is a minor misdemeanor, and Wadsworth then charges the offender its disposal costs, net of any money the disposal returns.

Snow, streets and tows

Wadsworth's snow emergency needs three inches falling inside a 24-hour window, or a shorter one. While it lasts, public streets must be clear of parked, abandoned and unattended vehicles, brief loading stops excepted. The ban begins at least an hour after the Mayor first tells the news media, and the regular parking-fine and impound sections apply.

Under 70.13, police may impound a car whose crash damage makes it unsafe to drive. Unclaimed and abandoned cars follow the Chapter 95 procedures. At the police department, a claimant establishes identity and ownership and either pays the fines or posts the bond a court sets; the pound operator then wants its towage and storage.

Title office on Hinkle Drive

Wadsworth has its own Medina County title office, at 1154 Hinkle Dr., Suite B, roughly 1.9 miles north of the town center as the crow flies. Its listed phone is (877) 722-0016, option 3. The county's office at 976 N. Court St. in Medina is about 11 miles northwest, and Wayne County's in Orrville is about 13 miles south; Ohio accepts any county's office.

E-Check applies in Medina County. When the test is due, renewal waits on a pass, a waiver or an exemption. A car that fails and isn't repaired can't be renewed. When its registration lapses, the city's 30-day limit on cars without current registration takes over; see failed inspection.

At the sale, a notary witnesses your signature on the title's assignment, and you keep the plates after taking them off.

Getting an offer

Online or at (877) 421-6008, let us know what it is (year, make, model), if it runs, and how many months or years it has been parked; a car sitting for years is fine. Wadsworth's Code Enforcement Official can be reached at 330-335-2780. Pickup is just as free in Strongsville and Parma.