Selling a dead car in Sherwood

When a car has run out of road, we buy whole non-running and junk cars. You sell the whole car as it sits, nothing pulled off first, with free pickup anywhere in the US.

The yard rules

Two Sherwood sections reach a car parked on private land.

• 9.44.050, ten days. The count runs "as to any one automobile," so every car on the lot gets its own ten days. Trailers and "other vehicular equipment" are in there too. Moving it inside a garage or other enclosed building ends the problem.
• 8.16.160, registration. Unless some other rule allows it, "no currently unregistered or uninspected motor vehicle shall be parked, kept or stored on any premises." No vehicle may be "in a state of major disassembly, disrepair, or in the process of being stripped or dismantled." Heavy work like body repair is allowed only "inside a structure or similarly enclosed area designed and approved for such purposes."

A Sherwood driveway car with lapsed tags can break that second rule while it still starts fine.

On the street: 48 hours, then 72

Section 8.04.020 defines an abandoned car as one left in the same spot "for more than forty-eight (48) hours" when its plates or tags are expired or missing, it "appears to be inoperative or disabled," or it looks "wrecked, partially dismantled, or junked." A car that stays inside a 500-foot radius for "more than one hundred twenty (120) hours" is a stored vehicle.

Before towing, Section 8.04.060 requires the city to post a notice "at least seventy-two (72) hours before removal." It names the date and earliest hour of the tow, warns that towing and storage charges and a lien will follow and that the car can be sold if they go unpaid, and tells the owner a hearing before impound is available if requested in time.

Taking it apart under state law

Beyond Sherwood's own sections, Oregon law (ORS 819.010) has the owner of a titled or registered car notify DMV 7 days or more ahead of wrecking or dismantling it. If you strip a car in Sherwood where the public can see it, the job has a 30-day limit. In Sherwood, 8.16.160 also pushes that kind of work indoors.

Title office

Sherwood belongs to Washington County. The closest DMV for Sherwood drivers is in Hillsboro, Suite H at 1300 SW Oak St. On a map it sits about 14 miles northwest. Its number is 503-299-9999. Oregon titles come from the state.

Selling a Sherwood car means signing and dating the title's back side or a bill of sale. Any lender also signs a release. Any Sherwood car built 2011 or later and not yet 20 needs odometer signatures from you and the buyer. Notarizing is absent from DMV's seller list. Then log the sale on DMV2U inside 10 days, listing the buyer and where they live. Once that's filed, a Sherwood seller isn't blamed under the Vehicle Code for how the new owner drives, parks or dumps it. You can keep the plates; their registration carries over only to a car registered to you.

Close by

Tualatin is 3.5 miles off, Wilsonville 4.8, Tigard 5.2 and Newberg 6.8. Statewide rules are on the Oregon page. If the city has already tagged your car, see notice to remove a car.

Getting an offer

Sherwood sellers can call (877) 421-6008 or send the form to get started. Our driver comes out to the car in a Sherwood driveway, behind a side-yard fence, or on a shop lot.