Selling a junk car in Wilkes-Barre

The five-day notice

Section 18-12 starts when the building inspector's office, the health department or another city designee finds a motor vehicle nuisance on private ground. A written notice goes to the occupant. If there is no occupant, it goes to the property owner or agent, and it can also go to the vehicle's owner. The notice asks for removal and warns that the city "or its designee shall undertake such removal" at the property's cost.

You then get "the five (5) day period of compliance." After that, the city sends the car off to a depository for storage. Within 72 hours of the removal, it notifies the registered owner, if known, plus whoever owns or lives on the property. The car's owner and the landowner or occupant are each on the hook, "either or all of them."

What the city calls junk

The quality-of-life rules in Section 19-203 make it "unlawful to store, park, or place any unregistered, uninspected, inoperative, unlicensed, or nuisance motor vehicle on any premises," and forbid a car "in a state of major disassembly, disrepair, or in the process of being stripped or dismantled." The same section bars commercial and junk vehicles from residential districts.

Keeping more than one car becomes a zoning issue. The zoning code treats two or more cars that "for a period exceeding 30 days, have not been capable of operating under their own power" and are being stripped for parts as "prima-facie evidence of an automobile wrecking yard."

On the street

Public property has a shorter fuse. Section 29-131 calls a car abandoned if it is unable to travel on its own power, has "a deflated tire or tires," lacks current tags or stickers, or is partly disabled, wrecked or junked, "when allowed to remain in such condition for a period of forty-eight (48) hours." During a snow emergency, police can tow under Section 29-147, and the car "shall remain impounded until all costs are paid."

Title and plate in Luzerne County

There is no courthouse window for titles in Wilkes-Barre, because Pennsylvania runs titles through the state. Take the title to a PennDOT-authorized dealer, tag service or notary. That spot on a Wilkes-Barre title is where your signature, printed name and mileage go. Any co-owner listed also signs. A Wilkes-Barre sale to a scrap processor or a salvage dealer needs no notary.

Hang on to the plate. PennDOT takes it back, or an $11.00 fee shifts it onto your next vehicle. When the title is missing, a $72.00 duplicate comes from Form MV-38O; see junk car with no title.

Getting an offer

Use the form or call (877) 421-6008. Got a Wilkes-Barre car? Try the offer form. We haul from downtown, hillside driveways, or lots with a city notice. Nearby: Scranton and Hazleton. Statewide rules: Pennsylvania.