Selling a junked or dead car in North Kingstown

One car, and where it sits

Section 11-82 has two halves. On public property, nothing: no one may keep "a dismantled, junked or abandoned vehicle, an unserviceable vehicle, or a vehicle legally or physically incapable of being operated" outside a building there, nor one missing its inspection certificate. On private property the limit is one. The section then limits where on the lot that single car may be kept.

That inspection clause matters. The state requires an emissions and safety inspection every second year for vehicles weighing 8,500 pounds or under, so a car past its date can qualify even when it runs. Brand-new cars get a pass for 24 months from first purchase or 24,000 miles, whichever comes first.

The written order and the 20 days

North Kingstown section 11-84 puts the job of hauling it away on the car's owner or on whoever owns the land under it. The building official signs a written notice. It is sent certified mail with return receipt, handed over by police, or left at your house. When the owner of the car is unknown, the notice can be stuck on the car.

You then have 20 days. "If the violation designated in the notice has not been remedied within 20 days after service," or the North Kingstown council upholds the notice at a hearing, public works may haul the car away, dispose of it, and charge the owner or landowner.

North Kingstown streets move faster. Police give "48 hours' notice", or no notice at all if the car is a hazard or blocks a driveway into a property. Section 11-45 separately lets officers tow cars parked against the parking rules, at the owner's cost.

Getting it back, or not

Section 11-86 gives you two months to reclaim a car the town removed, by paying the reasonable removal costs plus a $15 storage charge. After two months unclaimed, "the town may sell the vehicle for the best price obtainable as junk or otherwise." Section 11-87 also shields the landowner and the town from claims "for any loss or damage to such vehicle while being removed."

The title

We checked the DMV branch in Wakefield, 4808 Tower Hill Road; the phone is (401) 789-1430. It is about 8 miles south of North Kingstown's center in a straight line.

State law, section 31-3.1-12, names the seller's role an "assignment and warranty of title," filled out on the certificate when the car is handed over. Cars older than model year 2001 are titled only at the point of sale. A North Kingstown sale also needs a bill of sale for the buyer. List the color, VIN, year, make, model and price, then sign it and add your address. At the very end, section 31-3.1-17 makes the scrapper send the title back to the DMV so it can be cancelled.

The plates

They stay with you. Cancel the registration through the DMV website and hang on to the email that confirms it.

Nearby

West Warwick is 8.3 miles away, Warwick 9.2 and Newport 9.4. Statewide rules are on the Rhode Island page.

Getting an offer

Holding a notice, or one car over the limit? Call (877) 421-6008 or fill out the form with the model year, make, model, odometer, if it starts, and what is written on the title. We can pick up behind the house, in a Wickford driveway, or at the shop.