Selling a dead or junk car in Charlottesville

Section 5-150 and the ten-day window

The rule covers property zoned for homes or businesses. It bans keeping "any inoperable motor vehicle" outdoors unless it sits inside a fully enclosed building or is screened from view. On business property, the visibility test is measured from the street rather than from upper floors.

Enforcement starts with the director. Once a violation is found, the director serves notice on the property owner to remove the car. From there you have two choices: get the car off the lot, or ask within ten days for an informal administrative hearing before an official the chief of police designates, to challenge the finding or the need to remove the car. Do neither, and the city can take the car itself.

Removal is not the end. The city may then dispose of the car "after giving an additional ten (10) days' written notice" to its owner, and to the property owner too if that is someone else.

When a parked car turns into an abandoned one

Section 15-271 sets two tests. An inoperable car left unattended on public property "for more than forty-eight (48) hours" is abandoned. Separately, a car is presumed abandoned if it "(i) lacks a current license plate, or a valid state safety inspection sticker, and (ii) it has been in a specific location for four (4) days without being moved."

The city also defines an inoperable abandoned car: one whose fair market value, as the commissioner of revenue sets it, is below the cost of making it run again. That kind can go to a demolisher "without the title and without the notification procedures," under section 15-276, with the demolisher reporting it to the DMV. If your car was impounded and you want it back, section 15-299 has you pay the city's costs of removal, storage and finding you first.

Street rules that catch a dying car

Section 15-144 adds two rules worth knowing:

• No cover on a street-parked car may hide its license plate or inspection decal. A tarp over a dead car at the curb is a violation by itself.
• Repair businesses may not store customers' cars on city streets, and nobody may do shop work on a car parked there. The code makes exceptions for emergency service and for owners doing minor work on their own cars.

Titles and plates in Charlottesville

Virginia titles run through the DMV, which works through customer service centers, DMV Select offices, online services and mail. Use the location search on the Virginia DMV site to find a counter.

You may not need one. When the car is already titled in Virginia, the DMV lets the buyer and seller do the whole transfer online, without a dealer.

Paper titles put the seller in Section A, on the face. On a Charlottesville title, the buyer's name and address go on line one. Under it, add the true odometer reading, sale date and price, then each owner prints and signs. Virginia's seller steps for Charlottesville drivers mention no notary.

Then report the sale. State law, Va. Code 46.2-604, describes it as completing the transfer-notice portion of the registration card, and the DMV also takes the report online, by phone or at a center. Here's why it matters. Cancel coverage on a sold Charlottesville car without reporting the sale, and the DMV sees an uninsured registered car. It may then suspend your license and registration.

Take your plates off before the car changes hands. Move them to a replacement, or return or inactivate them, and call the insurer only after that. Plates with six months or more of registration left may bring a refund.

For a car going to scrap, a demolisher does not need the title in its own name. When a yard buys straight from you for demolition, you sign a Vehicle Removal Certificate, form VSA 40. An untitled car of 10 or more model years goes through a DMV record search before crushing. A replacement title is $15 if you want one first.

Getting an offer

Call (877) 421-6008 or use the request form. Send the form for your Charlottesville car. We pick up from driveways, rental back lots or shops near the Downtown Mall. Waynesboro is 22.7 miles away and Harrisonburg 34.7; the Virginia page has the statewide steps.