Selling a junk or dead car in Ellensburg

How Ellensburg defines a dead car

Chapter 5.52 uses a mechanical test. A "wrecked, dismantled, or inoperative vehicle or automobile hulk" is one that "cannot be made mechanically operative without the addition of vital parts or mechanisms and the application of a substantial amount of labor to effect repairs." Section 5.52.080 declares those cars, and their parts, on private property to be "public nuisances which shall be abated and removed."

The exceptions are narrow: a car "completely enclosed within a building" and hidden from the street and from neighboring property, and cars kept by a licensed dismantler, dealer, wrecking yard or junkyard behind legal fencing.

Chapter 5.52 also calls a car abandoned once it has sat on another person's land, without that owner's permission, "for a period of 24 hours or longer," unless its owner cannot move it and has asked law enforcement for help.

Twenty-four hours on the street

Section 8.12.040 is one line: "No person shall stop, stand, or park any vehicle on any street in the city of Ellensburg for a period longer than 24 hours." Police may take custody of a car parked past that and hold it until the removal and storage costs are paid. A residential parking permit does not stretch the limit; it still caps any one spot at 24 consecutive hours.

To get a towed car back under 8.26.180, you pay the tow operator for removal, towing, storage and an administrative fee. A hearing to contest the impound must be asked for in writing and reach the district court "within ten days." See towed or impounded.

The West 5th title office

DOL lists a quick title office at 205 West 5th, Suite 105 (ZIP 98926), phone (509) 962-7505. It is less than a mile south of downtown Ellensburg in a straight line. It is the office we checked for Kittitas County; there may be others.

Washington rules when you sell

• Your part of the title is the release-of-interest section; the buyer's application is what gets notarized.
• When your Ellensburg title has no price and date written on it, add a bill of sale.
• The plates are yours to pull off. Reuse them on a like vehicle or hand them back to the state.
• The Vehicle Report of Sale is due inside 5 days, and a trip to a wrecking yard still counts as a sale.
• Replacing a lost title is $39.50, and it shows up in the mail in 4 to 8 weeks.

Long-parked cars bring their own problems; see sitting for years.

Nearby towns

Yakima is 28.3 miles from Ellensburg in a straight line, Wenatchee 31.8 miles and Moses Lake 60.6 miles. See Washington for statewide rules.

Getting an offer

Phone (877) 421-6008 or send the form. The offer form takes care of the car details. Our driver comes to it anywhere in Ellensburg: a carport, a garage, or the extra car out back that put you over the city's limit.