Selling a junk or dead car in Yakima

The agency and the counter

The Washington State Department of Licensing sets the rules. The auditor's office on North 2nd Street is the one we checked; Yakima County may have others. DOL recommends that buyer and seller finish the deal at a licensing office, with payment and the signed title changing hands there.

When a car is legally junk

RCW 46.55.010 has a four-item list, and any three items make a junk vehicle:

• the car is three or more years old
• the damage is extensive: glass broken, wheels or tires gone, the motor or transmission missing
• it gives every sign of being inoperable
• scrap is the extent of its value

Local codes can go further. We could not find Yakima's online, so if you get a notice, call the city.

A dead car on another person's lot

Under RCW 46.55.230, the process starts with an inspection by law enforcement, a health department or another authorized person. The registered and legal owners then get a letter. Yakima landowners wait 15 days. With no word, they may junk the car or title it through an affidavit of sale. No DOL owner record means no wait.

Abandoning a junk car on property is a gross misdemeanor, and you pay back twice what removal cost.

Tow yards move fast too. Once a registered tow operator has kept a car for 120 straight hours, the law treats it as abandoned. If no one claims it, it is sold at public auction 15 days after the notice of custody and sale is sent.

Totaled, branded or destroyed

Salvage. No damage percentage applies in Washington. Three things make a Yakima car salvage: DOL got its title after a wreck or total loss, its paperwork says salvage, or fixing it plus its salvage value comes to more than the repaired car is worth. See insurer totaled it.

Brands. DOL's list includes Rebuilt, Odometer not actual, Returned to manufacturer, Former taxicab and Contaminated. A brand never leaves the record, and out-of-state brands carry over exactly as written. There is no Washington flood brand. Rebuilt title explains selling one.

Destroyed. DOL needs notice within 15 days when a Yakima car can't be sold. Yakima owners send back the title stamped "DESTROYED," or a sworn statement standing in for it with that stamp. Keeping the title past day fifteen is a gross misdemeanor.

The seller's paperwork

A valid title must exist before any sale. A lost one costs $39.50 to replace and arrives in 4 to 8 weeks. If the title is missing, a Yakima seller can hand DOL an "Affidavit of Loss/Release of Interest" or an "Affidavit in Lieu of Title." Every registered owner signs the affidavit of loss before a notary. For a car titled to a relative who has died, read inherited car.

Then:

1. Sign the title's release of interest and pass the title to the buyer, plus an odometer disclosure when required.
2. Yakima buyer and seller each sign a bill of sale. Skip it only if the title already shows the price and the date sold.
3. Keep your plates. They can go onto a similar vehicle or back to DOL.
4. Report the sale within 5 days. You need it when you sell, trade or give away the car, or hand it to an insurer or a wrecking yard.

That report keeps towing charges and the next owner's liabilities off your record. A buyer who is slow to retitle pays the state $50 on day sixteen and $2 for each day after, topping out at $125. Notarizing in an ordinary sale is the buyer's task, and the state stopped emission testing in 2020. Statewide details are on the Washington page.

Getting an offer

Call (877) 421-6008 or use the form. The form handles the car details. In Yakima our truck goes to homes, orchard roads, and repair shops downtown. Ellensburg is the next page up the valley; Richland and Kennewick lie southeast.