Fitchburg, Wisconsin: selling a junk or dead car

What Section 74-91 covers

The rule applies to anyone who "owns, controls or occupies any real estate within the city," which takes in tenants as well as owners. It bars letting "disassembled, inoperable, unlicensed or junked vehicles" stay "open to view upon public or private property within the city for a period in excess of five days." Section 70-94 repeats the same five-day test. The lone carve-out is "an automobile sales or repair business operated within a properly zoned area."

Two details catch people:

• Racing cars count. "For purposes of this section, racing cars and equipment shall be deemed unlicensed vehicles." A trailer-queen race car parked in the side yard is on the same clock as a dead sedan.
• Out of view is the test. The rule is about cars open to view, so a Fitchburg car parked behind a shut garage door is outside its reach.

Fitchburg's nuisance list in Section 74-23 adds that "junked or discarded automobiles" include "any unlicensed or inoperable vehicle or any vehicle that may not otherwise be lawfully operated upon any public highway."

Left on a road or someone else's land

Section 68-208 says a vehicle "left unattended on any public highway, public property or private property without the permission of the property owner, for more than 48 hours" is abandoned. The city sends certified mail to the owner and lienholders with the year, make, model and serial number and where the car is held.

The deadline in that notice is 30 days. Not reclaiming the car within that time is "a waiver of all right, title, and interest in the vehicle." The city may then sell it. If the police chief and finance director decide "the cost of storage and title transfer would exceed the value of the vehicle," the car may be junked once the city administrator approves.

Snow emergencies

When snow or ice "hinders the safe movement of traffic," the police chief can declare emergency parking rules. Cars then park on one side of the street from 7 p.m. to 7 a.m., alternating even and odd. Streets with a roadway 20 feet wide or less get no parking on either side. The code is blunt about the result: "Vehicles in violation will be ticketed and towed." A car that does not start cannot follow any of it.

Wisconsin title and plate steps

Wisconsin requires the title to show your name before you sell. The buyer then takes a title whose reverse you have completed: signature, date, mileage, the brand statement, the price paid and the buyer's identity and address. When the car is headed for a scrapyard, mark the title Junk, and from then on Wisconsin will refuse to title or plate it. A misplaced title does not stop that, because WisDOT drops the replacement step for junking.

Hang on to the plates. Mount unexpired ones on another similar car in your own household, or slice them up. WisDOT neither accepts returned plates nor refunds leftover registration. Report a private sale to another individual online within 30 days.

Near Fitchburg

From Fitchburg, Madison is 7.1 miles as the crow flies and Middleton 9.3. Sun Prairie is 16.6 miles off and Janesville 29.5. Statewide rules are on the Wisconsin page.

Getting an offer

For a Fitchburg offer, reach us at (877) 421-6008 or online with the car's model, model year, odometer reading, running condition and where the title is. A race car on a trailer, a sedan beside the house or a truck behind a rental all qualify, and pickup comes to it.