Selling a dead or junk car in Kenosha

The windshield sticker

Section 7.126 deals with what the code calls a Nuisance Motor Vehicle. On private property, the owner is notified and given "ten (10) full calendar days" to repair the car, make it operable and roadworthy and license it, or else put it in a garage, an enclosed structure or a licensed business. The notice is a sticker on the front windshield giving the violation, the deadline, and a phone number to call to be heard before the ten days run out.

Parked on a street, alley or other public ground, the car gets just "twenty-four (24) hours." The owner gets oral or written notice if they can be found, and a waterproofed notice of intent to tow goes on the car.

Shuffling the car around does not help. The deadline "shall not be tolled" by a temporary removal while the car is still a nuisance. If it is towed, the owner is told, in person or by regular mail, which tower took it and where.

Repairs in the driveway

The same section limits home repairs. Work that leaves a car inoperable for "more than three (3) working days" must happen in a garage, enclosed structure or fenced area that screens it from neighbors and from people passing on the street.

Old registration and loose parts

Under 7.041, a car not properly registered for six months or longer may not park on any public street or place in the city. Police may tow and store it at the owner's expense, and towers may dispose of unclaimed cars by the means the law allows.

Section 16.252 counts "Vehicle parts or bodies" as junk, and says value to a scrapper or recycler does not change that. One exception it lists is junk stored outdoors in a "completely enclosed, Flytight, waterproof, and Rodent-Proof Container."

The emissions test

Kenosha County is one of seven in the program, alongside Racine, Milwaukee, Waukesha, Ozaukee, Washington and Sheboygan. Cars and light trucks built from 1996 through 2006 that run on gasoline, natural gas or a hybrid system need testing if they come in under 8,501 pounds GVWR, and anything from 2007 on is covered up to 14,000 pounds. Owners hear from WisDOT when their car is due. If yours did not pass, see failed emissions.

Title and plates in Wisconsin

Kenosha titles, like every Wisconsin title, come from the state DMV, a division of WisDOT. Scrapping it? Mark the title Junk. No title in hand? Junking can go ahead without ordering a replacement. On a sale, the brands a title may disclose include hail-damaged, flood damaged vehicle, previously salvage, manufacturers buyback and transferred to insurer. A hail brand applies unless replacement parts fixed the damage.

Kenosha plates still in date can go on a like car that's yours, your spouse's or your domestic partner's. Otherwise, cut them up. Plates that went off with the car are cancelled through form MV2514. A private buyer means a 30-day window to tell WisDOT the VIN, who bought it, what they paid and on what day. After you sell has the rest.

Nearby

Pleasant Prairie is 4.2 miles off as the crow flies, Mount Pleasant 8.4 and Racine 10.1. Statewide rules are on the Wisconsin page.

Getting an offer

Reach us at (877) 421-6008 or online. Kenosha owners can put the car details on our short form. You sell the whole car as it sits. In Kenosha our truck loads from driveways, parking lots and garage bays.