Donating a car, permits?

[zmgmeister.livejournal.com]

I'm thinking about donating a car to one of those charities where they tow it away and sell it at auction. But how does all of this work with Somerville street parking and permits? I assume I'm supposed to take the plates and permits off, but how do you keep the city from towing it away? Is there some kind of temporary pass you can get for this situation?

Comments

[rmd.livejournal.com]

I would assume that would be covered as part of the handoff of the title of the car.

[pekmez.livejournal.com]

if you don't have other parking for it, then you most likely have to make an appointment to be there when they tow it, and take the permits and plates off right then. (I would not worry too much about taking the permit off the windshield, personally, but you probably want to hang on to your plates.) I think even for a car in my driveway they wanted me to be there to sign papers off at the transfer, actually.

As far as I know, you can't have a car with no plates on the street for some temporary length of time.

[ron_newman]

I think you're supposed to give the plates back to the Registry or to your insurance agent, unless you're transferring them to another car? Not sure about this.

[littlecitynames.livejournal.com]

I've done this and you have to be there when they come to pick it up.

[jwg.livejournal.com]

I drove my car to an appointed place when I gave it away.

[jadelennox]

it's not what you asked, so you might know this stuff (in which case I'm sorry to be bothering you with it!), but as someone who's done this, two things I learned in the process: first of all, some of these charities are scams, so be sure that you are going to one that you know is legitimate. It's safer to go through a major charity than through one of the Donate Your Car specialist sites. Also, it's really difficult to get the paperwork that allows you to get more than a $500 deduction from the donation (which was fine with me, because that's what my car was about worth). It was a recent change in federal law, and apparently it made life more difficult for the charities, as well.

good luck figuring out the permit thing.

[mamajoan.livejournal.com]

I asked my mechanic if I could leave the car at his garage for the charity people to pick up. He had no problem with it so that's what I did. And no, they didn't require me to be there; I just let them know where it would be and let the mechanic know when they said they would come for it, and somehow it all worked out.