(a) (1) For purposes of this section, "junk motor vehicle" means any motor vehicle which is three years old or older; extensively damaged, the damage including but not limited to any of the following: missing wheels, tires, motor or transmission; apparently inoperable; and having a fair market value of one thousand five hundred dollars ($1,500) or less, that is left uncovered in the open on private property for more than 72 hours with the permission of the person having the right to possession of the property, except if the person is operating a junk yard or scrap metal processing facility licensed under the authority of Ohio R.C. 4737.05 through 4737.12, or otherwise regulated under authority of a political subdivision; or if the property on which the motor vehicle is left is not subject to licensure or regulation by any governmental authority, unless the person having the right to the possession of the property can establish that the motor vehicle is part of a bona fide commercial operation; or if the motor vehicle is a collector's vehicle.
(2) The municipality shall not prevent a person from storing or keeping, or restrict him or her in the method of storing or keeping, any collector's vehicle on private property with the permission of the person having the right to the possession of the property, except that the municipality may require a person having such permission to conceal, by means of buildings, fences, vegetation, terrain or other suitable obstruction, any unlicensed collector's vehicle stored in the open.
(3) The Police Chief, a state highway patrol trooper, the Council, or the zoning authority may send notice, by certified mail with return receipt requested, to the person having the right to the possession of the property on which a junk motor vehicle is left, that within ten days of receipt of the notice, the junk motor vehicle either shall be covered by being housed in a garage or other suitable structure, or shall be removed from the property.
(4) No person shall willfully leave a junk motor vehicle uncovered in the open for more than ten days after receipt of a notice as provided in this section. The fact that a junk motor vehicle is so left is prima facie evidence of willful failure to comply with the notice, and each subsequent period of 30 days that a junk motor vehicle continues to be so left constitutes a separate offense.
(b) Whoever violates this section is guilty of a minor misdemeanor.
(ORC 4513.65)