Fayetteville junk cars: the 45-day rule and selling whole

Section 164.05, line by line

This section governs motor vehicle repair. Three lines in it reach an owner with a dead car:

• Even while "temporarily inoperable," a vehicle must keep "substantially all of its main component parts attached."
• Where a license applies, it must be "currently and validly licensed for operation upon public streets and highways."
• After 45 days, "the vehicle or trailer shall be stored inside a building or removed from the property."

It closes with one blunt sentence: "Abandoned vehicles shall not be stored on the premises." Outdoor repair gear also has setbacks: 12 feet from a street lot line, 25 feet from residential or agricultural lot lines.

A Fayetteville car sitting with its engine out and its tag expired misses two of those tests at once. For that car, day 45 is a ceiling, not a cushion.

Dead cars count as a use of land

Section 151.01 defines a use covering "the storage, keeping, selling, buying, or dumping of any wrecked, scrapped, ruined, dismantled, disabled, or inoperable motor vehicle or motor vehicle part." Stockpiling dead cars, then, sits in its own zoning category in this city, apart from ordinary home parking.

Police tows: streets, trails, city lots

Section 72.02 hands Fayetteville police a tool beyond the ticket. Officers may tow from streets, alleys, trails, rights-of-way, city lots and other city ground not meant for parking. In a city lot, one trigger is a vehicle "parked more than twenty-four (24) continuous hours beyond the period allowed." Private lot owners may also ask police to start a tow when their usual company can't handle a hard-to-move car.

Afterward, who hears about it depends on the records:

• Registration names the owner. Police must give that person written notice that the car was moved, why, and which lot holds it.
• No owner found. Three days unclaimed, and a written report heads to the state.

Before any of that, Section 70.53 has an officer note the plate and stick a citation on the windshield. Section 72.58 lets Parking Division staff or police boot a car whose owner has two citations inside 30 days or unpaid parking fines.

Tow yard deadlines under state law

Arkansas then takes over. Certified notice from the storage company to owner and lienholder must go out at least 2 business days, and at most 8, after the car lands on its lot. Included in that letter: a 30-day window to dispute the original tow. Counting from the letter, owners get 45 days to claim the car. Miss that, and their rights lapse; a nonjudicial public sale for cash follows. See towed or impounded.

Arkansas title paperwork for a Fayetteville seller

Titles here are a state job. DFA's Office of Motor Vehicle runs State Revenue Offices, not county clerks, and MyDMV handles registration, titles and plate transfers online.

Sellers endorse the title and deliver it. Seller and buyer then complete Form 10-313 at one sitting: VIN, buyer, date of purchase, what the car is, odometer miles, full price, and each party's signature. That form has signature lines and no notary block, and no notary step shows up in DFA's seller instructions.

When you sell a car in Fayetteville, you keep the plates. Arkansas plates follow the seller. Take them off. Moving them to another vehicle costs $1.00 at DFA, or more if it is in a heavier weight class. You can send a Notice of Transfer of Ownership by mail or in person. It is free and not required. Ark. Code 27-14-911 shields a seller who made a genuine sale and delivered the car from the next driver's negligence.

Bound for the crusher? The signed title and DFA's dismantle notice then go to the Office of Motor Vehicle, and Arkansas lists the Fayetteville car as dismantled. Fayetteville owners get a new title only when the filer swears within 90 days that the notice went out by mistake. After you sell has the remaining steps.

Towns near Fayetteville

Straight-line distances: Springdale 8.3 miles, Rogers 17.1, Bentonville 19.8. State rules live on the Arkansas page.

Getting an offer

Got a Fayetteville car to sell? Call (877) 421-6008 or start with the offer form. Was it in a wreck? Read wrecked car first. Pickup happens right where it sits, whether that's a driveway counting toward day 45, a repair bay, or a lot near campus.