Selling a dead or junk car in Apopka

The nuisance rules

The same section names "abandoned or inoperable motor vehicles" as an attractive nuisance, a condition "which may prove detrimental to the health and safety of children," next to open wells and old appliances. A car with kids in the neighborhood draws attention for that reason too.

Apopka also warns owners ahead of time. Once a year, under Section 38-56, Apopka prints a notice reminding everyone who owns, occupies or controls land in the city that they are "required by law" to clear away "inoperable or abandoned vehicles" along with trash and debris. The code adds that a missed publication does not stop a nuisance case.

The zoning code gives a sense of scale. Under Section 10.3.1, a business that "regularly stores inoperable vehicles for more than 90 days" is treated as a junkyard or salvage yard.

Out on the street

Section 74-33 is direct: "No person shall leave any partially dismantled, non-operating, wrecked, or junked vehicle on any street, including any right-of-way, within the city." It also bars leaving any car where it would "reasonably appear to have been abandoned."

The plate rule in Section 74-43 reaches further than most. No vehicle may stop or park on a street, city lot, right-of-way, or "any private parking area open to the public" unless it has a current, valid plate and validation sticker. A car without one "may... be immediately immobilized," meaning booted, along with a parking ticket. Leave the boot on for a full day without making arrangements and a tow follows, with the owner paying for the truck, the storage and the civil fine.

Planning a roadside sale? Section 74-37 forbids leaving a car on a street, a public lot, or private ground open to public driving "for the principal purpose and intent of displaying the motor vehicle thereon for sale" unless that property is authorized for it.

A title office near Apopka

One FLHSMV service center is the Orange County office in downtown Orlando, number 301 on South Rosalind Avenue; call (407) 434-0312. It lies about 15 miles southeast of central Apopka, as the crow flies.

Florida rules for this sale

No title, older car. Florida's derelict motor vehicle certificate, form HSMV 82137, fits a car appraised under $1,000 and ten or more model years old, the model year itself being year one. Eligible buyers are limited to two kinds of business, salvage motor vehicle dealers with a license and secondary metals recyclers with a registration, and the car is then dismantled or scrapped, never to be titled again. See junk car with no title.

No inspection to pass. The state scrapped its Motor Vehicle Inspection Program back in 2000. A privately owned car in Apopka has no emissions test to fail.

Plates and paperwork. The tag comes home with you and can go on your next car. Your notice of sale, HSMV 82050, has a 30-day deadline (Statute 319.22), and on the other side the buyer has 30 calendar days to retitle the car before a late penalty applies.

Getting an offer

Call (877) 421-6008 or start online. Tell us the car, its miles, if it can roll out on its own, and what you have for a title. The truck comes to where the car sits, from a back yard to a shared lot. Nearby pages cover Ocoee and Altamonte Springs, and the Florida page has the statewide rules.