Selling a dead or junk car in Aventura

Section 48-2 in plain words

The core sentence makes it unlawful "to park, store or leave any motor or other vehicle or vessel" in "a wrecked, junked, partially dismantled or abandoned condition on public or private property within the City." Boats fall under it too. Licensed repair shops may store and repair vehicles on their licensed premises. The text gives no one else a pass.

"Abandoned" here means a vehicle with no identifiable owner, left wrecked, inoperative or partly taken apart, or one with "no apparent intrinsic value to the rightful owner." The code also spells out what a derelict car looks like:

• on public property with no current license tag, decal or registration
• "growth of vegetation about the vehicle"
• direct exposure to the elements
• resting in other than an upright or operable position
• vandalism

When a sticker goes on a car on public land

For abandoned property on public ground, Florida law takes over. Section 705.103 starts with a sticker: the officer's posted notice gives the owner five days. Then it can be taken and disposed of. The agency may keep the car or sell it at a public sale, and any money left after costs is held for one year.

Once a towing company holds the car, s. 713.78 obliges the tow company to notify, by certified letter, each of these: the person the car is registered to, its insurer, any lienholder. Its timing for those letters: an older car after 35 days in storage, a newer model after 57, so the storage meter runs a long while first.

The Miami-Dade title office

Miami-Dade's FLHSMV list points Aventura sellers downtown, to 200 NW 2nd Ave (telephone (305) 375-5448). Measured direct, it's roughly 13 miles south of central Aventura.

On a Florida title, the seller's signature needs no notary. Still paying a loan? Ownership cannot pass until the loan balance is gone and the lender tells the state; still owe on the loan covers how that works. The buyer then has a month, 30 calendar days, before a late transfer penalty applies to the new title.

Your plate stays with you. If you leave the state, or cancel the policy linked to the plate, it goes back to a service center. You also owe FLHSMV a sale report: HSMV 82050, sent before day 30; it clears your registration from the car.

Florida ended emissions testing for private passenger cars in 2000. An old car in Aventura needs no test before it changes hands.

The next step

Call (877) 421-6008 or ask online; we will need the model year, make, model, odometer reading and whether you hold the title. A building garage, a guest space or the curb all work for the truck. Neighboring pages: Sunny Isles Beach, Hallandale Beach and North Miami Beach. For the general picture, see selling a junk car and Florida.