Selling a dead or junk car in Estero

What the parking code rules out

The same section bars using required spaces for "the sale, lease, storage, dismantling, or service of any vehicles, boats, motor homes, campers." So a shared lot at a condo or office is no place to strip a car for parts or park one that will not move.

Several of these layout rules carve out single-family and two-family homes. The code sections we found do not set a junk-car rule for a house driveway. The town may still have other rules on the books, so treat a dead car on your property as something to ask the town about, not something the code clearly allows.

What Florida law adds

Where a town's code is quiet, state law still applies:

• Public property. Under Chapter 705, an ownerless car left wrecked or broken down on public land is abandoned property. An officer tags it, and the owner gets 5 days. After that the agency can haul it off, and a public sale is one option it has.
• Private lots. A tow off private property without the car owner's okay must stay close: within 10 miles where the county has 500,000 people or more, 15 miles where it has fewer (Fla. Stat. 715.07).

The title office for Estero

For Estero, the listed Lee County title office is up the road in Fort Myers at 2480 Thompson Street, phone (239) 533-6000, roughly 16 miles north of Estero's center as the crow flies.

Selling in Florida, step by step

1. Clear any lien. Pay off the loan and make sure the lender tells the state; until then the title cannot move. See still owe on the loan.
2. Fill in the face of the title. Who bought it, where they live, the mileage shown and what they paid, plus the date.
3. Electronic title? Then it is done in person: seller and buyer each bring photo ID to a service center and reassign it there.
4. Lost paper title? Order a duplicate first. Form HSMV 82101 is free when the last title was issued within 180 days and never arrived by mail.
5. Pull your plate. Florida plates belong to the seller, so it comes home with you.
6. Tell the state you sold it. Florida gives you 30 days to file the Notice of Sale, which ends your liability.

If a relative's name is on the title, see car not in your name.

Nearby

Bonita Springs is 5.0 miles away, Fort Myers 13.4, Naples 19.0 and Cape Coral 19.4. The Florida page has more.

Getting an offer

Go online or call (877) 421-6008. Say what the car is, its year and its miles, whether it will crank, and whose title it is. We pick up from a lakeside driveway, a shared lot in your community or the shop where it gave out.