Selling a dead or junk car in Jacksonville

A missing plate is enough to be "abandoned"

The same section has a second test that turns on the plate, not the engine. An abandoned vehicle is "a vehicle that does not bear a license plate, or if the displayed license plate is invalid, unless said vehicle is stored within a completely enclosed building or unless it is stored on a bona fide automobile sales lot or an automobile storage yard or automobile wrecking yard."

That matters in Florida for a reason that is easy to miss. Florida plates stay with the seller. Pull the plate off a car you have stopped using, leave it outside, and Jacksonville's code now calls it abandoned.

The code also says who may haul a junk car off private land. "Junk vehicle removal" means taking it away "by authorized wrecker service licensed to do business in the City."

Jacksonville's definition of vehicle runs wide: cars, travel trailers, buses, mopeds, motorcycles, trucks, semi-tractors, go-carts, golf carts and campers.

Not on the street, not for sale, not for storage

Section 804.1006 lists street uses that are banned outright. Two fit a dead car:

• Junkage or dead storage on a street, past 24 hours.
• A for-sale display on or near a street, without the zoning.

The section does not stop you parking your own car on your own residential property, or on the street right next to it. Section 518.111's plate and inoperable tests still apply there.

An officer who spots a violation writes a parking citation and leaves a notice on the car. The violation is "a class A offense against the City," and the car falls under the impound rules in Part 11.

Impound rules

Under Section 804.1101, the Sheriff, or a Public Parking Officer for some cases, may impound:

• a car parked where or when the code forbids it
• a car whose location or condition is a danger
• a car booted for more than 24 hours

Section 804.1102 has the City keep a storage place for some impounded cars. The Sheriff may also allow storage at another public or private site zoned for it.

State law layers two more rules on top. First, Duval tows from private land, done without the owner's say, must stay close by: Duval is far past the 500,000 mark, so the yard can be no more than 10 miles off. Second, a tow yard claiming a lien must notify owner, insurer and lender by certified mail, timed at day 35 of storage for an older model and day 57 for a newer one.

The title office is downtown

Duval County's motor vehicle service center is at 231 E. Forsyth St., less than a mile southeast of the city's center in a straight line. Phone (904) 255-5700.

Florida rules, start to finish

Why file the notice. It is the step that ends the seller's civil liability once the car is gone.

No title. HSMV 82137, the derelict certificate, lets a Jacksonville owner part with a title-less car whose value has dropped below $1,000, so long as it has seen ten model years. The buyer has to be a licensed salvage operation or a registered recycler, and the car is then broken up for good. See selling with no title.

Totaled or flooded. Florida calls a car a total loss when repairs would run 80 percent or more of replacement with one of like kind. If water did the damage, it becomes a flood vehicle and the title must carry that brand before a sale. See salvage title.

A car that sat unregistered. Months in dead storage carry no license tax in Florida, with a notarized or certified affidavit as proof.

Nearby

Jacksonville Beach is 17.1 miles away. Palm Coast is 60.7 miles south and Gainesville 61.2 to the southwest. Statewide rules are on Florida.

Getting an offer

Start online or call (877) 421-6008. For a Jacksonville car, four answers do it: model, odometer, engine, title. From a driveway to a closed garage, a repair shop, or the lot where it broke down, the truck comes to the car. Junk car removal explains how pickup works.