Selling a dead or junk car in Margate

The notice goes on the car

Margate does not mail the first warning. When a police officer or code enforcement officer finds an inoperative or unlawfully stored vehicle, Section 40.352 says "they shall cause a notice to be placed upon or immediately adjacent to such vehicle."

Anyone with an interest in the car can ask for an informal hearing. The City Manager or a designee holds it within five business days of the request, when the request reaches the city within five business days of the posting.

Two more rules close the usual workarounds:

• Moving it and moving it back. If a noticed car is removed and "reappears either as an inoperative vehicle or unlawfully stored vehicle within a three-month period," a new notice goes on it.
• Unpaid towing. Charges for a car the city removes from private land can become a lien on that real property, after ten calendar days' notice to the property owner.

The swale and the driveway

Section 40.705 keeps broken cars off the grass and the edges of the road. Required parking areas, landscaped areas, swales, parkways, traveled rights-of-way and sidewalks "shall not be used for either parking, repair or storage of inoperative or unregistered vehicles, boats or trailers, except in an emergency situation and for not longer than forty-eight (48) hours."

Section 33-29, the general nuisance rule, lists "abandoned, discarded or unused" automobiles among the conditions that hurt neighboring property. Where storage of such vehicles is allowed at all, it must be in a B-3 or M-1 district, behind a seven-foot concrete block wall stuccoed on any side visible from outside. A home lot is not that place.

Title office from Margate

Margate drivers handle titles in Plantation, at Suite 101 of 1800 NW 66th Ave., phone (954) 765-4697. That is roughly 7 miles south of Margate's center as the crow flies.

Florida rules for the seller

In Florida statute, junk means something that used to be a motor vehicle, cannot run, and whose best value now lies in its scrap and parts. Total loss is a separate test: the repair bill, priced when the damage happened, hits 80 percent of the cost of a similar car. Either way, the sale steps are the same:

1. On the front of the title, sign as seller and write the buyer's details, the mileage, the amount and the sale date. A notary is not part of it.
2. Take your tag home. Florida lets it go on your next car.
3. Within 30 days, turn in the Notice of Sale (HSMV 82050) at a state service center. The buyer's signature is optional.
4. Ending the insurance on that tag? A service center takes the tag back.

A crash car has its own guide: wrecked or totaled.

Getting an offer

Use the online form or (877) 421-6008 and list the model year, make, model, miles and whether the engine fires. Flat tires and missing wheels are fine; junk car removal explains how the pickup works. The truck can meet the car in the driveway or behind the building where it sits. Nearby: Coconut Creek, Coral Springs and Tamarac. See Florida for statewide rules.