Sell your dead or junk car in Naples, Florida

If the car is not worth fixing, we buy whole non-running and junk cars. You sell the whole car as it sits, with no parts pulled beforehand, and pickup is free anywhere in the US.

The rule, line by line

Section 56-43 is one sentence long, and it reaches four kinds of car:

• a wrecked car
• a junked car
• an inoperable car
• any car without a valid license tag

There is no grace period written into it. The test is a "completely enclosed building", and an open driveway is plainly not one.

The city holds repair shops to a similar line. Section 58-913 says a shop may not keep cars visible from the street "for more than seven days" and allows "No storage of wrecked or junked cars." So a car that a shop has declared not worth fixing will not stay on its lot long either.

On the street: 48 hours

Under Section 36-66, police may remove a vehicle "parked or stored on the public right-of-way or on a city-owned parking lot for a period exceeding 48 hours, without the permission of the city manager." It also covers a car left after an accident when the driver cannot move it.

After a tow under that section, the registered owner gets written word that it happened and of the storage location. Police send FLHSMV a description of the car within 24 hours. The car is not released until towing and storage charges are paid.

Some streets allow far less time. Section 36-103 bars parking at any time on Gulf Shore Boulevard between 20th Avenue South and 8th Avenue North, and on Crayton Road between Banyan Boulevard and Seagate Drive. Overnight parking, from 11 at night until 5 in the morning, is also banned on several beach-area avenues west of Gulf Shore Boulevard. An unattended car parked against those rules is declared a public nuisance and can be towed.

Dead work trucks have a separate rule. Section 36-104 keeps commercial vehicles from parking overnight in residential zoning districts, with a narrow exception for one light vehicle a resident uses for personal transportation.

Once a private wrecker is holding the car, state lien law governs. Its operator mails certified letters to whoever is registered, their insurance company and every lienholder; the statute times those letters at 35 days of storage when the car is an older model and at 57 days when it is newer.

Water damage and total losses

Florida's title statute draws the total-loss line where a fix would eat 80 percent or more of a like-kind replacement's cost. When water is what totaled it, the car becomes a flood vehicle, and FLHSMV has to brand the title before a sale. The agency calls a brand a title label noting condition (junk, salvage, flood) and says insurers are the ones who report flooded cars. Our flood damage page covers selling one.

The Collier title office

Collier County's office, per FLHSMV, is on Tamiami Trail East at number 3291, phone (239) 252-8171. Downtown Naples to there is roughly 2 miles southeast as the crow flies.

Nobody needs to notarize a Florida title for the seller. Your part, printed on the title's face, records the buyer and their home address, the miles showing, what they paid and the date. A lender still listed blocks the transfer until the loan is satisfied and the lender reports it.

An electronic title means a joint visit: both of you bring photo ID to a motor vehicle service center, where the title gets reassigned and the odometer disclosed.

If the paper title is missing, apply for a replacement on HSMV 82101 first. It costs $75.25, plus $10.00 for Fast Title, and it is free when a title issued in the last 180 days went missing in the mail. See selling with no title for the other routes, including the derelict certificate for older cars.

Plate and notice of sale

Florida tags belong to people, not cars, so yours comes off before the tow. Reuse it on whatever you drive next. It only goes back to a service center when you leave the state or drop the insurance attached to it.

State law also makes sellers report the sale on HSMV 82050 within 30 days. Sections 1 and 3 are yours; the buyer may sign or not. Once filed, it removes your registration from that car and helps you avoid civil liability. After you sell has the rest of the list.

Florida has no emissions or safety inspection for private cars, so there is no test to pass before you sell.

Towns nearby

Bonita Springs is 14.1 miles away, Estero 19.0, Fort Myers 32.4 and Cape Coral 36.3. For statewide rules, see Florida.

Getting an offer

Get an offer online or call (877) 421-6008. Name the make, model and year, give the odometer reading, say if it starts, and mention any title snag. Pickup happens at the car's current spot: a shut garage, a condo lot, the shop that wrote it off, or the storage yard it was towed to.