Palm Coast junk and dead car guide

How the code defines a dead car

Palm Coast calls a car an "Inoperable vehicle" when it is wrecked or partly dismantled and has a wheel off or its tires gone flat, is in "substantial disrepair," or when it "cannot be operated legally upon the roadways of Florida." The nuisance chapter goes further. A car with no plate, a plate registered to another car, or no sticker can count as abandoned, as can one with "no engine, transmission, or other major and visible parts."

Where it can and cannot sit

• Private property. Section 17-52: "An inoperable vehicle shall not be kept on private property unless it is within a completely enclosed building or structure."
• Any part of a day. The land development code bars parking an inoperable car "for any part of a 24-hour period" unless it is in a building or behind an opaque enclosure at least six feet tall.
• No stripping outside. Section 15-108 says no vehicle may be "in a state of major disassembly, disrepair, or in the process of being stripped or dismantled." Major overhauls belong inside a structure.
• The street. Section 44-36 bars parking on a road or right-of-way "as junkage or dead storage for more than 24 hours."

The ten-day notice and what it costs

Section 17-57 sets the steps for an inoperable car on private land:

1. An officer posts a notice on the car.
2. Copies go by certified mail to the car's owner, if an address can be found, and to the landowner by both certified and regular first class mail.
3. After ten days, if no one has moved it or shown reasonable cause, the city may have a towing company take it to storage.
4. Reclaim it and you pay all towing and storage costs, and the city gets $150 "to cover administrative costs."
5. If no one claims it and its salvage value is above $100, the towing company pays the city $25 or ten percent of that value, whichever is greater.

Title offices for Palm Coast

Our source lists no title counter in Flagler County. Here are three it names in nearby counties, with miles measured as the crow flies from central Palm Coast:

• DeLand: 123 W Indiana Ave. (Room 103), (386) 254-4610. About 35 miles south.
• Sanford, 1101 E. First St., call (407) 665-1000. About 50 miles south.
• Ocala, 503 SE 25th Avenue, call (352) 368-8200. About 57 miles southwest.

Florida's rules on the sale

No notary is involved on a Florida title. The seller's entries are the buyer and the buyer's address, odometer, price and sale date. Your plate leaves with you and can go on another car. Leaving Florida, or dropping the coverage on that plate, means handing it in at a service center. A Notice of Sale goes in no later than day 30. Got no title for an old car? Where the car is cheap, under $1,000, and old, with ten or more model years behind it, form HSMV 82137 lets a salvage dealer buy it as a derelict, and it is never titled again. Stripped cars sell too; see missing parts.

Nearby

Ormond Beach is 18.9 miles away, Daytona Beach 25.5, Port Orange 32.4 and DeLand 35.6. See Florida for more.

Getting an offer

Go online or call (877) 421-6008. Have the basics handy: what year and model it is, its miles, if it runs at all, and the title. Our pickup truck can reach it in a garage, behind the six-foot screen the code asks for, or at a repair shop. For how yards compare, see junkyard or scrap yard.