Selling a junk or dead car in Pensacola

When police can move a car off the street

Section 11-2-94 lists the cases where officers may take a vehicle off a street. Four of them catch a car that won't run:

• it is left unattended on a bridge, causeway or viaduct, or it "constitutes an obstruction to traffic"
• it is "so disabled as to constitute an obstruction to traffic"
• it is parked illegally so as to be "a definite hazard or obstruction to the normal movement of traffic"
• it sits unattended on a street "continuously for more than 24 hours"

Getting it back costs money. Section 11-2-95 says no impounded vehicle leaves the lot "until the charges for towing the vehicle into the garage and storage charges have been paid."

A dead car is abandoned property in the code

Chapter 4-5 defines abandoned personal property as "wrecked or derelict property, having no apparent intrinsic value to the owner," left "unprotected from the elements." The list names "wrecked, inoperative or partially dismantled motor vehicles" right beside refrigerators, washing machines and plumbing fixtures. So a stripped sedan rotting under a tree sits in the same legal bucket as a dumped stove.

Broke down in a private lot?

Pensacola lets a property owner boot a car parked without permission, but Section 7-12-3 sets conditions. Warning signs must stand at each driveway or curb cut, with the bottom no lower than four feet and the top no higher than six, and they must have been up for at least 24 hours before any car is towed. Right after booting, a sheet "eight and one-half by eleven inches" goes on the windshield. Once you ask, the booter must release the car "as soon as practical, but not to exceed 30 minutes," and any booting charge is paid at or before release.

Work vans and trucks on home streets

A dead work truck has its own limits under Section 12-3-66. A small commercial vehicle out of service may not sit in a residential right-of-way overnight, from six in the evening until six in the morning. A large one may use that right-of-way only while loading or unloading, and for no more than 12 hours.

When state law takes over

Florida Statute 705.103 covers abandoned things left on public land. An officer tags the item with a notice, the owner gets 5 days, and then the agency may haul it off and keep it or sell it at a public sale. A tow company storing your car under a lien has its own duties in Statute 713.78: the yard owes certified letters to three parties: whoever holds the registration, the company insuring it, and any lender with a stake. For an older model that letter is due 35 days into storage; a newer model gets 57. The towed or impounded guide covers what to do next.

Paperwork from the Escambia office

FLHSMV puts the Escambia County service center at 213 Palafox Place, phone (850) 438-6500. Draw a line from the center of Pensacola, as the crow flies, and it lands about 3 miles off toward the southwest.

Florida keeps the signing simple. Its TL-11 title procedure skips the notary for the seller's block on the face of the certificate. In that block you put down what the car sold for, the sale date, its odometer figure, and who bought it, with their address. If a bank holds a lien, the transfer waits until that loan is paid and the bank tells the state.

Unscrew the plate before the truck leaves. In Florida the tag belongs to you, which means it can move to whatever you drive next. Two cases send it back to a service center instead: a move to another state, or ending the insurance that the tag rides on.

Statute 319.22 then gives a seller 30 days to tell the state about the sale. The form is HSMV 82050; a seller handles sections 1 and 3, and the buyer may sign or not. Once it is filed, your registration comes off that car.

If the title has gone missing, a replacement on form HSMV 82101 runs $75.25. Older cars with no title at all have one more route, the derelict motor vehicle certificate (HSMV 82137). The car must be worth less than $1,000, and its model year must be at least 10 back. The buyer has to be a salvage dealer holding a license, or a secondary metals recycler that is registered, and after that sale the car can never carry a title again. Selling with no title has the details.

Nothing needs inspecting first. Florida dropped its vehicle inspection program in 2000.

Towns near Pensacola

Fort Walton Beach is 33.9 miles away and Crestview 42.1, both straight-line. Panama City Beach is 79.7 miles off, and Tallahassee 175.1. Statewide rules are on the Florida page.

Getting an offer

Start online or call (877) 421-6008. We ask what you're driving, the odometer number, if the engine catches, and the state of the title. After that, pickup happens where the car is: a driveway off Palafox, an apartment lot, or the shop where it gave out.