Sell a dead or junk car in Port St. Lucie

The rule for your own driveway

Section 41.08, part of the city's property maintenance code, reads: "no inoperative motor vehicle shall be parked, kept or stored on any premises, unless in an enclosed structure." It goes on: no vehicle or parts may be "in a state of major disassembly, disrepair, or in the process of being stripped or dismantled." Big repairs, body work included, belong inside a building "designed and approved for such purposes."

Other sections point the same way. Section 95.02 lists "motor vehicles not in operating condition exposed to weather" among conditions that harm the public on any lot in the city. Section 40.05 calls "unsheltered storage for a period of 30 days or more" of "junk and other automobiles not in good and safe operating condition" a nuisance, outside licensed junkyards. It also names "abandoned or inoperable motor vehicles" as an attractive nuisance that can put children at risk.

The land development code defines the term in Section 153.01: a vehicle that "cannot be legally driven upon the public streets for any reason," including being unregistered, wrecked, in disrepair, or "incapable of being moved under its own power." So a running car with a lapsed registration counts.

The yearly warning in the paper

Each year, under Section 40.16, Port St. Lucie prints a notice telling owners to clear "inoperable or abandoned vehicles or appliances" from any property they own, control or occupy. Otherwise the city "will institute nuisance abatement proceedings." The code adds that skipping the notice does not undo those proceedings. Don't wait for a letter.

Streets, swales and work trucks

Section 90.01 bars leaving any motor vehicle on public property for "in excess of 36 hours." After city notice, that same 36 hours is all you get before a tow, and a car on city land posted "No Trespassing" can go right away. Section 41.08 also guards swales, vehicle recovery areas and drainage rights-of-way.

A commercial vehicle that breaks down in a residential district gets one exception under Section 72.03, and it is short. If it must stay longer than one hour, it "shall be removed from the residential district within 24 hours by wrecker towing, or by other appropriate means."

Title office in Fort Pierce

For Port St. Lucie sellers, the St. Lucie County office sits on Virginia Ave. in Ft. Pierce, number 2300, and takes calls at (772) 462-1650. Measured as the crow flies from central Port St. Lucie, that is about 10 miles to the north.

Florida's rules for the seller

• Skip the notary. FLHSMV's TL-11 leaves notarizing out of the seller's half of a Florida title. The seller writes in the price, the day of sale, the odometer reading, and the buyer's identity and address.
• Plates come off. They are yours, not the car's, and can go on your next one. If you leave Florida or cancel the policy tied to them, they go back to a service center.
• Notice of Sale. Statute 319.22 allows 30 days to file it. FLHSMV says filing ends your registration on that vehicle and guards against civil liability.
• No title. With derelict certificate HSMV 82137, a titleless car worth under $1,000, whose model year sits a decade or more back (10 model years at least), can be sold for salvage or scrap to a dealer or recycler. It never sees a title again.

The last steps are laid out in after you sell.

A car that sat a long time

Lapsed registration is common on a car parked for months. Statute 320.07 tacks on a flat delinquent fee, $5 up to $250 based on the license tax, once renewal runs past the due month; it kicks in on the 11th of the following month. Statute 320.18 skips the license tax for any stretch in dead storage, with a certified or notarized affidavit as proof. See car sitting for years.

Towed from private property without your say-so? Statute 715.07 keeps it near: no farther than 10 miles from where it was hooked up in a county of 500,000-plus people, 15 miles in a smaller county.

Nearby

Fort Pierce is 10.4 miles away in a straight line. Jupiter is 30.1, Palm Beach Gardens 32.8 and Sebastian 34.9. Statewide details are on the Florida page.

Getting an offer

Go online or call (877) 421-6008. Say what model and year it is, how many miles show, whether it runs, plus the name on the title. We can collect it wherever it waits: inside the garage where the code wants it, at the curb after a notice, or at a repair shop.