Selling a junk or dead car in Tavares

How Tavares defines junk

The definition in Section 12-22 is wide. Junk means scrap metal or "any dismantled, partially dismantled, nonoperative, or discarded" machinery, equipment, boat or vehicle, "or part thereof." So a pile of parts pulled off a project car counts, not only the car.

Inoperable has its own meaning in the same section: "a condition of disrepair which renders the vehicle inoperable in a normal manner." A seized engine, a dead transmission or a car up on blocks fits that test once it passes the seven-day mark.

The same chapter also sets what happens to property the city ends up holding. Anything that "remains unclaimed by the lawful owner for a period of sixty (60) days" is abandoned property.

Where it can and cannot sit

• The grass strip by the road. Section 13-54 makes it unlawful to park on the unpaved part of a city right-of-way. In residential districts a car may sit there "for not more than eight (8) hours." A car that will not move is going to break that rule by nightfall.
• The sidewalk. Never. The same section bans parking "on the sidewalks of the city" outright.
• A required parking space. Section 20-5 says a required space may not be used "for the storage of any motor vehicle for sale, or for any purpose other than the parking of motor vehicles." That matters most at businesses and apartment lots, where a dead car can tie up a space the site plan counts on.

Title counters near Tavares

None of the three counters below is in Tavares; each is a drive. Straight-line distances from the center of Tavares, as the crow flies:

• Bushnell, 220 E. McCollum Avenue, (352) 569-6740, about 23 miles west
• Orlando, 301 S. Rosalind Ave., (407) 434-0312, about 28 miles southeast
• Sanford, 1101 E. First St., (407) 665-1000, about 30 miles east

An electronic title means a trip to one: seller and buyer show up together, photo IDs out, and reassign it at a service center.

Florida's paperwork for a junk car

• No notary. On the front of the title sits a block FLHSMV calls "Transfer of Title by Seller," and its TL-11 procedure says it needs no notarization. You add the purchaser, their street address, the odometer miles, the sale amount and the date.
• Lost title. HSMV 82101 replaces it, and that has to happen before the sale. FLHSMV lists $75.25.
• No title, old car. Tavares owners can skip the title on an old, cheap car with a derelict motor vehicle certificate, HSMV 82137, when it has 10 or more model years on it and is worth less than $1,000. Only two kinds of buyer may take a car that way: a licensed salvage dealer, or a recycler registered for secondary metals. No one can ever title it again. See selling with no title.
• A loan still on it. Pay it off first. The lender reports the release, and only then does the title transfer.
• Notice of sale. Florida's section 319.22 requires HSMV 82050 from the seller within 30 days of the sale, and that filing is what separates you from the car.
• The plate. Yours, not the buyer's. Reuse it on a replacement car. When its insurance is cancelled, surrender the tag at any service center. More in after you sell.

Getting an offer

Online or by calling (877) 421-6008, describe it: what it is, what the odometer says, if it starts, and who the title names. Pickup happens at the car: a Tavares carport, a fenced side yard, or the repair shop where it quit. Live closer to Eustis or Leesburg? Those pages cover their own rules, and Florida covers the state.