Selling a dead or junk car in Titusville

What Section 13-73 allows

There are two separate 72-hour rules in that section:

• An inoperative vehicle may not stay on any property in the city longer than 72 hours.
• Any vehicle may not stay longer than 72 hours "unless the vehicle has a current tag and registration."

The exceptions are narrow:

• A covered carport. A car in a carport under "an opaque covering made of either vinyl, nylon, chamois, or other similar material" that is weather resistant and sold as an outdoor car cover. It must keep the car or its parts from "ordinary viewing" from neighboring property.
• A lawful business that needs the vehicles to operate, if inoperative ones are kept in an approved screened storage space, junkyard or depository.
• An intact off-road vehicle in operating condition, even if it is not street legal.

And one thing that is not an exception: "Inoperative vehicles placed on a licensed truck, trailer, or other vehicle is not an authorized exception." Loading the dead car onto a trailer in the yard does not stop the clock.

The property maintenance rules in Section 6-109 repeat the 72-hour limit for any "partially dismantled, nonoperating, wrecked, junked or dismantled vehicle," and exempt a car "in an enclosed building or carport."

On the street

Section 13-72 bars leaving any "partially dismantled, nonoperating, wrecked or junked vehicle on any street or highway within the city," and no vehicle may be parked on a street or right-of-way without a current tag and registration.

When a car in violation is on a public street, the notice "may require the vehicle to be removed within twelve (12) hours." An owner can postpone the city manager's order by filing an appeal with the city clerk within four hours of it. If the car is not removed, the city manager may have it removed and "disposed of in any manner," and the city keeps any proceeds.

In a residential district, Section 20-60 allows the emergency parking of a disabled vehicle, but it must be "removed from the residential district within twenty-four (24) hours by wrecker towing or other available means."

When the city takes it

Section 13-74 has the city hold a removed vehicle for 20 days. During that time the owner can bring proof of ownership (a title, registration or bill of sale), pay the fee and get a release. From then on, the car has to leave the depository for "a satisfactory place of storage within forty-eight (48) hours."

Separately, Section 20-28 lets police impound cars that block driveways, sit on private property without permission, or stay past posted time limits. Our towed or impounded guide walks through the choices.

Title office for Titusville

From central Titusville, the county's FLHSMV office in Viera is about 23 miles south as the crow flies. It is in Suite A108 of 2725 Judge Fran Jamieson Blvd.; phone (321) 264-6935.

Florida's seller rules

On a paper title, the "Transfer of Title by Seller" section is where you sign the car away. It wants your buyer's name and home address, the odometer miles, the price and the sale date, and no notary. An electronic title is reassigned in person instead, with both of you at a service center holding photo ID.

Pull the plate; under Florida law it is yours. Within 30 days, send in HSMV 82050 so the car comes off your record. Replace a lost paper title before anything else. With no title at all, a licensed salvage dealer can still buy the car on a derelict certificate, HSMV 82137, as long as its model year puts it 10 or more years old and its value is below $1,000. Once that happens, nobody titles it again. See after you sell for the last steps.

Getting an offer

Ring (877) 421-6008 or use the short form online. Name the car, read us the odometer, mention whether it runs, and explain the title; the truck then heads to the Titusville carport, back lot or shop where it sits. Nearby, Rockledge and Oviedo have their own pages, and Florida has the statewide rules.