Selling a junk or dead car in Atlanta

What Atlanta calls a junked car

Section 74-172 holds the main definition. A junked motor vehicle is one "without current registration and license tag and inspection sticker" that also meets at least one more condition from a list in that section. Letting one sit on any lot in the city is unlawful, and its presence is "a public nuisance per se." The rule reaches the person who owns or occupies the land, and anyone who leaves such a car "on the real property of another."

Two other parts of the code say much the same thing in their own words. The zoning code, Section 16-28.013, bans storing a junked car "in the open area on any private property," with exceptions only for licensed repair garages and licensed storage yards. Section 8-2095, in the building rules, bans any "junk vehicle" on a lot, again sparing a licensed storage yard and property zoned for car repair.

Two speeds of enforcement

The decal. This is the fast route described above. Once the three days pass, the city can tow. Appendix section 15 lets the director remove junked cars from private property "whether or not at the request of the landowner or the owner of the junked vehicle," and the job can go to contracted firms that recycle wrecked cars. After a tow, code compliance gives the Atlanta Police Department a description of the car, its VIN if visible, and the address it came from. If that has already happened, see towed or impounded.

The courtroom. Section 74-172 lays out a slower path. A notice asks you to act within a set number of days. If nothing happens, a summons sends the matter to municipal court, where a judge decides whether a nuisance exists. Once the ruling is made, "each ten days that the nuisance is maintained" beyond the deadline is a separate offense, and the commissioner of public works may remove a car left in place ten days past the ruling.

For most other property problems, Section 8-2087 lets an officer allow up to 45 days to start repairs. A junked car does not get that time; the decal rule applies "notwithstanding" it.

Fulton or DeKalb: title offices we checked

Atlanta spans two counties. Georgia titles are handled by the Department of Revenue's Motor Vehicle Division through a County Tag Office in each county, not a DMV counter. These are the two offices we checked; each county may have more.

• Fulton County Tax Commissioner, 141 Pryor Street SW, 404-613-6100. Measured as the crow flies, it sits about 2 miles east of central Atlanta.
• DeKalb County, 4380 Memorial Drive, Decatur, 404-298-4000. As the crow flies, roughly 10 miles east of central Atlanta.

Signing over an Atlanta car

Georgia counts a sale as two jobs. Every owner named on the Atlanta title prints and signs in the Seller space on the back, and the odometer is written in whole miles. Erasures and write-overs can void a Georgia title, and a changed purchase date can cost a $10 penalty. Hang on to copies of everything: title, transfer, bill of sale.

Next, end the registration. DRIVES e-Services handles it online; at a Fulton or DeKalb counter, the paper route is Form MV-18J. Keep the insurance until that step is done. If a pending-suspension notice shows up after the car is gone, the Department of Revenue says you can disregard it. The plate comes home with you.

No title in the glovebox? A replacement runs $8.00 on Form MV-1. Model year 1985 or older? Georgia skips the title entirely, and the sale rides on a bill of sale. See junk car with no title and after you sell.

Getting an offer

Selling a car in Atlanta? Call (877) 421-6008 or send the offer form. Our truck comes to wherever your Atlanta car sits, decal and all: a house, an apartment complex or a repair bay. Neighbors are covered on the East Point and Decatur pages, and statewide rules are on Georgia.