A dead car in St. Marys: city rules and selling it whole

How Section 46-36 reads

The section has two clauses that touch cars. The first covers the wrecked or junked car itself. The second covers private land where junk has been dumped, and its list names "abandoned motor vehicles and parts thereof" right beside old furniture, appliances and yard waste.

We found no day count and no notice procedure in the section's text. St. Marys may enforce it through steps written elsewhere, so if a letter arrives, call the city and ask what it wants and by when. For a yardstick, Georgia's motor vehicle manual treats a car parked and ignored on private land "for not less than 30 days" as abandoned. On public ground the mark is five days, if nobody looks likely to return for it.

Two hours downtown, then the tow

Section 94-3 sets a two-hour limit in the downtown core. Between 8 a.m. and 6 p.m., no vehicle may stay in an on-street space "for a consecutive period of more than two hours" on Osborne Street south of Bryant Street, or on St. Marys Street between Osborne and Wheeler. The code counts trailers, motorcycles and even bicycles as vehicles here.

Shuffling a dead car to a fresh space every two hours is not an option. The penalty the section names is "the towing-away and impoundment of the violating vehicle, with the cost of such towing and impoundment to be paid by the violator."

A dead work truck in the front yard

Zoning matters more for a broken-down work truck. Section 110-125 allows no more than one commercial vehicle per dwelling, no bigger than a pickup, panel truck or van with a one-ton carrying capacity. A tractor or tractor-trailer with more than seven wheels may not sit in a residential front or side yard at all, and residential streets may not be used to park one.

If a tow company already has it

Across Georgia, a tow and storage company must tell each owner within 15 calendar days of the tow, by certified mail or face to face. For a St. Marys car, the letter must say the company can seek foreclosure of its lien in court after ten calendar days, and a judge could order a sale. Separately, Georgia labels a car "abandoned" when it sits uncollected at a dealer, garage or wrecker yard for 30 days. See towed or impounded.

Title work from St. Marys

One office we checked is the Camden County Tax Commissioner at 200 E 4th Street in Woodbine, phone 912-576-3248. Woodbine lies roughly 17 miles northwest of central St. Marys as the crow flies.

A Georgia sale has two parts. First, fill in the seller area on the back of the title. Print and sign your name, have any co-owner do it too, and write the miles as a whole number. Leave no erasures, because a changed title can be voided. Job two is ending the registration, which the state lets you do on its DRIVES site or with an MV-18J. Do it while the insurance is still active.

Pull the plates; in Georgia they belong to you, not the buyer. Before a St. Marys car goes to its buyer, keep copies of the signed title and bill of sale for yourself. No title in the drawer? An MV-1 application with an $8.00 fee gets a replacement once any lien is cleared. A car made in 1985 or earlier sells with a bill of sale, no title needed.

Getting an offer

Call (877) 421-6008 or write online. Send the offer form about your car in St. Marys car. In St. Marys we reach the car under a carport off Osborne Street or in a side yard across town. Neighbors in Kingsland and Brunswick have their own pages, and Georgia covers the statewide rules.