Selling a dead car in Sugar Hill

Where a car may sit in Sugar Hill

The same section controls where cars park, running or not:

• not "on the grass, lawn or dirt areas in the yard of any residential structure"
• not in the front yard unless on a driveway or a city-approved driveway expansion area
• at a non-residential building or undeveloped lot, only on an approved concrete or asphalt parking area

Section 14-311 says it adds to other city, county and state rules, including Sections 613 and 1106 of the city's 2000 Zoning Ordinance. So pushing a dead car onto the side lawn to free the driveway breaks one part of the section, and an expired plate breaks another.

The junk section

Section 38-22 bars any owner or resident, other than a licensed junk dealer, from letting junk pile up, "including any discarded, dismantled, wrecked, scrapped, ruined or junked motor vehicles, or parts thereof."

Neither Sugar Hill section quoted here gives a number of days. The city may have other rules that do. State law draws its own lines. Thirty days unattended on private land makes a car abandoned; on public land it takes five days, if the owner shows no sign of coming back.

The plate catch when you sell

Georgia plates stay with the seller; they never go to the new owner. In Sugar Hill that has a local edge. Once you pull the plate, a car still parked in the city has no valid plate attached, which is the very thing Section 14-311 forbids. Take the plate off the day the car leaves, not a week before.

After that, the registration has to be closed out. Use DRIVES e-Services, or hand Form MV-18J to a tag office clerk. Close it before the insurance, not after.

Gwinnett County paperwork

Titles and tags are handled at a County Tag Office. We checked the Gwinnett County Tax Commissioner's Lawrenceville location: 750 South Perry Street, 770-822-8818. On a map, in a direct line, it sits about 10 miles south of central Sugar Hill. Other Gwinnett offices may exist.

On the back of the original title, print and sign under Seller, and enter the mileage in whole miles. Each joint owner prints and signs. Hand the title to the buyer and keep a copy of it and any bill of sale. If the title is lost, a replacement is $8.00 on Form MV-1.

Gwinnett cars fall under Georgia's metro Atlanta emissions program, which leaves out the three newest model years.

Getting an offer

Send the basics online or by phone at (877) 421-6008: year, make, model, miles, running or not, and title status. The truck comes to the driveway or wherever the car is legally parked. Suwanee is 3 miles away, and the Georgia page covers statewide rules.