Junk and dead cars in Idaho Falls: the law, the title and a whole-car sale

We buy whole non-running and junk cars, and that includes one parked behind an Idaho Falls house or sitting in a shop bay. Sell the whole car as it sits. Pickup is free anywhere in the US.

What we checked for Idaho Falls

We looked for the Idaho Falls city code on junk and inoperable vehicles and could not find it online. Everything below comes from Idaho law, which applies inside the city too. The city of Idaho Falls may have its own limits on where a dead car can sit, for how long, and covered or not. Ring the city first before you count on any deadline.

When Idaho law lets a car be moved

The baseline is short. Leaving a car abandoned along a highway is barred outright, and so is leaving it on anyone's land, public or private, unless whoever owns or holds that land agrees.

• On a roadside. Idaho Falls officers can put a 48-hour tow warning on an abandoned car. The officer tries to reach an owner whose plates are current, but a failed attempt does not stop the tow.
• On someone else's land. A person in control of real property that is not commercial, and is not posted, can have a tow company remove an abandoned vehicle by signing a release form with that company.
• On your own land. ITD cancels the title once a court rules a partially dismantled, junked, abandoned or non-operating vehicle in Idaho Falls a public nuisance.

If a tow yard already has it

Inside 1 business day, an Idaho Falls tow company has to record the tow in ITD's portal. When an Idaho Falls car goes unclaimed, another first-class letter goes out at 5 business days (10 on some tracks) and one more at 15 business days. Thirty days past the first notice, and with the letters mailed, the tower can file for a title or a junk certificate. That is 30 days.

Meanwhile the storage bill keeps growing. If you don't want the car back, look at towed or impounded while you are still short of day 30.

Title paperwork through the Bonneville County assessor

Private-sale title paperwork is handled at the county assessor's motor vehicle office, and for Idaho Falls that means Bonneville County. The title fee is $14, and counties add an admin fee. An Idaho Falls buyer gets 30 days from the transfer to file. Past that, there's a $20.00 late-filing penalty.

Your part as the seller:

1. Sign the existing title to release your interest. If a lender is named, it has to release too.
2. An Idaho Falls vehicle past model year 2010 that weighs less than 16,000 lb also needs the odometer disclosure filled in.
3. When you sell it as not an operating unit, the face of the title gets the words "for junk only". That mark stays on each title after it, and no one can sell the car as an operating unit again.

A car cannot be dismantled or destroyed on paper alone. Each owner must surrender the title to ITD, which cancels it, and failing to surrender a title when a car is dismantled is unlawful. That is why a junk car still needs its title.

Title gone missing in Idaho Falls? Replace it with the Duplicate Idaho Title Application, ITD 3367. The form needs a notary. The fee is $14, and the owner or lienholder of record, or someone acting for them, is the only one who can apply. For an odometer-exempt car, one Duplicate with Transfer covers both the new title and the sale. If no properly released title can be found at all, a bill of sale may do, with extra steps under a Conditional Title Statement of Facts. See selling with no title.

Totaled cars and salvage brands

There is no percentage rule for a total loss in Idaho. A car counts as salvage if someone declared it salvage, if parts and labor minus its salvage value make fixing it uneconomical, or if an insurer settled on it as a total loss. Idaho issues a salvage certificate of title in place of the old title, and insurers and salvage pools have 30 days to apply once they get the released ownership document. Once fixed, the car's title carries the brand "rebuilt salvage vehicle." More in insurer totaled it and salvage title.

Plates, the release, and no smog test

Keep the plates and registration card; in Idaho they stay with the seller. To reuse the plate, register your next vehicle first and pay the $5 transfer fee. Next, an Idaho Falls seller gets 5 days to send ITD the release of liability, which costs $3.50. Once it's filed, the Idaho Falls seller isn't charged for later tickets, tows, storage, repairs or service on the car. Knowingly filing one with false information is unlawful. There is also no emissions test to pass first: Idaho repealed it effective July 1, 2023. The Idaho page collects the state rules, and after you sell covers the last steps.

Towns around Idaho Falls

Ammon is 3.9 miles away and shares Bonneville County. Rexburg is 26.1 miles north and Pocatello 47.8 miles south, both as the crow flies.

Getting an offer

Use the form or dial (877) 421-6008. Our questions are simple. Send the offer form for your Idaho Falls car. We can collect from a carport, an apartment lot or a repair bay.