Selling a dead or junk car in Kansas

Where Kansas titles are handled

Kansas titles fall under the Division of Vehicles, part of the state Department of Revenue, through its Titles and Registrations Bureau. In practice you deal with the treasurer's motor vehicle counter in the county where you keep the car.

The title's reverse side needs:

• the sale price and sale date
• the odometer reading
• each seller's and buyer's name, printed, plus their signatures

No notary is needed. The Division warns against handing over any title that is only partly filled in, and leaving the buyer line empty is illegal in Kansas. Photocopy both sides once it is complete, as your proof of the transfer.

The buyer gets 60 days after buying to title and register the car before a penalty applies.

If a lender is on the title

The buyer's application needs proof the loan is cleared. That release can be printed on the title, written by the lienholder, or filed on form TR-150 with a notary. Electronic titles add a step: hand the buyer a release, or swap to a clean paper title first. See lien still on the title.

Your plate leaves with you

K.S.A. 8-135 is direct. Once a registered car changes owners, its registration ends, the right to use the plate ends with it, and the owner takes the plate off. The Division of Vehicles agrees: pull the plate from any car you sell or get rid of.

Moving the plate number to your next car costs $1.50, more if that car carries a higher fee. When a plate moves to a new car, the old one must be disposed of before the purchase or within 60 days after.

Getting your name off the record

Form TR-216, the Seller's Notification of Sale, is optional. File it with the Titles and Registrations Bureau after the signed title is delivered, with the fee printed on the form.

There is a second way. Turning in or transferring the plate at the county treasurer also ends your ownership record, so no TR-216 is needed.

Nonrepairable cars and the no-title route

K.S.A. 8-135c covers cars worth only parts or scrap. A nonrepairable vehicle is one so damaged, "burned or submerged in water" that it cannot run safely, or one its owner designates as parts or scrap for good.

The owner of such a car applies for a nonrepairable vehicle certificate before transferring it, within 60 days of the determination. The fee matches an original title's, plus $2 when filed late.

For an older car this is the key rule. For a car ten or more model years old with no title on hand, that certificate works as the transfer document.

The limits are firm:

• It can be transferred only once.
• The car must be dismantled or recycled, never sold whole at retail.
• At the scrap processor, the certificate goes back to the Division marked "recycled", and no title of any type is issued again.

A newer car with a lost title needs a duplicate on form TR-720B, which costs $10. File it with any county treasurer, or mail it to the Titles and Registrations Bureau. Give the VIN, year, make, every owner's name and today's odometer reading. More in selling with no title and nonrepairable titles.

Kansas salvage brands

Five brands exist in Kansas: nonrepairable, salvage, rebuilt salvage, nonhighway and formerly nonhighway. A salvage brand stays on every later Kansas title.

K.S.A. 8-197 uses two tests for salvage:

• Late model cars. "Late model" covers the damage year plus the six model years before it. Those cars are salvage once the repair estimate reaches 75% of the car's pre-damage market value or more. Purely cosmetic outside damage from hail or wind is excluded. Any car an insurer declares a total loss and takes ownership of is salvage as well.
• Older cars. It is salvage when, after a wreck or damage, it cannot be registered because required equipment is missing or not in good condition.

Kansas titles carry no flood label. The statute treats a car "submerged in water" so badly that it cannot safely run as nonrepairable.

To put a salvage car back on the road, repair it, pass a Kansas Highway Patrol inspection (MVE-1), show insurance and apply for a rebuilt salvage title. An owner who kept a car after an insurance salvage settlement files form TR-13, backed by the insurance company's letter.

Junk cars on private land

Leaving a car on land held, by deed or lease, by neither you nor the vehicle's owner counts as criminal trespass under K.S.A. 8-1102(b). If the landowner asks, the local agency can haul it away and get rid of it.

On your own land, the city decides. Under K.S.A. 12-1617e, a city can haul off any vehicle it rules a nuisance. Its order must give the owner a time "not exceeding 10 days" to fix the problem. The order arrives by certified mail or in person, and the owner may ask for a hearing. Ignore it, and the city clears the car itself, then bills the owner, with 30 days to pay, or puts the cost on the property.

Each city and county writes its own nuisance ordinance within that statute. Most of our Kansas town pages quote it, such as Wichita and Topeka.

Impound and auction

A public agency may tow a car after 48 hours on a highway or on property the public can use, or sooner if it blocks highway work. Then:

1. After 30 days in impound, the agency gets the owner and lienholders from the Division and sends a certified notice. From the mailing date, the owner has 15 days to pay up and collect it.
2. Once those 15 days pass, a published notice appears weekly for two straight weeks. The owner gets 10 more days after the second one.
3. The car can then be sold at public auction for cash.

Reclaiming an impounded car takes proof of ownership and current registration. See towed or impounded cars.

No inspection in Kansas

Kansas runs no safety or emissions testing. The single exception is a Highway Patrol VIN check (MVE-1) for cars arriving with another state's title or a bill of sale.

Late registration carries a $1 penalty per month, and a partial month counts as a full one. Was the car parked, unregistered and never driven? File an affidavit of nonoperation and nonuse, and you owe only this year's fees, penalty-free.

The short version

1. Fill in the whole title back. Price, date, odometer, names and signatures.
2. Ask us for an offer. Mention whether it starts and what is missing.
3. Copy both sides of the finished title.
4. Pull the plate and turn it in or move it to your next car.

Kansas's largest cities

Free pickup covers all of them. Populations are Census Bureau estimates.

All Kansas town pages

Wichita, Overland Park, Kansas City, Olathe, Topeka, Lawrence, Shawnee, Lenexa, Manhattan, Salina, Hutchinson, Leavenworth, Leawood, Dodge City, Garden City, Derby, Gardner, Emporia, Prairie Village, Junction City, Hays and Pittsburg.

Want to talk it through? Call (877) 421-6008.

Cities and towns in Kansas

• Derby
• Dodge City
• Emporia
• Garden City
• Gardner
• Hays
• Hutchinson
• Junction City
• Kansas City
• Lawrence
• Leavenworth
• Leawood
• Lenexa
• Manhattan
• Olathe
• Overland Park
• Pittsburg
• Prairie Village
• Salina
• Shawnee
• Topeka
• Wichita