Selling a dead car in Emporia

If the month is nearly up, we buy whole non-running and junk cars. You sell the whole car as it sits, and the free pickup anywhere in the US includes Lyon County.

How Emporia defines a dead car

Section 17-3 casts a wide net. It reaches a vehicle "which cannot function properly or be used for its original purpose," including one "junked, wrecked, wholly or partially dismantled, discarded or abandoned." Lapsed registration is enough too: the code names any vehicle "which is not currently registered," and any vehicle "incapable of moving under its own power."

A separate clause catches "any unattended vehicle which has been placed on jacks, blocks or stands." Only "a garage or other building" saves that one.

A dead car stays legal in three cases. It is kept inside, it is still within its 30-day window, or it is owned by a business that meets zoning and keeps its stock "behind screening of sufficient size, strength and density."

Streets, fines and snow

• 48 hours. Code 25-37 bans leaving any vehicle on a street, parking strip or city lot "for any continuous period of more than forty-eight (48) hours." Past that point the car is "deemed a public nuisance," and an officer can have it hauled away.
• Tickets that double. An ignored parking ticket doubles at ten days. When one vehicle's unpaid fines top $100, Code 25-44 allows a boot or a tow with "no other warning."
• Snow nights. During a snow emergency called by Emporia's city manager, designated streets must be empty of parked cars from 1 a.m. until 6 a.m. Warning comes "at least two (2) hours before" the ban starts.

Getting a towed car back under Code 25-4 means paying the towing, the storage and any other charges first. An owner who disputes them can demand a hearing in municipal court.

Someone else's car on your land

Code 17-29 treats abandoning a car on private land you neither own nor lease as criminal trespass. At the owner's or occupant's request, the city may remove it under K.S.A. 8-1102. Whoever tows it holds "a possessory lien" covering removal, towing and storage.

Signing over the title in Lyon County

Lyon County's treasurer handles Kansas title work for cars kept in Emporia, and you go in person. Fill the back of the title with what the buyer paid, the day of sale and the odometer figure, then print and sign. No notary. Leave no blank where the buyer's name belongs: the Division of Vehicles calls handing over a title that way a violation of Kansas law. Photocopy both sides once it's done.

Your plates leave with you. Turning one in, or moving it onto another car at the treasurer's office, closes out your record; the TR-216 notice is optional. Your buyer gets 60 days from purchase to apply for title and registration. Statewide details: Kansas.

Nearby

As the crow flies, Topeka is 51.2 miles away, Junction City 56.0, Manhattan 58.7 and Wichita 79.7.

Getting an offer

For an Emporia offer, call (877) 421-6008 or use the form and say what broke. Pickup happens at the car, whether it is at the curb with the 48 hours running down or tucked at the back of a lot.