Options for a dead car in Kansas City, Kansas

If that leaves a car in the yard with nowhere legal to go, we buy whole non-running and junk cars. You sell the whole car as it sits, with free pickup anywhere in the US, Wyandotte County included.

What the Unified Government calls inoperative

The definition in 8-432 is broad. An "inoperative motor vehicle" is any motor vehicle "not currently registered or tagged pursuant to the applicable state law," or one that is "incapable of moving under its own power." It also covers a car "in a condition of being junked, wrecked, wholly or partially disabled and/or dismantled."

There is one way out: the rule "shall not include motor vehicle(s) stored inside a completely enclosed structure." So an unregistered car counts even if it runs. A car with a good engine and a broken axle counts. So does a project car with half its parts in boxes.

Notices that carry over for two years

The same section changes how notice works for repeat problems. "Notice and opportunity to remedy a violation shall be considered given if a previous notice has been sent" under the code's notice provisions "within the previous 24 months." If an owner did not accept a notice in that period, the public officer may use other methods to deliver later orders.

In practice, a second dead car within two years of an earlier notice may get no fresh warning.

Other places a dead car can't sit

• Residential areas, for heavy equipment. The code bars keeping tow trucks, dump trucks, semi-tractors and their trailers, and heavier registered trucks, in a residential area.
• Industrial lots. In the M-2 general industrial district, "yards for junk, inoperable vehicles, or salvage storage are not permitted." Only operable passenger cars may park within 25 feet of a street line without screening.
• Public property. Code 22-130 bans camping in "a parked operable or inoperable vehicle" on public property. Property left there more than 48 hours after notice may be impounded.
• Public roads, under state law. Kansas lets an agency in Kansas City impound a car that has been left abandoned for 48 hours on a public highway or any other public ground. Left unclaimed, it moves through certified mail, newspaper notices and finally an auction.

What a scrap buyer records

Wyandotte County requires registered scrap metal buyers to keep records. Under Code 36-257, the buyer must "inspect, for junk vehicles, the item offered for sale and record the vehicle identification number." The buyer also writes down the make, model and color, plus the "license number, color, and style or make" of the vehicle that delivered it. Photos of the transaction and the vehicle must be kept "for a minimum of 30 days." If the car came out of a government impound lot, the buyer must get a title or an impound-issued bill of sale. In other words, a junk car here is traced by its VIN even after it leaves your hands, so the title work matters.

The Wyandotte County title office

We checked one Wyandotte County motor vehicle office: 710 North 7th Street, Kansas City, KS 66101, phone 913.573.2823. In a direct line, it is about 6 miles east of the city center. Kansas expects title and registration filings in person, at the treasurer's office for whichever county the car is garaged in.

Selling means completing the title's reverse: what was paid, when, how many miles, and each party's printed name and signature, seller's and buyer's. Kansas skips the notary for this. Never leave the buyer's name blank, because the Division of Vehicles says that violates Kansas law. Photocopy front and back before the title leaves your hands.

If the title is gone, you have two routes. A replacement costs $10 with Form TR-720B, which you can bring in or mail to the state's Titles and Registrations Bureau. Or, for a parts-or-scrap car 10 or more model years old, a nonrepairable vehicle certificate can transfer it without a title. It can change owners just once, and then it has to be taken apart or recycled. See selling with no title.

Plates after the sale

Kansas plates belong to the seller. State law says that when ownership changes, the registration lapses and so does any right to display that plate, and you take it off. Moving it to another car costs $1.50. Turning it in or transferring it at the treasurer's office ends your ownership record, so the TR-216 seller's notice is optional. After you sell covers the rest, and the state rules are on our Kansas page.

Nearby towns

Measured as the crow flies: Shawnee 8.0 miles, Prairie Village 11.0, Lenexa 11.4, Overland Park 16.4 and Leavenworth 17.0.

Getting an offer

For a Kansas City, Kansas offer, call (877) 421-6008 or use the form online. We collect it where it is, whether on a trailer in a side yard, at a downtown curb near 7th Street, or in a shop lot.