Selling a dead or junk car in Georgetown

The 24-hour street rule

Curbside, the clock is shorter. Section 38-113 reads: "The parking of any vehicle on any street or city-owned parking lot for more than 24 hours is hereby prohibited." Past that point the car is a public nuisance. An officer may attach a notice demanding that the owner "abate such public nuisance within 24 hours after such notice has been attached to the vehicle," and a car that has not budged a day after the notice went on can be impounded.

What impoundment means here

Section 38-204 lets the city impound cars parked in violation of the traffic chapter or a state parking law, and cars left in a marked fire lane on private property. Impoundment covers two things: "removal to a secure location or immobilization of the vehicle at the site of the violation by a device attached to the vehicle." So a boot counts.

The city can charge towing, handling and storage on top of the fines, and it can hold the car until "all outstanding fines levied for parking or traffic offenses" and those charges are paid. When a tow company pulls a car from a private lot under state law, it has to report the removal to central dispatch within a day. Towed or impounded explains your options once a tow lot has the car.

Landlords get notice too

Chapter 26 also puts the property owner on the hook. Once an owner has received notice under Section 26-53 that the property has been used for a public nuisance, no owner "shall allow his, her or its property to be used as the site for any public nuisance" again. If you rent and the dead car is yours, your landlord has a reason to want it gone.

Salvage and the Scott County title

Titles go through the county clerk, which for Georgetown is the Scott County Clerk, and the seller's signature on a signed-over title must be notarized. If an insurer or a shop has priced the repair, check it against Kentucky's line: when parts and labor to rebuild exceed 75% of retail value, airbag reinstallation aside, the car is a salvage vehicle. Its title is branded SALVAGE, and after repair and inspection it carries "rebuilt vehicle." Salvage titles that come from a junk or unrebuildable designation cannot be done as speed titles. Salvage title explains what that means for a sale.

Plates and the 15-day window

The plate is yours to keep, registration time included. Your buyer sorts out their own: a temporary tag, a plate they already hold, or one issued by the county. A Scott County seller whose buyer goes quiet for 15 calendar days can file TC 96-3, notarized, in the home county. Under KRS 186A.215(4), that stops anyone from registering the car until the transfer is on record.

Nearby towns

Georgetown is in the Lexington-Fayette metro. Lexington-Fayette is 15.7 miles away as the crow flies, Frankfort 18.5 and Nicholasville 25.5. Statewide rules are on the Kentucky page.

Getting an offer

Name the year, make and model, the miles and whether it starts, and mention any title snag. Use the form, or dial (877) 421-6008. Downtown curb, driveway or city lot, the truck picks the car up there.