Selling a dead car in Inkster

What Inkster calls inoperable

Section 90.20 casts a wide net. An inoperable vehicle is "any motor vehicle which is currently not capable of being started and/or safely and properly operated on the street or which does not bear a valid and/or current license plate or tab." A car that runs fine but has expired tabs qualifies.

The permit application asks for the address where the car will sit, the registered owner's name and address, and a description of the car: make, model, year, last license issued, and what made it inoperable. You also show the registration or title to the officer issuing the permit.

Removal by the city

Without a permit, section 90.26 lets the mayor or a representative remove the car from unenclosed private property after written notice to the owner or occupant. The notice is handed over in person when someone lives there, or posted on a vacant property or on the car itself. It gives a date and time when the car may be taken and "stored at the owner's expense."

On public property the clock is 48 hours. Once the city fixes a written notice to the car, "If the vehicle is not removed within 48 hours after the notice was affixed to the vehicle, the vehicle shall be deemed abandoned."

Getting a car out of the pound

Under Inkster's Section 90.04, a tow to the city pound is "at the risk of the owner." Getting it back means showing ID and ownership papers, signing a receipt, and paying police the towage fee plus $.50 per day, or part of a day, it sat in storage. If the car was worth little before the tow, see towed or impounded.

Snow emergency routes

Inkster's Section 72.66 starts a parking ban automatically on any stretch of a snow emergency route with "an accumulation of snow and ice of four inches or more for one hour or more between 6:00 a.m. and 11:00 p.m." The Director may also call a ban from a forecast. It lasts until the Director ends it, though a block cleared from curb to curb drops out automatically.

Wrecked cars and Michigan title brands

After a crash, the title brand matters. For a late model car, Michigan treats repairs of 75% to under 91% of pre-damage cash value as salvage and 91% or more as scrap. A salvage car can be rebuilt for the road. A scrap car cannot; it is for parts or scrap metal only. Flood-damaged cars get a Flood brand. In Inkster, you can also request a salvage or scrap title yourself at any point. More in salvage title.

An Inkster seller hands over the original title with the odometer statement and seller's section done, and every listed owner signs it. The SOS seller steps for this list no notary. Remove the plate; it can follow you to the buyer's parking tickets if it stays on. After a sale in Inkster, hang onto a copy of the title you signed over for 18 months or longer.

Getting an offer

Give us a call at (877) 421-6008, or use the form, with the vehicle's details, the miles on the clock, whether it will crank, and whether the title is yours. The truck can pick it up off Michigan Avenue, from a driveway or at a tow yard. Garden City is 2.4 miles from Inkster and Westland 3.5; the Michigan page explains state rules.