Selling a junk or dead car in Lansing

What counts as junk in Lansing

Section 1460.01 lists "inoperable or unregistered motor vehicles" among the things it treats as junk, next to stoves, mattresses, tires and batteries. The zoning definition in Section 1240.04.02 is plainer: a junk vehicle is one "which cannot be driven upon the public streets for reasons including, but not limited to, being wrecked, abandoned, in a state of disrepair, or incapable of moving under its own power."

Zoning repeats the ban. Section 1254.01.06 says no such vehicle "shall be kept on any exterior premises, except as permitted and as regulated by the zoning district." Section 1250.02.06 adds that an accessory use on a lot "shall not include the storage of junk or junk vehicles, or trash."

Notice first, then court

Enforcement starts with a notice of violation. If the problem is not fixed as the notice requires, Section 1460.01 lets the code official go to court "to restrain, correct, or abate such violation." For towing off private land, the code points to state law: vehicles "may be removed from private property in accordance with the towing regulations" in MCL 257.252 through 257.254.

Business and industrial lots

Shops face limits too. On commercial mixed-use land, Section 1243.03 says "No junk, junk vehicles, or inoperable vehicles shall be stored on-site except within an enclosed building." Some industrial uses under Section 1245.03 may keep junk vehicles "on a hard surface in the rear yard and screened by a six-foot opaque fence."

Snow emergency levels

Section 404.12 sets three levels:

• Level 1: downtown parking stops between two and six in the morning, and parking ends around the clock on whichever arterial, neighborhood and transit roads the declaration lists
• Level 2: the same overnight downtown ban, plus no parking at any hour everywhere else in Lansing
• Level 3: no parking "24 hours a day throughout the City"

A car left in the roadway "may be towed and impounded immediately," and you pay removal and storage before getting it back, on top of any fine. A Lansing car that will not start is exposed to that immediate tow under a Level 2 call.

Michigan's 18-month rule

Michigan skips the release-of-liability form. MCL 257.240 takes the place of that form. A Lansing seller who gives up the car and a correctly signed title is free of its later use, if they visited a Secretary of State office with the buyer or saved a sale record 18 months or more. Skip both and it is a $15 civil infraction, and if the car is later abandoned, the law assumes the towing and storage bill is yours.

The state's own tip: photocopy both sides of the completed title and save it for a year and a half.

The rest of the transfer

Ingham, Eaton and Clinton counties issue no titles; Michigan does, through its branch offices. Sign over the original certificate after filling in the odometer figure and the seller's portion, and collect a signature from each owner listed; no notary appears in the SOS steps. By statute your plates leave with you, unless the car is going to your spouse, parent, brother, sister or child, who may take the plate too.

Close by

In a straight line, East Lansing sits 4.6 miles off. Jackson is 33.5 miles, Battle Creek 44.5 and Flint 48.9. Statewide rules are on the Michigan page.

Getting an offer

Reach us online or at (877) 421-6008. Fill in our short form about your Lansing car and we take it from there. Lansing pickups happen from backyards, driveways and repair-shop lots alike.