Selling a junk or dead car in Roseville

When Michigan calls a car abandoned

MCL 257.252a draws two lines:

• Public property, 48 hours. A car on a Roseville street or other public land for 48 hours or more qualifies.
• Private property, no consent. A car left on someone's land without the owner's say-so qualifies, with no clock at all.

A Roseville property owner with a stranger's car on the land can call a local towing agency. It must store the car within 15 miles and notify police before hauling it. On its own track, MCL 257.252d allows police to haul a car off public or private property and bill the last titled owner. That includes a car blocking an owner from using their own land.

The notice and the 20 days

After police take a car, they get the owner's and lender's details from the Secretary of State within 7 days. A notice then goes out. If a Roseville owner neither redeems the car nor asks for a hearing within 20 days, the notice says it can be sold. If you want to challenge it, file a petition with the court inside those 20 days and put up a $40.00 bond, along with whatever towing and storage has added up to by then. A Roseville public sale waits at least 20 days from the hearing, or from the notice if no hearing was requested.

This is where a careless sale can come back to Roseville sellers. Sell without keeping a record, and MCL 257.240 treats you as the one owing towing and storage if the buyer dumps the car. Roseville sellers can go to a Secretary of State branch with the buyer. If not, photocopy the front and back of the signed Roseville title and keep it 18 months.

Titles, plates and scrap

Titles are not a Macomb County job. The Michigan Department of State handles them at its branch offices. The seller hands the original title to the buyer, completes the odometer statement and the seller section, and signs it. Every owner named signs. The Department of State seller steps list no notary.

You can also choose the brand yourself. Per the dealer manual, Roseville owners can request a scrap or salvage title at any time, for a car of any age or damage level. Once a car has a scrap title, parts and scrap metal are its only uses.

The plate comes off at the sale. The plate belongs to you and can go on another car. Leave it on in Roseville and you could get the new owner's parking tickets.

Getting an offer

Selling a car in Roseville? Call (877) 421-6008 or fill in our short form. Pickup works from your driveway, from behind a shop, or over the line in St. Clair Shores, 2.5 miles away as the crow flies. Eastpointe and Warren have their own pages, and Michigan covers the state rules.