Selling a dead or junk car in Chanhassen

What Minnesota calls a junk vehicle

State law sets a test with several parts (Minn. Stat. 168B.011). Each test has to apply before a Chanhassen car is treated as junk. The Chanhassen car has to be three years old or older. It also has to be "extensively damaged," so its wheels, motor, drive train or transmission are gone or wrecked. It is "apparently inoperable," lacks a valid current registration plate, and has only scrap value. That last part is a legal test, not an appraisal.

That statute treats a Chanhassen car as abandoned when two things are true. Chanhassen counts a car that won't run or lacks key parts. It qualifies once it sits illegally on city land for 48 hours (4 hours where signs are posted). Leaving it on private land without the controlling person's consent counts too. Two exemptions matter at home. In Chanhassen, a classic or pioneer car is never abandoned under this law. Chanhassen also exempts a car stored inside a closed garage or enclosed storage building.

When a city steps in

Minnesota lets local governments and peace officers take junk and abandoned vehicles into custody and impound them (168B.04). After a tow, notice goes out in writing inside five days, weekends and holidays excluded, by mail or in the newspaper when the owner is unknown. Once fifteen days pass after notice, the car may be sold or scrapped, and a junk vehicle may go even with a valid plate. Towed or impounded explains what is left to do at that point.

A Hennepin County title office

Chanhassen sellers can use a Hennepin County service center we checked. From Chanhassen, phone 612-348-8240 or visit Suite A-025 in person. The street address is 300 South 6th Street, Minneapolis, MN 55487. It is about 17 miles northeast of the middle of Chanhassen, as the crow flies. Carver County may have offices too; we did not check them. Any of Minnesota's roughly 200 deputy registrar offices can handle a Chanhassen transfer. Chanhassen residents can find the nearest one listed on drive.mn.gov, or ask by calling 651-297-2005.

Your share of the paperwork

The seller executes the assignment on the title when the car is delivered and states the actual selling price. Fill in the sale date and the disclosures. Every vehicle needs the damage one, and 2011 and newer models need the odometer one too. Chanhassen sellers won't need a notary for DVS. If a lender appears on your Chanhassen title, include its release card or a notarized release.

Leave the plates on. Your right to use them ends with the sale, and they pass to the buyer. Then, within ten days, a Chanhassen seller mails in the Notice of Sale or files it online. An owner who does that is not liable as owner for damage caused by the car after delivery.

If the title is gone, the owner named on it can apply for a duplicate on form PS2067A. If a Chanhassen car is past five years old and has no proof of ownership, a bonded title is still possible. For Chanhassen, the surety bond must cover the car's value one and a half times over. See selling with no title and bonded title.

Getting an offer

Chanhassen owners can phone (877) 421-6008 or use our offer form. Chanhassen straddles a county line, and we pick up on either side. Close by: Chaska, Eden Prairie and Shakopee. Statewide rules: Minnesota.