Crystal, Minnesota: selling a dead or junk car

Junk and abandoned are two different things

The state defines a junk vehicle by its condition. All of these have to fit:

• three or more years old
• extensively damaged, meaning "broken or missing wheels, motor, drive train, or transmission"
• apparently inoperable
• no valid current registration plate
• worth only the scrap value

Abandoned is about where the car was left, not how it looks. On public land, the statute's clock is 48 hours of illegal parking, cut to 4 hours where signs say so. On private land, it is a car left there when the property's owner or manager never agreed to it. Either way, the car must also lack vital parts or be inoperable. A car stored behind a closed garage door, or inside a storage building, falls outside that definition.

If the car is taken

Statute 168B.04 lets cities and peace officers impound any abandoned or junk vehicle. Then the clocks run:

1. The registered owner and each lienholder get written notice within five days, with weekends and holidays left out of the count.
2. Once fifteen days pass from that Crystal notice, the junk or abandoned car may go to sale or be disposed of. Having a current plate does not protect a junk car.
3. To get it back, the owner or a lienholder pays the tow and storage bill inside a 15-day or a 45-day window from the notice. Which one applies depends on the type of vehicle.

Since we found no Crystal code, we cannot say how many days a dead car may sit on a Crystal driveway before any of this begins. A call to City Hall settles that.

Signing over a Minnesota title

The seller's part takes a few minutes. Crystal sellers write the price in the sales tax declaration box on the title's back, followed by the date and the disclosures. Mileage must be disclosed for 20 years on 2011 and newer vehicles, and damage on every vehicle. Sign and print in the assignment area. For sellers in Crystal, the DVS instructions do not ask for a notary on this signature.

Plates do not come off in Minnesota. Crystal sellers leave the plates with the car, and the registration tax already paid goes with them. Crystal sellers have ten days to send the Notice of Sale. Crystal sellers can detach that part of the title to mail, or report it online. Put down the buyer's name and address, their license number and the date of the sale.

A Hennepin County office

Crystal sits in Hennepin County. Crystal sellers have one county office we confirmed: Suite A-025 inside 300 South 6th Street in Minneapolis. Its number is 612-348-8240. From central Crystal it sits about 6 miles to the southeast, measured directly. Minnesota also runs nearly 200 deputy registrar counters that can process a transfer. Search drive.mn.gov for one, or phone 651-297-2005.

Towns around Crystal

New Hope is just 1.3 miles away, Brooklyn Center 2.9 and Golden Valley 3.3. Both New Hope and Golden Valley have city codes we could read, and their pages quote them. For the full state picture, see Minnesota. For a car parked so long the tires went flat, see car sitting for years.

Getting an offer

Our form takes a minute, or dial (877) 421-6008. Send the offer form for your Crystal car. We reach driveways, old garages and curbs near the Rockford Road Library.