Selling a dead or junk car in Biloxi

When a car becomes a nuisance

Section 9-3-3 calls the presence of "any abandoned or junked vehicle or equipment on any lot, tract, parcel of land or portion thereof, occupied or unoccupied, improved or unimproved" a public nuisance. It lists three exceptions:

• a car "completely enclosed within a building or other structure" where it is "not plainly visible"
• cars parked lawfully at a licensed dealer's or junkyard's place of business
• "Unlicensed inoperable vehicles stored on private property," as long as they "do not constitute a health hazard and are screened from ordinary public view"

Ten days, then a hearing

The notice under Section 9-3-5 gives the owner or tenant "ten days from service" to remove the car. The city can hand the notice to you, leave it at your home with a family member 16 or older, or mail it. If you refuse it, service is "deemed complete when the fact of refusal is entered of record." With no known address, a single newspaper notice does the job. Ignoring the envelope does not stop the clock.

Once those ten days pass with the car in place, Section 9-3-6 sends the matter to the city council for a hearing. If the council finds a violation, "an administrative fee of $100.00 shall be imposed" on both the landowner and the car's owner when those are two people. Then the council has the car removed, and the city can dispose of it under state law.

On the street and the beachfront

Section 20-3-11 bars parking a car in the same spot on a street "for longer than 24 hours." For a car that will not run, the code does not wait for proof: any "incapacitated or inoperative vehicle" left that long "will be presumed to be in violation." Under Section 20-3-21, an officer can have a car towed if, in the officer's opinion, it is "an abandoned or junked vehicle," and the wrecker gets a lien for towing and storage.

The Highway 90 parking bays, service drives and frontage roads named in Section 20-3-24 are closed to parking from 10:00 p.m. to 6:00 a.m. under Section 20-3-24.

Title, plate and a junked title

In a Biloxi sale, the seller fills out the whole assignment except the buyer's signature and printed name. A title passed along with no buyer named, to be filled in later, breaks state law according to the DOR. Pull the plate at the sale and take it to the Harrison County Tax Collector. Any leftover tag credit counts from the day you turn it in, and every Mississippi county honors it.

A car that is scrapped, dismantled or destroyed gets a Junked Certificate of Title when the owner surrenders the Mississippi title, under Miss. Code Ann. 63-21-39. See nonrepairable or junk title and the Mississippi page.

Nearby towns

As the crow flies, Gulfport is 8.0 miles from Biloxi, Pascagoula 23.1 and Hattiesburg 64.9.

Getting an offer

When you reach us by form or at (877) 421-6008, bring up any city notice and its date. The offer form also covers your Biloxi car's details. Biloxi pickups happen on the lot, behind the house or wherever the car stopped.