Selling a dead or junk car in Olive Branch

How the city code describes a dead car

Olive Branch defines the idea twice, in two different chapters.

The property maintenance chapter (Chapter 14) uses the 14-55 wording above. The same section describes a property in such "an extreme state of disrepair or lack of maintenance" that it shows two or more of the conditions listed in Section 14-57, where those conditions are "visible from a public street, or otherwise in plain view." Picture a hatchback up on blocks beside a house on a busy road; that is what neighbors see.

Chapter 42 has a narrower test, and it says it applies "for the purpose of this article only." There, a junk motor vehicle has "a broken window or windshield or missing wheels, engine, or transmission; apparently inoperable; without a valid current registration; and has a fair market value equivalent only to the value of the scrap in it."

The zoning ordinance adds one more line. It defines a service station's repair work, then says "repairing" does not include "the rebuilding, dismantling, or storage of wrecked or junked vehicles."

None of the Olive Branch sections quoted here puts a clock on a yard car. Other parts of the city code might, so any letter from City Hall sets the dates to follow. Our page on a notice to remove a car explains how these letters usually work.

Streets, the airport and towed cars

Section 38-66 puts a parking ticket on the owner when the driver is unknown. The registered owner is "prima facie responsible."

Olive Branch's code also has a chapter for its airport. Under Section 4-116, cars "abandoned" there for more than 48 hours are towed and stored, and the airport is not liable for any damage.

Away from the airport, state rules apply. Mississippi treats a vehicle as abandoned once it sits unattended on public property for at least 5 days. So does one towed by police and left unclaimed for 40 days, or one left at a shop or wrecker past the agreed date or 40 days. The business holding it must notify the owner and lienholder within 7 days. The owner then has 30 days to claim it before it is sold or destroyed. See towed or impounded and stuck at a repair shop.

The DeSoto County tag office in Hernando

One county office we checked is the DeSoto County Tax Collector at 365 Losher Street, Suite 110, Hernando, MS 38632, phone 662-469-8030. Measured as the crow flies, Hernando is about 13 miles southwest of the middle of Olive Branch. DeSoto County might run more than one; this is the one we looked up.

Tags are a Tax Collector job in Mississippi. Titles are the state DOR's, and its title unit in Jackson takes paperwork by mail (P.O. Box 1383, 39215-1383).

Mississippi title and plate rules

• Fill in the assignment. The seller completes every section except the buyer's printed name and signature. An empty buyer line, saved for later, breaks Mississippi law.
• Related buyer? Selling to a brother, sister, parent, child, spouse, grandparent or grandchild? The state wants an Affidavit of Relationship signed too.
• No title? Replace it first with Form 78-006, for $9.00. See junk car with no title.
• The tag comes off. It stays with you, and you surrender it to a county Tax Collector. Pulled the plate and still got a toll bill? The DOR will send the toll company a letter on your behalf.
• Scrapped cars. Mississippi issues a Junked Certificate of Title when a car gets crushed, taken apart or otherwise destroyed, once its owner gives up the regular title.
• No emissions test. Mississippi does not require one for registration, and annual inspection stickers ended in 2015.

After you sell covers the last steps.

Nearby towns

Southaven is 7.7 miles away and Horn Lake is 11.8. Oxford is 45.2 miles off. Statewide rules are on the Mississippi page.

Getting an offer

Call (877) 421-6008 or fill in the form below. Tell us the year, the odometer reading, any noise it makes on the key, and who holds the title now. Our truck comes to wherever it stopped, be that a garage, a lot at work, or an Olive Branch curb.