Selling a junk or dead car in Tupelo

How Tupelo defines a junk vehicle

The housing chapter, Section 7-206, spells it out. An "inoperable vehicle or junk vehicle" is one that is "physically incapable of operation, stripped, substantially damaged, lacking of a current license plate and/or inspection sticker, discarded or unable to be safely and legally operated." A car with a lapsed plate meets that test even when it runs.

Section 11.6.3 of the development code is the citywide rule. Two more lines in it touch a car that has stopped running:

• Front-yard parking at a house is barred "except where a concrete, paved, stone or gravel driveway is in place."
• No parking on residential streets narrower than 24 feet edge to edge, unless the Traffic Committee approved it.

Section 2.4 limits temporary storage businesses too: "no more than nine wrecked or inoperable vehicles for a period no longer than 90 days." Ten or more cars, or one kept past 90 days, turns the place into a junkyard. So a broken car parked at a Tupelo repair business has a clock on it as well.

Renters: the 14-day window

Section 7-222 covers rental housing parking. A shared lot that serves more than one unit must be kept free of "abandoned, wrecked, dismantled, unregistered or inoperable vehicles." A space that serves one unit must be free of wrecked, dismantled or inoperable ones.

There is one defense. The car must be titled to a resident, it must have been under repair, and the work must be done "within fourteen (14) days after the repair was begun," with the evidence cleared away. A car waiting on a part for a month does not qualify.

Streets, downtown and the airport

Under Section 17-94, any traffic or police officer may remove and impound a vehicle "improperly or unlawfully stationed, parked or left in any street of the city." The owner gets it back by paying an impound fee set by the mayor and board of aldermen. Downtown street parking is capped at two hours under Section 17-115 unless a sign says otherwise. Even the airport has its own rule: an inoperable vehicle kept there over 48 hours "may be deemed abandoned" under Section 4-73, "unless it is not a safety hazard, presents no impediment to airport operations and is neither visible nor accessible to the public."

Mississippi title and tag rules

Mississippi titles run through Motor Vehicle Services at the Department of Revenue; the county Tax Collector issues tags and takes them back. We did not check a walk-in title office for this page. Title forms are mailed to P.O. Box 1383 in Jackson, zip 39215-1383.

• Fill in the assignment. As seller, you fill in all of it but the two lines where the buyer prints and signs. Leaving the buyer's name blank to finish later violates Mississippi law.
• Lost title. A replacement comes first. It costs $9.00 on Form 78-006.
• Plates. Pull the tag once the title is signed over, then bring it to the Lee County Tax Collector. The credit runs from the day you hand it in. If you took the plate off and a toll bill still shows up, DOR will write the toll company for you.
• Family sales. If the buyer is a spouse, child, parent, grandchild, grandparent, brother or sister, complete an Affidavit of Relationship.

Registering a car in Mississippi does not require an emissions test. More steps are in after you sell, and a lost title is covered in junk car with no title.

Nearby

Oxford is about 46 miles away as the crow flies, Columbus about 56 and Starkville about 56. Each has its own page: Oxford, Columbus, Starkville. Statewide rules are on the Mississippi page.

Getting an offer

Call (877) 421-6008 or start online. The form covers your Tupelo car's details. We can collect it from a closed garage, an apartment lot nearing the 14-day limit, or a Tupelo shop that wants the space back.