Dead cars in Sedalia: storage, snow and title rules

The two tests in Section 59-3

Read the exemption closely and it has two parts. A car needs both:

1. Locked. Inside a building or a fenced area, with a lock on it.
2. Unseen. Not visible from adjacent public or private property.

A carport fails the first test. A chain-link fence with a padlock fails the second. Businesses licensed for salvage, swap, junk, towing or storage get a pass, provided they run within their license.

Snow, streets and trailers

Sedalia's snow emergency routes are mapped in Exhibit A to Section 58-454. Under Section 58-449, parking on those routes stops "automatically" once there is "an accumulation of snow and ice of two inches or more." Nobody has to announce it. A car that won't start is simply stuck there.

Section 10-651 sets rules for trailers and recreational vehicles. They "must be legally licensed with proper display, operable and parked on a permanently surfaced area or stored in a carport or private garage." Emergency or temporary parking on a street is limited to six hours. That matters if the plan was to drag the dead car home on a trailer and leave it at the curb.

If the city tows it as abandoned

Once a Sedalia car is towed as abandoned, Missouri statutes set the pace. Once the report comes in, the Director of Revenue gets five working days to find the owner and any lienholder. Both also get a written removal notice within five working days. Thirty days after that notice, the hold ends. In Sedalia it falls to ten when the car is beyond six years, has damage above 50% and is valued below $200. That figure is a legal test, not what your car is worth to us. Only in that ten-day case does the brief name the next stop: sale to a licensed salvage or scrap yard.

Missouri title steps from Pettis County

Pettis County sellers deal with a state title. They can file at whichever Missouri license office suits them, or with the Motor Vehicle Bureau in Jefferson City.

No notary signs alongside you. Mileage and the date of sale are yours to write, cleanly, with nothing whited out or erased. Plates come off, current or lapsed, while the car is still yours. Within 30 days, file DOR-5049 or DOR-1957 with Revenue so the sale is on record. After you sell lists the rest.

Got something from 26 or more model years back and no title? A bill of sale can be enough for the Director to issue a junking certificate, after the highway patrol confirms the car isn't stolen.

Getting an offer

Selling a car in Sedalia? Call (877) 421-6008 or send our short offer form. Behind a fence, beside the garage, at a mechanic's: the truck meets it there. Warrensburg is the next town over with its own page, and Missouri covers statewide rules.